I’ve never watched The Biggest Loser. What I know about Jillian Michaels comes pretty much solely from friends who have used her videos for weight loss or who really enjoy the show.
I didn’t even know that she personally used to have a weight problem until recently.
A few weeks ago she did an interview where she was quoted as saying she would be adopting because “I can’t handle doing that to my body.”
And there was backlash.
Big backlash.
I will admit that my first personal concern was that she may have residual body issues that could be passed on to her children if she wasn’t careful.
Sometimes that little therapist inside of me really struggles to come out! And being a girl with past body issues, I often worry about young girls being brought up in homes where similar issues could be taught or encouraged.
After a moment’s thought though, I realized that her quote could have been taken completely out of context and that we really have no idea why she is choosing to adopt. I almost felt sorry for the woman. She was getting dragged through the coals for something that should be considered a very personal decision.
She was getting analyzed for wanting to adopt.
Meanwhile, I get analyzed for not going straight to adoption.
It seems a girl can’t win in this world.
After much thought, I chose to believe that there could be so much more to the story that we never got. A lot gets lost in translation through editing and putting the words on page (I learned that myself recently, didn’t I?) I chose to believe that her motives for adoption were pure and that no one would take that route unless they truly wanted a child above and beyond all else.
It turns out, Jillian Michaels has endometriosis.
She was feeling corned by the interviewer and trapped by the shame she has surrounding her condition. She didn't want to talk about it. It felt too personal.
And now she has been forced to come out, because of the backlash she received.
There shouldn’t be shame surrounding endometriosis, but I get it. There is shame there. There is shame in the pain. There is shame in the weakness. There is shame in feeling as though your body has betrayed you.
There is shame in the realization that you may never be able to complete a task that comes so naturally to so many other women.
I wish it wasn’t true. But I understand it.
And I feel for Jillian Michaels.
I am sad that she was forced to come out of the infertility closet this way. That her decisions about how she was going to become a parent were put out there for others to judge.
I’m sad that I myself fell into the same thinking pattern momentarily.
I’m happy she has come out with the truth and that this is one more face for endometriosis though. I’m happy, because there does need to be more awareness. This disease will affect 90 million women worldwide in this lifetime. It is the number 1 cause of infertility. There is no cure, and there are no real answers surrounding the cause. The average diagnosis period is 7 years.
I was upset when it took 7 months to get answers for me.
There needs to be awareness.
But I’m sorry that she had to come out about a very private issue as a result of criticism. It should have been her choice. It shouldn't have happened until she was ready for it to.
I applaud Jillian Michaels for recognizing that she doesn’t have it in her to deal with the disappointments of fertility treatments, and that she doesn’t want to subject her body to the surgeries that would be necessary to achieve pregnancy.
I think it is amazing that she is looking at her condition as a reason to adopt.
I wish everyone (myself included) could have embraced that decision of hers more fully before we knew the truth.
Somewhere along the line I think most of us decided that we know what is best for ourselves, and therefore we know what is best for everyone else. I’m not sure when it became kosher to judge another’s path to parenthood, but it seems so common nowadays.
I’ve been judged for pursuing IVF rather than adoption.
Jillian Michaels was judged for the perception that she didn’t want to experience pregnancy.
Like I said, a girl can’t win.
I wish we could all recognize that other people will make decisions that are right for them, even if they wouldn’t be right for us.
I wish we could remember that everyone has a piece of the story they aren’t telling. A piece that isn’t really ours to know. A piece that really could change how we view the entire thing.
Jillian Michaels is going to adopt.
Jillian Michaels has endometriosis.
Jillian Michaels is now one more face for us to relate to.
I’m kind of thinking it’s time for me to become a bigger Jillian Michaels fan.
ADSPACE
