Jennette McCurdy Recalls 'Terrifying' Pregnancy Scare Amid Acne Struggle

Jennette McCurdy is recalling a frightening experience. On the latest episode of Lemonada Media's Hard Feelings With Jennette McCurdy podcast, the 31-year-old actress reveals she had a pregnancy scare while struggling to treat her adult acne.

It began when McCurdy began taking the lowest dose of Accutane, an acne medication that has been shown to cause birth defects in humans, according to Mayo Clinic.

"You have to take a test to show that you know all the risks involved and you have to sign a contract saying that under no circumstances will you get pregnant while taking Accutane," McCurdy said. "... You have to be on two forms of contraception. You have to go and you have to get bloodwork once a month. You have to go to your dermatologist after getting your bloodwork every month just to check up."

While she was on the medication, McCurdy called to cancel her dermatologist appointment. The receptionist called McCurdy back, telling the I'm Glad My Mom Died author that the doctor would really like her to keep her appointment. McCurdy refused but changed her tune upon getting a second call back from the doctor's office.

"The receptionist sounds stressed out. She goes, 'Hey, so I spoke to the dermatologist again and she says you really need to come in.' I'm like, 'What the f**k?'... I go, 'Can I just come in next week?'" McCurdy recalled. "She goes, 'No, because we got the results of your bloodwork and there's a pregnancy.'"

The reveal left McCurdy "shocked" and feeling as if "I got the wind knocked out of me."

"My head was spinning. I was so dizzy. I involuntarily sat on the edge of my bed. My body just fell onto the edge of my bed and I was like, 'What?' I got a cottonmouth," she said. "Even now, repeating it, my heart is pounding. Oh my God. It was so terrifying."

McCurdy began "recounting recent sexual activities" and wondered, "How is this possible? How could this be? What happened? What wasn't working? How did this happen?"

McCurdy agreed to come to her appointment and ordered a car to take her there.

"I'm in the backseat of an Uber. I'm dizzy the entire way, feeling like I'm going to pass out or throw up or both," she said. "Awful. Terrible."

When she arrived at the office, McCurdy was immediately taken back and asked, "So is there a chance you could be pregnant?"

"I'm like, 'What? You said I was pregnant. You said there was a pregnancy. What do you mean is there a chance? It sounds like you know there's not just a chance, that there's a certainty. You called me here, hun. You said I was pregnant,'" McCurdy recalled. "She's like, 'Well sometimes there can be false pregnancies that come up on these because of your hormone levels because of the medication'... I'm like, 'What? Why would you not say that this was not a certain thing right off the bat?'"

"Instantly I feel a little flicker of hope, but I don't want to get my hopes up," she continued. "She's like, 'We want to send you to get another blood work panel right away to clarify whether or not there's a pregnancy and then we can go from there.'"

McCurdy said she was "terrified" at the prospect but was given good news after getting her blood work done.

"I am not pregnant, and it is fine," she said of her discovery at the time. "But that experience was so terrifying that I was like, 'I've got to get off this s**t. This is not for me.' That was years ago."

On a previous episode of her podcast, McCurdy revealed why she was freezing her eggs, despite not wanting to have children.

"I do not feel in any way, shape, or form like I want kids. I cannot imagine a world in which someday I want kids. I am also open to my mind changing. I have changed a lot as a person in my years so far and I hope to continue changing," she said. "What I don't want to happen is for me to turn 40 and realize, 'F**k, I want kids now,' and I don't have enough eggs to make it happen."

"No part of me feels motivated to freeze my eggs when I don't think I want to be a mom, but what if someday I change my mind?... I am trying to bet on my future self wanting a thing that my current self can't imagine wanting, versus just not doing it and risking that someday I might want it and not be able to do it then -- and the regret," McCurdy added. "I am trying to weigh these options and it's quite complex."

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