‘I’m even open to adoption’

Shruti Haasan, 40, talks about becoming a mother one day amid her PCOS struggle

Motherhood is something Shruti Haasan sees as a possibility for her future, but her thoughts around it have been shaped by years of uncertainty surrounding PCOS. Now 40, the actor has opened up about being told as a teenager that conceiving could be difficult and how one supportive doctor changed the way she looked at motherhood.

Speaking on Soha Ali Khan’s recent podcast, Shruti recalled being just 14 when she was first told that PCOS could make conception challenging. For years, she carried the belief that becoming a biological mother might not be possible for her.

Shruti credited her gynaecologist, Dr Dhrupti Dedhia, with helping her see the situation differently. “I’ve been told throughout that PCOS and childbirth, like conception, is like forget about it. Since I was fourteen, it’s going to be difficult, amma. But she (Dr Dhrupti) really broke it down to why it’s not. She just opened my mind. It was about saying, in a really beautiful way, if that’s what you want, when you’re ready, we’ll figure it out. Now you see that Cameron Diaz had a baby at 53. I’m so glad that my doctor speaks to me that way,” she said.

“I even told her that I am even open to adopt. I would really love to just be a mum. But I would also like to try it definitely as an extension of myself, in some biological way. And that conversation was really eye-opening to me. Because I just thought that if I ask her, she’ll be like, beta, dukaan bandh hogaya (child, the shop has shut down). You know?” said the actor.