Heather Rae El Moussa thought she was dealing with “mom brain” four months after giving birth — but the symptoms turned out to be an autoimmune disorder.
“I remember saying to my assistant, ‘I feel like I’m dead,’” El Moussa, 36, said in an interview with TODAY.com published on Thursday, October 26. “My brain was so tired. My body was so tired. I was exhausted all the time and no amount of sleep could make it better.”
Heather Rae and husband Tarek El Moussa welcomed their first child together, son Tristan, in January. Tarek, 42, is also the father of Taylor, 13, and Brayden, 8, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Christina Hall.
After Heather Rae and Tarek welcomed Tristan, now 9 months, she returned to work to film her respective reality shows, Selling Sunset and The Flipping El Moussas. However, the experience felt “brutal” because she could “barely get out of bed.”
“I was like, I’m probably just foggy because of mom brain,’” Heather Rae recalled.
As she continued to deal with fatigue, Heather Rae also noticed there were inconsistencies with her milk supply while being four months postpartum. One day, she would pump at least 6 ounces of milk before barely pumping half an ounce the next. After consulting with a lactation consultant, the real estate mogul decided to get some bloodwork done.
Her doctor told her that her pregnancy had triggered Hashimoto’s disease, which was also the cause of her depleting breast milk. Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland, per the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms of the condition include fatigue, muscle aches, joint pain, problems with memory or concentration and more.
“When [my doctor] told me what I had, I was in total shock,” Heather Rae told the outlet.
After receiving her diagnosis, she was prescribed medication to treat the illness and has been “feeling much better” since seeking treatment.
Earlier this month, Heather Rae opened up about how she no longer breast-feeds her son after he “started to get uninterested.”
“8 1/2 months postpartum. As I write this, my heart is full but also my mama heart is a little sad because my big boy does not want to breast-feed anymore,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “It’s bittersweet for me because breast-feeding as a new mommy was something I grew to love. I love the bond, the skin to skin, the cuddles, and if I’m being honest, it would have been harder for me to make the decision to stop.”
