Shailene Woodley opens up about 'scary' mystery health issue on Divergent set

 Shailene Woodley has talked candidly about a 'scary' mystery health issue that she had experienced in her early 20s on the set of the Divergent franchise.

 The 32-year-old actress - who is set to play legendary musician Janis Joplin - appeared on the SHE MD podcast with OBGYN Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and influencer Mary Alice Haney on Tuesday as she talked about her health scare.

Shailene talked about what she was going through while filming the highly-popular sci-fi franchise as she endured many tough issues including: hearing loss, hypothyroid, passing out, food sensitivities, PTSD, and trauma responses. 

Though she did not completely reveal what the issue was she talked openly about what she endured as she explained: 'Yeah. I can talk about it in some type of abstraction. I haven't spoken about what exactly it was because that just feels like a personal thing that I don't need to disclose. 

'But essentially, I was in a position in my early 20s. It got to the point where I was losing my hearing. I couldn't walk for longer than five minutes at a time without having to lay down for hours and hours and hours and sleep. Everything I ate hurt my stomach. It was this conflation of issues and diagnoses and different doctors telling me different things. And I come from a very holistic background and studied herbalism.'

Shailene went on to explain that she worked with real physicians in addition to 'independent healers' to try to get to the bottom of her issues.

She continued: 'And it was a long journey, about a decade of unwinding and healing and getting healthy. And throughout that decade, a lot of other things came from feeling so much discomfort physically, which was, my gosh, if everything I'm eating hurts my stomach, I'm now suddenly afraid of food. 

'And then, going into the mental f***ery that can happen with that of body dysmorphia and confusion about identity and feeling safe in my own capsule, in my own skin, and what that meant and what that should be.'

The actress went on to explain that the issue eventually resolved itself physically and she is now healthy.

She continued: 'I'm so happy to be able to say that. And also, it forced me to really take a deep look and become introspective.  

'That was, I guess, the path for me, alongside the physical healing, was acknowledging the mental side of the healing process for myself, which involved looking at real traumas and real PTSD that I had experienced at various times in my life, without going into detail about what they were.'

Shailene said that despite always eating healthy and exercising, the process did take a toll on her body.

She explained: 'And so, it was a confusing process for me to go, "Well, what am I doing wrong? Why am I passing out every month when I get my period? Why am I hypothyroid? Why am I all of these things?" 

'And one doctor, this is separate from the thing that I went through in my 20s, but specifically just talking about the reproductive and female cycle of everything. One doctor being like, "It's probably endometriosis." 

'And another doctor going, "It's probably this." And another one going, "It's probably that." "You have a tilted uterus. You have a heart-shaped uterus. You have a uterus that's..."'

She said that every person that she had consulted gave her a different opinion which forced her to be more self-reliant.

Shailene continued: 'And so, I might as well take this into my own hands and devote myself to educating myself about so many subjects and approaching it from an internal holistic place. And now, I mean, I'm not on thyroid medication anymore. I'm not in any medication anymore. My hormones are so balanced. Everything is pumping in the way that it should.

'And I believe, ultimately, the thing that led me there, alongside, again, the physical aspects, was acknowledging that I was in a constant state of fight or flight. My nervous system was super sympathetic and just very much operating from a place of fear and a place of where's the lion in the room. 

'And constantly approaching every single moment with high alert and with red flags because I hadn't yet established what a calm nervous system could look like and what true safety in myself could look like. And once I focused on that and really became devotional and disciplined in that practice, physically, everything began to change and balance out for me.'

Back in April 2020, Shailene first opened up about her issues in an interview with The New York Times: 'I haven’t spoken much about this yet publicly, and I will one day, but I was very, very sick in my early 20s.' 

The actress didn't detail what happened exactly, but explained: 'While I was doing the Divergent movies and working hard, I also was struggling with a deeply personal, very scary physical situation.'

She starred as Tris in the 2014 dystopian blockbuster, followed by the sequel Insurgent in 2015 and Allegiant in 2016. 

A fourth movie entitled Ascendant, which would serve as the second of a two-part adaptation of Allegiant, was scheduled for a 2017 theatrical release. 

It was later announced that the fourth film would be a TV movie, launching a spinoff series, neither of which happened. 

Shailene also talked about sex in her SHE MD podcast interview. 

She said: 'Yeah, I'm a very sexual person. I always have been. And I was very lucky in my life as a person discovering myself and my body to have a partner at the time who loved to dance. I always call it a dance. I'm like, "It's a dance. We're exchanging energy." 

'Sometimes the dance is a really fast tango and sometimes the dance is a really slow groove and sometimes it's loud and sometimes it's really soft. And I had somebody that helped me discover myself because there was a sense of comfortability together. And I think that I probably did the same for him.'