Why Amy Schumer Has Been So Candid About Her Health Issues
Amy Schumer has been making people laugh for years with her unflinching personal stories about what's going on with her at any given moment.
And that includes what's going on inside Amy Schumer.
While the Trainwreck star most recently shared at a May 17 Dear Media event for the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast that she wasn't "feeling very sexual" in the wake of "kind of a botched colonoscopy"—though there was no probing into what exactly happened—that's just one of a litany of disclosures she has made about her health.
But the 44-year-old—who shares son Gene, 7, with ex-husband Chris Fischer—has intentionally ventured into once-TMI territory expressly because there shouldn't be such a thing as TMI when it comes to women's healthcare.
“The shaming and criticism of our ever-changing bodies is something I have dealt with and witnessed for a long time,” Schumer said in a February 2024 edition of Jessica Yellin's News Not Noise newsletter, when the comedian first shared she'd been diagnosed with Cushing syndrome. "I want so much for women to love themselves and be relentless when fighting for their own health in a system that usually doesn’t believe them.”
She revealed she had a treatable form of Cushing, a condition in which the body produces too much of the stress hormone cortisol, after people who watched her on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon a week prior were quick to comment on her appearance.
The commentary was duly noted by Schumer, who over the years has had a vibrant side hustle clapping back at online trolls.
"Thank you so much for everyone’s input about my face!" she wrote back in the comments on a since-deleted post. “I’ve enjoyed feedback and deliberation about my appearance, as all women do, for almost 20 years. And you’re right, it is puffier than normal right now."
Schumer subsequently told Yellin that, while doing press for the return of her Hulu show Life & Beth, she was "also in MRI machines four hours at a time, having my veins shut down from the amount of blood drawn and thinking I may not be around to see my son grow up."
But, ironically, it was online critics who ultimately led her to seek treatment.
“The internet really came for me...and I was like, ‘OK, everybody like, relax,’” she recalled on a January 2025 episode of Call Her Daddy. "Doctors were chiming in in the comments and they were, like, ‘No, no...something’s really up. Your face looks so crazy.’”
She quipped, "And I’m like, 'Wait, I’m getting trolled by doctors?'"
It turned out, she explained, that her exogenous Cushing syndrome was caused by steroid injections she'd been getting to treat scars she had developed from a breast reduction and her 2019 C-section.
Her pregnancy had its low points, too, with Schumer sharing in November 2018 that she'd been hospitalized with hyperemesis gravidarum, in which extreme, persistent nausea and vomiting can result in dehydration.
"I’m fine. Baby’s fine," she wrote on Instagram, "but everyone who says the second trimester is better is not telling the full story. I’ve been even more ill this trimester. I have hyperemesis and it blows."
And two years after Gene was born, Schumer posted from her hospital bed after undergoing a hysterectomy to treat endometriosis, a condition in which tissue similar to uterine lining grows outside the uterus.
“It’s the morning after my surgery…and my uterus is out," she explained in the September 2021 video. "The doctor found 30 spots of endometriosis he removed. He removed my appendix because the endometriosis had attacked it.”
And she was sharing, she added in a later video, because "many people don't even know the word 'endometriosis.'"
In a December 2022 appearance on The Checkup with Dr. David Agus, Schumer detailed her experience with the "lonely, lonely disease" and how she felt like "a new person" after surgery.
"It's this pain you can't see," she said. "And there's this tendency to think women are just being dramatic."
With the possibility of giving birth again off the table, Schumer also talked in 2022 about the unsuccessful round of IVF she underwent—she addressed "feeling really run down and emotional" in 2020 while it was happening—in hopes of having a second child.
"People do it so many times. I did it one time and I was like, 'I'm gonna die. This is awful,'" she said on Chelsea Handler's Dear Chelsea podcast. "I got like 31 eggs and I was like, I'm Fertile Myrtle. I felt very hot. And then the drop off after fertilization, we only got one normal embryo and we tried and it didn't work...and now I don't have a uterus."
She was sad about it, she added, but "it's not really something you get sympathy for because it's like, 'You already have one, b---h, shut up.' But you know, that's a real struggle people go through."
After her Cushing saga, Schumer got candid from her hospital bed yet again, her sense of humor intact after having spinal surgery in August. "Overheard post back surgery 'pickleball keeps this place in business,'" she wrote on her Instagram Story.
