'It was my duty to pose topless': Cobie Smulders reveals she posed for racy cover shoot in order to spread awareness after ovarian cancer battle

By Sarah Sotoodeh For Dailymail.com

Published: 21:28 EDT, 1 November 2016 | Updated: 10:49 EDT, 2 November 2016

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was just 25.

Eight years later, Cobie Smulders revealed her battle with cancer and how she overcame it in her 2015 cover shoot for Women's Health, where she posed topless.

On Tuesday, the 34-year-old penned an essay for Lenny about the revealing photo shoot, which she says, 'made me start thinking about this body that I'm in. And what it has been through.'

Strong: Cobie Smulders revealed her battle with cancer and how she overcame it in her 2015 cover shoot for Women's Health, where she posed topless

Adding: 'It was a very strange day. I was standing in front of a camera lens in my underwear and holding my breast, all while trying to appear not sexy but confident, not flirtatious but gleamingly positive,' via People.

Cobie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007 while working on the hit show How I Met Your Mother.

She had surgery to remove the cancerous tumors from her ovaries and also the cancerous tissue in her lymph nodes.

Leading up to the surgery, the TV star also used chiropractors, acupuncturists, yoga classes and crystal healers to help get her body healthy.

Wow: On Tuesday, the 34-year-old penned an essay for Lenny about the revealing photo shoot she did last year, which she says, 'made me start thinking about this body that I'm in'

Cobie also had a 'devastating breakup with cheese and carbohydrates.'

The magazine cover proved to be the push she needed to share her journey with the public in hopes of helping other women.

She said: 'This bizarre invitation became an opportunity to share some insight from my experience of being diagnosed with, receiving treatment for, and eventually learning to cure my cancer.'

Powerful: Cobie was diagnosed in 2007 while working on the hit show How I Met Your Mother; she spoke about her battle with cancer in 2015 to Women's Health

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Now cancer-free, the beauty says that 'I feel like it is my duty, even if it means posing topless, to spread awareness.' 

Cobie wrote: 'Thankfully, gratefully, cancer did not get the best of me.'

When she was diagnosed, doctors told her she would have a difficult and unlikely chance to bear her own children.

The Avengers star recalled how it 'felt grossly unfair,' because at age 25, 'your ovaries should be brimming with youthful follicles.'

Happy: Leading up to the surgery, the TV star also used chiropractors, acupuncturists, yoga classes and crystal healers to help get her body healthy; seen in October in Berlin

The mother of two said that 'cancerous cells overtook mine, threatening to end my fertility and potentially my life.' 

Cobie gave birth to her two children - two daughters - Shaelyn, seven, and a baby girl, born in January 2015.

The Jack Reacher: Never Go Back actress said in her Lenny essay: 'The best of me now lives on in my two little women, baby girls I was lucky enough to be able to make with my own body.'

She is married to actor Taran Killam; they became engaged in 2009 and tied the knot in 2012. 

Focused: Cobie gave birth to her two children - two daughters - Shaelyn, seven, and a baby girl, born in January 2015; in character with Tom Cruise for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

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