Emmy Rossum has been candid about living with PCOS, going through IVF, and navigating postpartum anxiety. When asked why she has been so open about such personal terrain, she offered a simple explanation: “It doesn’t really cost me anything.”
For Rossum, talking about it is less about sharing for its own sake and more about making space for other people to feel less alone in what can be a frightening, unfamiliar experience.
Why she talks about it
Rossum’s point is straightforward: “It feels like we should be able to talk about the parts of our bodies that aren’t working,” she said, pushing back on the idea that reproductive health and mental health should be kept unspoken.
She also emphasized how much support matters when things feel unstable. “We really need our village. We really need our people when our brains and our bodies are doing things that are scary and unfamiliar,” she said.
Postpartum anxiety, in her words
Rossum has described postpartum anxiety without smoothing over the edges. “Postpartum anxiety for me was very, very rough, like very intense, intrusive thoughts,” she said.
She also admitted there were moments when she worried she would not return to herself. “I really had moments when I wondered if I would ever feel like myself ever,” she said.
“I think it’s important to have those conversations to normalize them.”
The road to pregnancy
Rossum shares two children with her husband, Sam Esmail: a 5-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. The couple has not publicly revealed their children’s names.
She has also spoken about a years-long fertility journey that began with a diagnosis of PCOS, a condition she noted has recently been renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). She said she dealt with “very debilitating ovarian cysts throughout my 20s,” then tried to conceive without medical intervention. When that did not work, she attempted IUI, and later IVF.
“Tried to get pregnant naturally. It didn’t happen. Tried IUI, didn’t happen, and then tried IVF, and it happened in a big way,” she said.
The IVF detail that stayed with her
Rossum said she underwent a single egg retrieval cycle and was surprised by the results, which she linked to a side effect associated with PMOS.
“I only did one harvest, but a kind of side effect of [PMOS] is that you can kind of become a super responder, so they woke me up from the harvest and said that I had 72 eggs, which was trippy and bizarre,” she said.
Private pregnancy, emotional arrival
Rossum said welcoming her daughter felt especially emotional after what she described as a long road to pregnancy, and she shared that the pregnancy took place toward the end of Covid, which allowed her to keep it private.
“So it had been a long journey to get to meet my daughter, and then when I finally had it was also towards the end of Covid, so I had been able to keep the pregnancy private the whole time,” she said.
Choosing yourself
Rossum has also stressed the importance of being kind to yourself and holding onto your value, even when life feels uncertain.
“Even when the world isn’t choosing us at that moment, we still need to choose ourselves. So my kids have been very helpful to me because they always choose me,” she said.
