Reporter’s Notebook: Breaking the silence
In our new “Reporter’s Notebook” pieces, we feature first-person accounts from News Office writers on life at the Institute.Padma Lakshmi, actress and host of the popular television program “Top Chef,” admits that it feels a little odd to talk about her period in front of an audience of total strangers. But she has realized that sharing her own history with endometriosis, a disease caused when scar tissue builds up outside the uterus, could help others who suffer from the disease.“I don’t want other girls to just sit there smiling silently like nothing is wrong,” Lakshmi said Friday at the launch of MIT’s new Center for Gynepathology, which will bring together engineers, scientists and physicians to study endometriosis. Sporting a black dress that showed off her baby bump, Lakshmi had the mostly female audience in a Stata Center auditorium captivated with her story.Like many who suffer from endometriosis, including MIT Professor...