“Ta-Neng Kanyavee”, shared in the program "Prime Cast" about her life in her 30s, revealing a severe health crisis almost costing her life due to hepatitis, battling PCOS, and side effects from menstrual delay medication causing extreme abdominal pain and fainting. She said she tends to listen and carry her friends’ problems to the point of personal downfall and has learned to balance life by practicing saying no and prioritizing her own happiness first.
How do you feel now that you are in your 30s?
Ta-Neng: At first, I was a little scared because I’d heard turning 30 is a life transition, but I feel I’ve been through transitions all along. The hardest times were probably between 26 and 27 years old. This year is a 100% Zodiac Conflict Year (Pee Chong), but the more difficult years were likely earlier. It wasn’t all bad or all good—there were ups and downs. I’m used to facing unexpected challenges, so I don’t stress about it much or see it as a big deal.
What sports did you play as a child?
Ta-Neng: I had severe allergies as a kid, so my dad thought I needed to get strong, which meant playing sports. Because people with allergies have low immunity, I did horseback riding, golf, sailing, and others. I still ride horses now. I rarely sail and sometimes jet ski, but I don’t exert myself much. I don’t play basketball anymore. I don’t want to run now—it’s tiring, and I prefer not to move much.
How do you exercise now?
Ta-Neng: My health is okay now. I’ve started exercising again but not fully because I get tired easily.
Do you get sick so often that you go to the hospital almost every week?
Ta-Neng: In previous years, I went almost every month. It was a lot. Usually, when I have my period, I get severe cramps—sometimes I can’t even attend acting classes or do anything. The intense pain started at 25. Before that, sometimes it hurt, sometimes it didn’t. Since 25, I have pain every month, bad enough that I have to lie down for a day, taking painkillers. Before, I tried to endure because I didn’t want to take medicine continuously. But at 25, the pain was unbearable, so I took painkillers. When medicine didn’t help, I went to the hospital for injections. The first two days are the worst, then it eases on days three and four, sometimes lasting three days, with full relief by day four.
How do you endure when you have events but are in severe pain?
Ta-Neng: I get morphine injections, but usually I endure until the event ends, then go to the hospital.
Are you better now?
Ta-Neng: Last month was the worst pain of my life, unlike anything before. I could feel it coming because the pain would build up, signaling that the period was imminent. The next morning, I felt extreme cramps, sure it had arrived. I went downstairs to play with my cat, carrying my phone to take medicine shortly. But shortly after, the cramps tightened like my uterus was contracting strongly, my body started to numb, and I broke out in sweat. Realizing it was abnormal, I ran upstairs to take medicine.
Normally, you shouldn’t wait until the pain is worst to take medicine. The doctor said to take painkillers at levels 3-4 because it can escalate to level 10, so medicine should suppress it early. When I got upstairs, my vision started to black out and my body became numb. At the moment I fainted, I grabbed whatever I could and stayed like that for a bit until I could see again. That shouldn’t happen. I was taking birth control to regulate my cycle but stopped after the hepatitis diagnosis because I couldn’t take many medications. I called a friend to take me to the hospital because the pain was too severe. The doctor suspected it might be related to frequent use of menstrual delay pills. I usually take them often for work because my periods are heavy and painful.
What are the effects of taking menstrual delay medication and your ongoing illness?
Ta-Neng: I had to take the pills to avoid conflicts with work; otherwise, I couldn’t perform. Maybe that triggered something causing my condition. I resumed birth control pills, which seemed to improve things, but after leaving the hospital two weeks ago, my period continued for a month and just stopped two days ago.
What diagnosis did the doctor give you?
Ta-Neng: I have PCOS, but now my periods are irregular with incomplete ovulation. The bleeding is heavy and prolonged, sometimes lasting more than a month. Sometimes it stops briefly, then returns after about two weeks. For example, if it lasts 7-10 days, the first 4 days are very heavy, then it lessens, but sometimes the bleeding suddenly increases unexpectedly.
What caused your hepatitis from eating organic vegetables?
Ta-Neng: Normally, I don’t eat that many vegetables, but recently I wanted to be healthier and started paying more attention. At that time, I was working a lot, and my immunity dropped. I happened to eat food that’s generally considered clean, but my weakened immune system couldn’t fight the germs. Usually, there are small microbes, but my body couldn’t handle them. The doctor thinks it was from organic vegetables because organic farming doesn’t use hydroponics or chemical fertilizers but uses animal manure-based organic fertilizer. I think that might have been the cause.
The doctor found hepatitis E virus, usually from contaminated food or water. The doctor suspects contamination came from organic vegetables because cooked food would be safe. But the raw organic vegetables I ate might still have contamination despite thorough washing. Although I usually wash my vegetables carefully, I ate out and didn’t wash them myself. People might wonder if I didn’t wash them, but I did. It’s just that when eating out, I don’t know how well they clean the veggies.