On the road to recovery, she captioned a snap of herself using a walker, "Since my surfing injury back in the day my L5 has been killing me. Today I got a laminectomy! It’s a short recovery and when I’m feeling better I will buy a bra!”
In an inspiring November health update, Schumer wrote after debuting a slimmer figure, "I have been working to be pain free and I finally am. My endometriosis is better. My back is healing. I no longer have Cushing syndrome so my face went back to normal. I am grateful to be strong and healthy, especially for my son.”
And the following month, she revealed she'd lost 50 pounds with the help of a GLP-1 medication.
"Not to look hot which does feel fun and temporary," she explained on Instagram. "I did it to survive. I had a disease that makes your face extremely puffy and can kill you but the internet caught it and that disease has cleared.”
Schumer added, "Sorry for whatever feeling it’s giving you that I lost weight. I’ve had plastic surgery over the years and I use Mounjaro.”
But not everything body-related is medical for Schumer, who's also been enjoying the results of her body transformation, captioning a January carousel of vacation photos that included bikini pics, "This year is about self care and self love. No makeup. No filter.”
She added, "Let’s all appreciate our health our families our friends and have the best year of our lives. Moving forward with no regrets. Just love."
See more celebrities who've dealt with medical issues and health scares:
In May 2026, the BFFs podcaster underwent emergency surgery after doctors discovered a large ovarian cyst that had been twisting her organs and causing internal bleeding.
"There was a half a liter of blood in my pelvic floor," Brianna shared in a TikTok video after the operation. "I have five incisions all over my stomach. They went in through my belly button with a camera so they could find all the blood."
The Total Bellas alum revealed that one of her breast implants shifted after an elbow slam from fellow WWE star Piper Niven during a July 2025 wrestling match.
"It's OK," she told sister Bella Garcia at the time. "We're going to get it fixed one day. I told the doctor, I go, 'Newly divorced, so the minute the boots are hung up, I'm going to come back to you and we're going to make these girls look real good, because these girls are going to get some action in the future and that can't look like that.'"
The 12 Years a Slave star was diagnosed with uterine fibroids—non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the uterus—in 2014, the same year she won an Oscar for performance in the movie.
However, it wasn't until 2025 when she disclosed her diagnosis, writing on Instagram that she had been "suffering in silence" for more than a decade.
"When we reach puberty, we're taught periods mean pain, and that pain is simply part of being a woman," she shared. "We're struggling alone with something that affects us most."
In July 2025, the Daisy Jones & The Six star shared that she had been hospitalized due to a hernia—a gap in the muscular wall that's commonly found in the abdomen or groin area—caused by wearing tight pants.
"'Suki you never tweet anymore,'" she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Have you ever considered I wore pants so tight 6 months ago it caused a hernia & I’ve been too scared to tell you?"
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum revealed in April 2025 that he was recovering from surgery after his appendix nearly burst.
“Last week, I started feeling some pain in my stomach,” Brian said in an Instagram video at the time. “I ended up going to the emergency room, and I had a perforated appendix. Not quite burst, but just before.”
He added, “I'm on the road to recovery. It's not an easy process. This is my first major surgery.”
The Racing Louisville midfielder collapsed just a few minutes into her soccer team’s Sept. 14 match against Seattle Reign at Lumen Field in Seatle.
The United States Women’s National Team player could be seen slowly sitting down on the field with a teammate by her side, per Reuters, as the referee called for trainers to check her out. She collapsed seconds later.
“Savannah received immediate on-field care from medical personnel and was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation,” the National Women’s Soccer League wrote on X later that night. “She is stable and alert."
Adam Devine shared that injuries he sustained after getting hit by a cement truck when he was 11 years old are still affecting him to this day.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Devine said in a 2025 episode of the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast. “I have spasms all over. For a while, [the doctors] told me I was dying—literally, within this last year.”
He noted that pain comes and goes, adding, "My body has all these things that are a little wonky and a little wrong with it."
The Bachelor Nation alum shared that he went to the hospital “crawling on all fours” due to overwhelming back pain that was aggravated during an RV trip with a friend.
“Right now, knees to my toes, it’s, like, still tingly, which is crazy,” he said on a March 2025 episode of his Trading Secrets podcast. “And to put in perspective, I don’t know, man, like not to sound douchey, but like two, three weeks ago, maybe a month ago, I was squatting probably like 295 pounds. And right now, I can’t do a squat on my foot. I can’t do a one legged squat, I fall. It’s like I had a stroke or something.”
