Emma Chamberlain Reveals the Unexpected Way She Learned She Has PCOS

Emma Chamberlain is being transparent about her health.

The social media star, 23, recalled in a Vogue video the unexpected place she was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), and opened up about how it’s since changed her life.

“I got diagnosed with PCOS at the hair salon. I was sitting in the chair getting my hair washed and a woman was next to me and she turned to me and she said, ‘Do you have PCOS’?” she said in the clip uploaded on April 22.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know. My mom has PCOS. She has PCOS and endometriosis and she’s had a lot of challenges,'” the influencer continued to share, adding, “And she was like, ‘I think you have PCOS.'”

Chamberlain said that the woman “could tell by the acne” that was on her cheeks at the time, noting that the interaction happened over a year ago. “Turns out she was an OBGYN and she diagnosed me with PCOS.”

She added, “It’s really changed my life, to be honest.”

The Mayo Clinic explains that PCOS is a hormonal disturbance, where “many small sacs of fluid develop along the outer edge of the ovary… The small fluid-filled cysts contain immature eggs. These are called follicles. The follicles fail to regularly release eggs.”

Too much androgen is another symptom of PCOS, the Mayo Clinic adds. “High levels of the hormone androgen may result in excess facial and body hair. This is called hirsutism. Sometimes, severe acne and male-pattern baldness can happen, too,” per the health organization.

Chamberlain shared that she was put on medication to help regulate hormones, which she said helped clear up her skin. That wasn’t the only positive she experienced.

“My periods are so much more chill,” she noted. “My skin is so much more predictable. My hair is getting thicker. It’s just feeling like I’m coming back to myself in a way.”

In March 2024, Chamberlain opened up about her PCOS diagnosis publicly for the first time during an episode of her Anything Goes podcast.

“I found out it’s the reason that for many years I’ve had irregular periods, cystic acne, anxiety, depression and a slew of other issues,” she explained at the time. “It could also possibly impact my fertility, which is upsetting. It’s definitely a bummer.”

The content creator added, “It’s common. I know a lot of girls with PCOS and I think I have a milder version of it. I don’t have the cysts, I don’t have all of the symptoms of PCOS, but alas, I have it.”

Noting that her mom has PCOS and was able to get pregnant with her, she said that the diagnosis was “a little less frightening,” continuing, “Hopefully, I’ll be fertile when I’m ready to have children.

She added, “…in, what, six years, six to eight years, probably.”

Elsewhere in the Vogue video shared on April 22, Chamberlain spoke candidly about her “complicated” relationship with YouTube after starting her own channel at age 16 in 2017.

“Then for a long time, I thought maybe I want to be more than a YouTuber — and then that messed with my head,” she said in the clip. “Then I realized, wait, I love being a YouTuber. This was my dream as a kid. I did it. Why am I self-sabotaging?”

Chamberlain took a break from sharing videos to her YouTube channel in recent years, in addition to social media as a whole. She previously said she used that time for “self-discovery,” but now she’s back.