How was your daily eating behavior, and how did it change after illness?
Ta-Neng: I eat all the time when hungry, not sticking to fixed meals. Morning, noon, evening, afternoon, or late at night—I eat whenever. I don’t eat large amounts, just according to hunger. If eating socially, I eat normally. I never eat little or choose foods; I eat everything.
Did you change your diet after the health problems?
Ta-Neng: I try to eat cooked vegetables now. Not all vegetables are dirty; it’s just my immunity is weaker. Even if they’re clean, germs exist everywhere. Organic vegetables aren’t the problem; it’s my own immunity. Knowing my immunity isn’t as good as others’, I try to eat cooked food.
How do you maintain your figure even though you love carbs and sweets?
Ta-Neng: Partly because I’m tall. When I gain weight, it’s distributed over my long body, mostly on my face, so I don’t feel generally fat. But lately, I feel it’s harder to lose weight. Previously, skipping one meal would drop my weight by about 0.5 to 1 kilogram, but now I can’t do that.
How do you manage your diet?
Ta-Neng: When I need to lose weight, I try to reduce carbs and sugar just enough to avoid irritability because cutting them out completely makes me toxic and unpleasant to those around me. I also try not to eat late, enduring hunger through the night.
How is your sleep? How difficult is it?
Ta-Neng: My sleep is very poor. I’ve never been a person who sleeps on a schedule. I used to travel a lot but never had sleep problems; I could sleep anywhere, even on noisy film sets. But in the last couple of years, I find it very hard to sleep. My mind is always racing with work thoughts—even while trying to sleep, my brain runs through work issues. About six months ago, I had to see a doctor and got prescribed sleeping pills and stress relief medication. I never thought I’d get to this point because I usually don’t overthink or get stressed; at least, I thought that about myself.
Reflecting on myself, I realized I’m a big overthinker but keep it all inside, telling myself it’s okay and I’ll deal with it later. I accumulated stress for a long time. Being a perfectionist, I think repeatedly, like planning trips with contingency plans A, B, C, and D in my head. This causes obsessive thinking and inability to let go, making my brain constantly active and affecting my sleep.
How does this affect your sleep? Do you sleep deeply?
Ta-Neng: I think I’m asleep, but my mind keeps working—I’m not really sleeping. I close my eyes but my brain keeps racing. It’s very painful. When I wake up, I don’t feel refreshed but tired, as if my body rested but my mind didn’t. I’m aware the whole time. This happens often around 3 or 4 a.m. I check the clock and wonder when morning will come. I feel sleepy in the morning but it’s not the right time to sleep because I have work. I’ve dealt with this for about six months and felt I couldn’t handle it anymore. I stopped wearing the WHOOP Tracker because my recovery score was only 2%, 4%, or 6%, then back to 2%.
Sometimes I sleep six hours but my mind never stops. I don’t know why, but I got a 2% recovery score four times, so I took the device off. I felt like I was going crazy seeing my body age more than my real age and that I wasn’t resting enough. I decided to see a doctor. The doctor gave me stress relief meds and told me to start winding down by 6 p.m. and to stop working after that, which helped. Lately, I can’t meet all my friends anymore—I have to choose who I really want to see and learn to say no. Now, I postpone plans by months and apologize when I do.
When you have unresolved issues, do you confront to clear them up?
Ta-Neng: I dislike confrontation unless it’s necessary to clear the way for work or the greater good. In such cases, I step in. Otherwise, if I can choose, I prefer to let things go because dealing with conflict wastes time and energy, and my energy is already low.
How do you see yourself in 3-4 years regarding your entertainment career?
Ta-Neng: I don’t really think about it. I just want to do my best now. I mean, I won’t regret it. If something interesting comes up today or tomorrow, I’ll do it.
What is your safe zone nowadays?
Ta-Neng: My safe zone is still people I feel I can talk to anytime. I try to talk more with friends and others because I realize my weakness is not speaking up.
How does your introverted nature relate to your reluctance to ask for help?
Ta-Neng: Yes. With friends, I don’t usually share much. But Punpun, my friend, asks a lot, so I tell her things, though not in detail unless she wants a summary. Because she asks deeply, she knows. Others who ask casually or don’t ask, I don’t know where to start. By nature, I always support others and got used to it, so I’m hesitant to ask for help or say I have problems because everyone has their own.
Whenever I take friends’ calls, everyone has their own issues. I like being someone others can rely on and want to help solve their problems. But my downside is not knowing how to release energy because I take on everything. Being an actor makes me empathic and sensitive to feelings constantly. Entering a room with bad energy drains me. If a friend feels bad, I can’t be happy because I feel I shouldn’t be happy while others are sad. I have to make friends happy first. Others always come before me. That’s a downside I’ve learned about myself today.
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