All Of Selena Gomez' Health Problems Explained

Selena Gomez has really been through it. She's been torn to shreds on social media because of her weight, judged for going to rehab, and had to weather shady cheating rumors casting a shadow over her and Benny Blanco's romance ahead of their wedding in 2025.

Gomez has been working in front of the cameras since the age of 7. She became a household name when she was cast in Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place" and there's been no going back since. But the industry took its toll, with the actress telling Billboard in 2015, "I'm so f***ing nice to everybody, and everyone is so vile to me ... It's so disappointing that I've become a tabloid story. It took away everything I loved about this business." As a result, it should come as no surprise that Selena Gomez has learned not to Google herself.

The media hasn't been the only thorn in Gomez's side over the years, however. The singer has also dealt with serious health issues, and the way it affected her life often ended up becoming tabloid fodder, with those speculating about her reasons for canceling tour dates and checking into rehab facilities having no idea what was actually going on behind the scenes. The truth is that Gomez has dealt with a lot. Ever since receiving a life-changing diagnosis in 2014, Gomez has suffered subsequent health issues, and it's an ongoing battle, which she's forced to fight with the public and the tabloids watching.

In 2013, Selena Gomez's fans suspected something was up when she canceled the final leg of her "Stars Dance" tour. The reason, she provided at the time, was that she wanted to "spend some time on myself," per Billboard. But then it came to light at the beginning of 2014 that Gomez had spent some of that me time at a rehab facility in Arizona. 

"Selena voluntarily spent time at Meadows but not for substance abuse," the singer's spokesperson told E! News at the time. Despite the clarification, speculation remained rife about Gomez's reason for going to rehab. She told Billboard in 2015 that all the gossip was hurtful. "I was diagnosed with [autoimmune disease] lupus, and I've been through chemotherapy. That's what my break was really about. I could've had a stroke," she explained. "I wanted so badly to say, 'You guys have no idea. I'm in chemotherapy. You're a**holes."

Lupus is a serious autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack its organs and tissues. This causes inflammation, which leads to a slew of unpleasant symptoms like pain, skin rashes, hair loss, swelling, and blood clots, according to Cleveland Clinic. The disease can cause permanent damage to organs like the kidneys, lungs, heart, and brain. The disease can be managed with medication, but lupus has no cure. By 2015, Gomez's lupus was in remission. Medical News Today explains that chemotherapy is often administered to lupus patients with the goal of helping them go into remission. The treatment disrupts the function of immune cells, which are the symptom-causing culprits.

Because lupus attacks the body's organs, kidney disease is one of the many complications patients can face, and unfortunately, this was the reality for Selena Gomez in 2017. She took to Instagram in September that year to update her fans on her hiatus from the platform. "I found out I needed to get a kidney transplant due to my Lupus and was recovering. It was what I needed to do for my overall health," she penned. She also thanked her friend, Francia Raisa, who was her donor. "She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me. I am incredibly blessed. I love you so much sis," the actress wrote. Francia Raisa once labeled her relationship with Gomez as a trauma bond, given what they'd been through together.

"My kidneys were just done," Gomez told Savannah Guthrie in a subsequent interview on "Today" and explained that she didn't particularly want to ask anyone in her life to be her donor. Her entire family got tested to see if they were potential donors, but none of them turned out to be a match. "The thought of asking somebody to do that was really difficult to do. That was really difficult for me," she admitted. Raisa volunteered to get tested to see if she was a match the moment Gomez told her she had kidney failure. "The fact that she was a match, I mean, that's unbelievable. That's not real", Gomez said. She was frank about the fact that Raisa saved her life. "She did. That's it," she said. "I got to the point where it was really kind of life or death."

Selena Gomez's kidney transplant didn't exactly go off without a hitch. During an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2020, Gomez recalled waking up from surgery only to have doctors sedate her again. "The moment I came out I remember starting to shake and my mom screaming and then being put back under," she told the outlet. During her 2017 interview with "Today," Gomez went into a bit more detail on what went wrong after the surgery.

Gomez and her friend and kidney donor, Francia Raisa, had a few moments together with their families before trying to fall asleep. That was when the singer experienced excruciating pain. Doctors determined her kidney was turning around and had to rush Gomez back into surgery. "It was a six-hour surgery that they had to do on me, and the normal kidney process is actually two hours," Gomez explained. "Apparently, one of the arteries had flipped." She told The Wall Street Journal that the doctors ended up fixing the artery by taking arteries from her legs. "That's what makes you go, 'You know what, I'm just so happy to be alive,'" Gomez said. Recovering from surgery was also challenging. Gomez and Raisa couldn't be on their feet for more than an hour a day post-surgery and needed help doing basic things like taking a shower.

About a year after getting her kidney transplant, Selena Gomez was hospitalized twice because of a dangerously low white blood cell count. The singer's trips to the emergency room made headlines, and in a subsequent statement to People, her spokesperson explained that Gomez was also dealing with mental health issues alongside her physical health problems. "She has had a tough few weeks and the panic attack in the hospital was the tipping point," they disclosed. "She realized she needed to seek additional help for her ongoing emotional issues. She's surrounded by close family and has a lot of support. She's doing better now and is seeking treatment on the East Coast."

