--- title: Lena Dunham Had a Hysterectomy to Address Endometriosis description: Lena Dunham said she had a total hysterectomy — the removal of her uterus and cervix — to address pain caused by endometriosis. canonical: https://time.com/5157553/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-vogue/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-14T15:27:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T22:02:48.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Lena Dunham Reveals She Had a Hysterectomy to Stop Pain From Endometriosis og:description: She still wants to have children and will now consider surrogacy or adoption og:url: https://time.com/5157553/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-vogue/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted44c529a0015c49/6988c1480b72e3fc166ed31d/lena-dunham-endometriosis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Growing Up With Anxiety: Lena Dunham and Dr. Anne Marie Albano in Conversation With Jenni Konner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lena Dunham Reveals She Had a Hysterectomy to Stop Pain From Endometriosis twitter:description: She still wants to have children and will now consider surrogacy or adoption twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted44c529a0015c49/6988c1480b72e3fc166ed31d/lena-dunham-endometriosis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lena Dunham Reveals She Had a Hysterectomy to Stop Pain From Endometriosis > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=9baac00c-56f1-4176-9d9d-19a6c2e801e6&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:02 PM UTCPublished: Feb 14, 2018 3:27 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 07: Lena Dunham attends 'Growing Up With Anxiety: Lena Dunham and Dr. Anne Marie Albano in Conversation With Jenni Konner' at 92Y on February 7, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Pont/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 07: Lena Dunham attends 'Growing Up With Anxiety: Lena Dunham and Dr. Anne Marie Albano in Conversation With Jenni Konner' at 92Y on February 7, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Pont/WireImage) Mike Pont—WireImage  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:02 PM UTCPublished: Feb 14, 2018 3:27 PM UTC [Lena Dunham](http://time.com/4741965/girls-finale-review-latching/) said she underwent a total hysterectomy — the surgical removal of the cervix and uterus — in an attempt to ease the pain caused by [endometriosis](http://time.com/4741965/girls-finale-review-latching/). In an [essay for the March issue of ](https://www.vogue.com/article/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-vogue-march-2018-issue?mbid=social%5Ftwitter)_Vogue,_ which was [excerpted by the Endometriosis Foundation of America](https://www.endofound.org/breaking-lena-dunham-reveals-her-latest-endometriosis-battle-i-had-a-total-hysterectomy), the _Girls_ creator said she had the surgery to address chronic pain from [endometriosis,](http://www.health.com/sexual-health/endometriosis-causes-treatment-lena-dunham?cid=2017013&XID=time-health-hub) which occurs when the tissue that [lines the inside](https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/endometri/conditioninfo) of a woman’s uterus grows in places outside the uterus. Dunham, 31, has been [open](http://time.com/4212882/lena-dunham-girls-endometriosis/) in the past about her struggle with the condition, which affects [about 176 million women across the globe](https://www.endofound.org/endometriosis). Dunham wrote in her essay that she elected to have a hysterectomy after “years of complex surgeries measuring in the double digits” and alternative treatments, including yoga, acupuncture and massage therapy. CNN reports that Dunham had to [convince doctors that she wanted to have the surgery,](https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/14/entertainment/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-endometriosis/) which will make her unable to bear children. But Dunham, who said she always wanted to have children, wrote that she’ll now consider surrogacy or adoption. “I may have felt choiceless before, but I know I have choices now,” Dunham wrote. “Soon I’ll start exploring whether my ovaries, which remain someplace inside me in that vast cavern of organs and scar tissue, have eggs. Adoption is a thrilling truth I’ll pursue with all my might.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5157553/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-vogue/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5157553/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-vogue/"},"headline":"Lena Dunham Reveals She Had a Hysterectomy to Stop Pain From Endometriosis","datePublished":"2018-02-14T15:27:44.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T22:02:48.000Z","description":"She still wants to have children and will now consider surrogacy or adoption","url":"https://time.com/5157553/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-vogue/","keywords":["Women's Health","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted44c529a0015c49/6988c1480b72e3fc166ed31d/lena-dunham-endometriosis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted44c529a0015c49/6988c1480b72e3fc166ed31d/lena-dunham-endometriosis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Growing Up With Anxiety: Lena Dunham and Dr. Anne Marie Albano in Conversation With Jenni Konner","caption":"Growing Up With Anxiety: Lena Dunham and Dr. Anne Marie Albano in Conversation With Jenni Konner","creditText":"Mike Pont—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5157553/lena-dunham-hysterectomy-vogue/","name":"Lena Dunham Reveals She Had a Hysterectomy to Stop Pain From Endometriosis"}}]}] ```