After several years of suffering from debilitating pain, Mae Whitman was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2019. Per the Mayo Clinic, the condition is an "often painful disorder in which tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus — the endometrium — grows outside your uterus."

Whitman recalled feeling the pain she'd later come to know was due to endometriosis as young as 7. For years, her family thought she suffered from lactose intolerance, but her condition never improved. "When I turned about 15 or 16, I started to actually throw up from the pain," she revealed in an interview with Glamour. No treatments worked, and Whitman even had to turn down acting opportunities because of her endometriosis. 

Getting diagnosed at 30 gave Whitman answers and a treatment plan, but the condition can't be cured. The actress said that she's doing better since having surgery to treat her condition, but "symptoms... [still] pop up out of nowhere." The pain Whitman experiences is no longer as intense, but she deals with other symptoms including "insane bloating, nausea, extreme fatigue, [and] super-nervous panic attacks."