Pretty Little Liars star Janel Parrish is opening up about her recent endometriosis diagnosis and subsequent surgery — and for a good reason.
“It is my hope to continue to spread awareness about #endometriosis so here we are,” Parrish, 37, wrote via Instagram on Friday, December 19. “I want to share my story in the hopes that it can help others dealing with this very painful and isolating disease. I’m currently recovering from my second surgery, but FIRST excision surgery. 5 hours under the knife and the surgery was a success!”
Endometriosis is a chronic, often painful condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus, according to the Mayo Clinic. In some cases, tissue has been found by the lung and shoulders.
An excision surgery is a surgical procedure in which doctors, using minimally invasive techniques like laparoscopic surgery, remove the disease in the hopes of relieving the painful symptoms of endometriosis, which can include debilitating cramps, nausea, vomiting and more.
“Finally have some hope…Endo sisters, excision surgery is the gold standard for treating endometriosis,” Parrish continued on Friday. “Please please please speak to [a] specialist if you can. Even though there’s no cure, let’s continue spreading awareness until there is one. Until then…you’re not alone.”
She added, “Thankful to my hubby nurse @c_long for being there every step of the way. Thankful to my friends who were the greatest support system. And of course, @kleoandmoose pups for being the best dog nurses. I’ll be back on my feet and stronger than ever in 2 weeks and ready to take on 2026. Grateful to @iriswings and my amazing surgeon @rayanelkattah for taking such great care of me. Finally a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Parrish married her husband Chris Long back in 2018 in Hawaii. The pair, who got engaged in October 2017 after a year of dating, wrote their own vows for the ceremony.
“We are probably both just going to cry like babies,” Parrish told People prior to her nuptials. “I ugly cry, so it’s not going to be cute photos, but it’ll be a beautiful memory.”
While fans know Long best for her time as Parrish on Pretty Little Liars and her role in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, she has gone on to compete on both Dancing With the Stars and The Masked Singer and — before her rise to fame — appeared in theater productions of Grease and Spring Awakening.
“My first job ever was as Little Cosette on Broadway in Les Misérables,” Parrish exclusively told Us back in 2023. “I thought that my career would become theater because I was a kid and I thought that’s where the course of my life was going to take me, and as fate had it, it led more toward TV and film, and as that happened, I did less and less singing. So, it sort of became a little bit of a fear and a vulnerability. Like, ‘I was a kid singer — am I still a singer?’”