But with the help of a back specialist and some steroids, he added, “We’re on the mend.”
Real Housewives of Orange County’s Gina Kirschenheiter shared her ex-husband Matt Kirschenheiter suffered a heart attack in March 2025, but thankfully survived the ordeal.
The 30 Rock star suffered a health scare at a New York Knicks basketball game in March 2025, leading to him being wheeled out of Madison Square Garden.
However, the comedian shared an update on social media the following day, noting it was a case of food poisoning and that he was on the mend.
The Even Stevens alum shared in February 2025 that she was shot in the face while on a trip to shoot clay pigeons to celebrate husband Brendan Rooney's birthday.
"There was another party with us and they unsafely fired in the wrong direction and shot me in the face," she wrote on Instagram. "@thebrendanrooney immediately sprung into action, assessed me, and rushed me to the hospital. I was hit in 5 places, one was less than an inch from hitting me directly in my right eye."
The Kim Possible alum continued, "Unfortunately a fragment got lodged behind my eye and it is too risky to remove surgically at this time. Doctors will continue to monitor me (I can see normally at the moment)."
The actress said she was grateful to be alive. "I love my daughters, husband, family, and friends so much," she said. "I saw my life flash before my eyes and I’m telling you, hug the people around you every chance you can. Life can change in an instant."
While the internet isn't always a kind place, Amy Schumer is happy that, in this case, it helped her get answers.
"The internet really came for me after doing a bunch of press, and I was like, 'OK everybody, relax,'" Amy recalled of her "puffier" face on a January 2025 episode of Call Her Daddy. "But then doctors were chiming in in the comments and they were like, 'No no, we think something’s really up. Your face looks so crazy that we think something’s up. And I’m like, ‘Wait, I’m getting trolled by doctors?’"
After these doctors said they thought she had Cushing syndrome and that it may be caused by spiking coritsol levels or steroid injections, the Life & Beth creator thought, "Wait, I have been getting steroid injections in my scars."
"I had a breast reduction, a C-section, whatever, and so I was getting these steroid injections," Amy said. "So it gave me this thing called Cushing syndrome, which I wouldn’t have known if the internet hadn’t come for me so hard."Toda, Amy is just relieved she's OK. As she shared in a February 2024 News Not Noise newsletter, "Finding out I have the kind of Cushing that will just work itself out and I'm healthy was the greatest news imaginable."
The AHL player was cut by a fellow player's skate during a game in December 2024 and received 25 stitches. His father, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald later told ESPN after his son was fully recovered, "We're very lucky. I don't wish that on any parent."
Hailey Bieber had the "scariest moment" of her life when she was having breakfast with husband Justin Bieber and started experiencing stroke-like symptoms in March 2022.
"Justin was like, 'Are you OK?'" the Rhode skincare mogul shared a month later on YouTube, "and I just didn't respond because I wasn't sure. And then he asked me again and when I went to respond, I couldn't speak. The right side of my face started drooping. I couldn't get a sentence out."
While Hailey said the facial drooping stopped and her speech came back, she went to the hospital to make sure she was OK."They did some scans and they were able to see that I had suffered a small blood clot to my brain," the model added, "which they labeled and categorized as something called a TIA [Transient Ischemic Attack]."
Later, Hailey went to the University of California, Los Angeles, where she found out she had a hole in her heart called a patent foramen ovale (PFO).She explained the blood clot had traveled into her heart, "escaped" through the hole and went to her brain, leading to the TIA.Hailey said she had a successful PFO closure procedure and was now feeling great.
The same year Hailey had her health scare, Justin experienced one of his own.
In June 2022, the "Baby" singer shared he was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a condition that caused temporary paralysis to parts of his face and forced him to cancel the remainder of his Justice World Tour.
"It is from this virus that attacks the nerve in my ear and my facial nerves and has caused my face to have paralysis," Justin explained in an Instagram video at the time. "As you can see, this eye is not blinking. I can't smile on this side of my face. This nostril will not move. So, there's full paralysis on this side of my face."
In fact, he told his followers it had gotten "progressively harder to eat." But after a while, the paralysis went away."He's doing really well," Hailey said on a June 2022 episode of Good Morning America, later adding, "He's feeling a lot better. Obviously, it was just a very scary and random situation to happen, but he's going to be totally OK and I'm just grateful that he's fine."
