Selena Gomez’s health problems, explained

Selena Gomez has been very open about her struggles with Lupus over the past several years.

According to Mayo Clinic, lupus is an immune system disease that affects the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, and heart. Symptoms include joint pain, stiffness, headaches, chest pain, and shortness of breath. There are four different types, but Gomez hasn’t specified which she was diagnosed with in 2013.

She first revealed her diagnosis in 2015 in an interview with Billboard, which came after she had to cancel her tour to undergo treatment. She explained that she had to undergo chemotherapy to treat her illness, and even could’ve had a stroke had she gone on working.

In 2017, Gomez revealed that she had a kidney transplant thanks to her friend and actress Francia Raisa, who donated one of her kidneys to Gomez.

Since then, she’s continued to be transparent about her flare-ups, how her Lupus affects her work, and her mental health. Gomez’s beauty brand, Rare Beauty, even has its own initiative called Rare Impact, which supports mental health and self-acceptance by raising money to fund projects and events throughout the world.

In her 2022 documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, she detailed her own mental health struggles and her bipolar diagnosis.

Over her career, even as she continues to rise to stardom, Gomez has been very transparent about both her health and her mental health challenges.

Recently, she revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair, what that next challenge may be. She explained that because of her medical issues, her health would put the life of a baby in jeopardy. Because of that, she won’t be able to carry her own children.

This isn’t the case for all women with lupus. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, mothers with lupus can carry a healthy pregnancy to term. However, some risks should be discussed with a doctor before trying to get pregnant. Mothers with lupus are more susceptible to high blood pressure, kidney problems, and blood clots. Women may also be required to go off of some lupus medications for the duration of their pregnancy.

For Gomez, not being able to become a mother the most natural way was something that she had to grieve, she told Vanity Fair. But now, she’s considering other options for motherhood, including surrogacy and adoption, both of which she believes are very viable options for her.

After accepting that her journey will look a little different, she says she’s excited to see what motherhood will look like for her, and she says she’ll love a baby regardless of who carried it.