Fans were understandably worried about the star, and as Gomez's condition made headlines, chief medical officer at Delphi Behavioral Health Group, Neeraj Gandotra, MD, told Women's Health that, because lupus is treated by suppressing the immune system, patients often end up with a low white blood cell count. Add Gomez's kidney transplant, which requires the same medication, and you have the perfect storm on your hands. "They'll find themselves with persistent infections that they can't shake," Gandotra explained. Medical oncologist and hematologist Sean Fischer, MD, added that having to deal with these persistent and seemingly never-ending health issues can take its toll on the patient, especially because they oftentimes have to result to living a pretty isolated life to prevent themselves from being exposed to potential infections.

Something fans might not know about Selena Gomez is that, aside from dealing with depression and anxiety, the actress has also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She shared this information with Elle in 2021, revealing that she received the diagnosis in 2018. "I felt a huge weight lifted off me when I found out," she admitted. "I could take a deep breath and go, 'Okay, that explains so much.'" When she spoke with NPR in 2020, Gomez admitted that even though she's on the right medication and doing her best to take care of herself, she still has her off days. "I don't think I just magically feel better. I have days where it is hard for me to get out of bed, or I have major anxiety attacks. All of that still happens," she said.

Cleveland Clinic explains that bipolar disorder makes those affected experience extreme highs and lows. They also deal with manic episodes, where they display behavior that is unlike themselves. Sometimes this involves engaging in reckless and even dangerous behavior. Some people also deal with hallucinations or delusions during these episodes. Bipolar disorder cannot be cured and has to be carefully managed with medication. It can no doubt be a scary condition to deal with, and Gomez admitted as much while speaking to Miley Cyrus on her Instagram show "Bright Minded." "I discussed that after years of going through a lot of different things, I realized that I was bipolar, and so when I got to know more information, it actually helps me," Gomez explained. "It doesn't scare me once I know it. I think people get scared of that, right? I wanted to know everything about it, and it took the fear away."

The reason Selena Gomez's top mental health tips actually have merit is because she's been through mental health battles herself. During a 2020 interview with The Wall Street Journal, the songstress disclosed that she'd been in therapy for over six years at the time. "My highs were really high, and my lows would take me out for weeks at a time," she shared. "I got on the right medication, and my life has been completely changed."

Depression and anxiety are side effects of lupus, per Cleveland Clinic, and Gomez herself admitted to People in a 2019 statement that she was dealing with the whole package. "I've discovered that anxiety, panic attacks and depression can be side effects of lupus, which can present their own challenges," she explained ahead of taking some time away from the spotlight. The actress added that her health and happiness was her priority and that she hoped by taking time off to take care of herself she could encourage others to do the same.

During a 2018 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Gomez spoke openly about navigating depression and anxiety. "I've been very vocal about it, but it's not something I feel I'll ever overcome," she admitted. "There won't be a day when I'm like, 'Here I am in a pretty dress — I won!' I think it's a battle I'm gonna have to face for the rest of my life, and I'm okay with that because I know that I'm choosing myself over anything else."

In 2024, Selena Gomez shared that she was dealing with yet another health condition: small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). The actress was attending the premiere of her new film, "Emilia Pérez," at The American French Film Festival and posing with her hands over her stomach in some pictures. This quickly led to keyboard warriors making assumptions online.

Gomez wasn't having it, and clapped back in a since-deleted TikTok comment that she'd had about enough of people commenting on her body. "This makes me sick," she penned (via Elle). "I have [SIBO] in my small intestine. It flares up. I don't care that I don't look like a stick figure. I don't have that body. End of story. No I am NOT a victim. I'm just human."

SIBO, which occurs when certain bacteria overpopulate the gut, causes various uncomfortable symptoms, including stomach pain, bloating, gas, fatigue, nausea, indigestion, diarrhea, and constipation, per Cleveland Clinic. SIBO can be a side effect from lupus and some medications. Curing it takes time (sometimes months) and it often recurs.

Selena Gomez has dealt with a slew of health issues as a result of her lupus diagnosis, and one of them is arthritis. Gomez discussed this condition on the "Good Hang with Amy Poehler" podcast in 2025. "I have arthritis in my fingers, and that's due to my lupus," Gomez shared, recalling a time when opening a water bottle proved an impossible task because her hands hurt so much.

In her 2022 documentary, "Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me," the songstress got candid about how painful lupus can get. Despite having gone into temporary remission after her kidney transplant, it returned in 2020. "Now it just hurts in the morning. When I wake up, I immediately start crying because it hurts — like everything," Gomez said in the documentary.

Selena Gomez's health condition impacted her billion-dollar business, Rare Beauty, as she began to think about her customers who are affected by similar issues. Speaking to Poehler, the actress explained that all the products from her company are easy to open to help those who experience similar conditions. "I know that might seem like a little thing, but it's really not because it's actually so helpful for anyone at any age to be able to use the products," Gomez said.