While Jamie Foxx initially kept details of his April 2023 hospitalization private, he later opened up about what he went through.
One day in Atlanta, "I was having such a bad headache, so I asked my boy, I said, ‘Listen, I need an aspirin,’” the Oscar winner said in his 2024 Netflix special What Had Happened Was... “Before I could get the Aspirin, I went out. I don’t remember 20 days.”
Jamie said he was initially taken to a doctor who gave him a cortisone shot and then sent him home. However, his concerned sister Deidra Dixon then drove him to a hospital, where they got an answer: He had a brain bleed that led to a stroke.
Twenty days after undergoing an operation, the Django Unchained woke up May 4 in a wheelchair and couldn’t walk. He then went to Chicago for rehabilitation and therapy.
"All I can tell you is that I appreciate every prayer,” he said, “because I needed every prayer.”
The reality star revealed that she "died" while running a mile during the first challenge of the NBC competition series.
“I don't remember a lot,” she explained on Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser. “I remember hearing the helicopter. I just felt like I was floating. And then my grandpa was there. And then I saw darkness. But then I saw light. So I knew, I knew I died that day.”
“My organs were literally shutting down,” she continued. “I didn't realize that I had rhabdomyolysis. And rhabdomyolysis is your body's way of saying, ‘I'm going to shut down on you.’”
Emilia Clarke filmed battle scenes for Game of Thrones, but in 2019, she published an essay in The New Yorker titled "A Battle for My Life."Having a bad headache at the gym, "I reached the toilet, sank to my knees, and proceeded to be violently, voluminously ill," the actress wrote. "Meanwhile, the pain—shooting, stabbing, constricting pain—was getting worse. At some level, I knew what was happening: my brain was damaged."She was taken to the hospital for a brain scan.
"The diagnosis was quick and ominous: a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke, caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain," the Emmy nominee added. "I’d had an aneurysm, an arterial rupture."
Emilia had immediate surgery to seal the aneurysm, calling the pain "unbearable." While she was recovering, she continued, she experienced aphasia and was "muttering nonsense."A week later, "the aphasia passed," Emilia added, and she left the hospital a month after being admitted. At a 2013 brain scan, she learned a growth "doubled in size" and that she needed surgery again."When they woke me, I was screaming in pain," she wrote. "The procedure had failed. I had a massive bleed and the doctors made it plain that my chances of surviving were precarious if they didn’t operate again. This time they needed to access my brain in the old-fashioned way—through my skull."
Thankfully, Emilia shared, she's now "at a hundred per cent."
Snoop Dogg's daughter Cori Broadus is grateful for her family.
Because after she suffered a "severe stroke" in January 2024, her loved ones rushed to be by her side.
"I texted them that I just had a stroke and sent them a picture," she told E! News correspondent Will Marfuggi in December 2024. "Everybody just came to my rescue."
Because of other medical concerns, Cori ended up staying in the hospital longer than she initially expected."I could have went home after my stroke, but my lupus wasn't doing so well," the Snoop's Fatherhood: Cori and Wayne's Story star continued. "
"I'm doing great," she added. "I just had a little bit of motor skills that I had to work back on. But other than that, I was fine."
Shailene Woodley’s early 20s were not an easy time health-wise.
“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 sleep. Everything I ate hurt my stomach,” the actress said on a September 2024 episode of the SHE MD Podcast. “It was this conflation of issues and diagnoses and different doctors telling me different things.”
So Shailene—who chose to keep the exact condition private—set out to find answers. “I come from a very holistic background and study herbalism,” she added. “So I was very keen on, ‘I’m going to work with real MDs, [and] I’m also going to work with independent kind of healers.’ Just trying to search for some sense of comfort in my own skin.”It was a long journey—one that lasted for 10 years.“Throughout that decade, a lot of other things came from feeling so much discomfort physically,” the Big Little Lies star noted, “which was, ‘My gosh, if everything I eat hurts my stomach, I’m now suddenly afraid of food.’ And then going into the kind of mental f--ckery that can happen with that of body dysmorphia and confusion about identity and feeling safe in my own capsule, in my own skin, what that meant, and what that should be.”
After tending to both her physical and mental health, Shailene is feeling much better.“It was a journey that ultimately physically resolved itself, and I am very healthy,” she shared. “I’m so happy to be able to say that."
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