Lena Dunham Talks About Undergoing Hysterectomy To Fight Against Endometriosis
Girls actress Lena Dunham shares she has recently undergone hysterectomy, something she says she had to do in order to battle her longtime problem: endometriosis.
In a lengthy account that Dunham wrote in Vogue, she announced what she had to go through the past few months just to address the chronic pain that she had long been experiencing. The 31-year-old producer narrated that she had a total hysterectomy, which meant that her uterus and cervix were removed.
Thus, she cannot bear a child anymore. This, she said, was after multiple procedures that she had to undergo in the previous years. Initially, the idea of having a family was not far-fetched for Dunham and was actually something she looked forward to, but Dunham admitted that she knew to herself that something was wrong.
"I never had a single doubt about having children. Not one, since the day I could understand how families were made. And pregnancy was the glorious beginning of that vision," she said.
Dunham divulged that she had long been experiencing pain for more than 10 years already, though things started to get worse in August last year. Even with the new unbearable pain she was feeling, laboratory tests could not pinpoint what was wrong with her uterus.
As a remedy, the producer tried doing everything it takes just to get the pain off of her mind, but she confessed that she could only do so much and that she thought of having her uterus removed.
Hysterectomy
Dunham stayed at the hospital for 12 days. On her sixth, she had undergone an operation. However, things did not go well for Dunham. It turned out there are more to do. This had promoted the actress to opt for a hysterectomy.
"In addition to endometrial disease, an odd humplike protrusion and a septum running down the middle, I have had retrograde bleeding, a.k.a. my period running in reverse, so that my stomach is full of blood," Dunham explained.
Relationship
Expectedly, Dunham's decision was difficult for everyone else to swallow. She admitted that it did not go easy for her relationship with Jack Antonoff, who had her back in her battle. Even so, the This Is 40 star went on to say that she felt them slowly slipping off each other's grip.
"He reminds me again and again that I am still a woman and still alive, but I also know that soon — for so many reasons that have nothing to do with my uterus — we'll slip away from each other and I will face everything I am losing in impossibly tiny step," Dunham explained.
The couple had broken up in January after being together for five years.
