Months after having a hysterectomy to address issues caused by her endometriosis, Lena Dunham had her left ovary removed earlier this week.
The Girls creator, whose latest series Camping premiered Sunday on HBO, revealed the news in an Instagram post on Wednesday morning.
Accompanied by a photo of herself in the hospital, Dunham explained that the ovary, which she had removed on Tuesday, was “encased in scar tissue & fibrosis, attached to my bowel and pressing on nerves that made it kinda hard to walk/pee/vamp. Over the last month it got worse and worse until I was simply a burrito posing as a human.”
Dunham last week was unable to fly to Los Angeles to participate in the press day and premiere for Camping, explaining at the time that she was still dealing with health issues.
In her latest Instagram post, Dunham addressed critics who argued that her “hysterectomy should have fixed” everything and that she should try various other forms of treatment, which she has, she said.
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While Dunham doesn’t star in Camping, the writer and executive producer did incorporate her own health issues into the lead character of Kathryn, played by Jennifer Garner. Kathryn, it is revealed in the show’s premiere, had a hysterectomy and had both of her ovaries removed. Shortly after Kathryn mentions her past surgeries, Juliette Lewis’ character, Jandice, suggests Kathryn try some nontraditional remedies.
Dunham, who was live-tweeting the premiere Sunday night, posted that Lewis’ character’s comments were also something she’d experienced.
Jandice is every person who has ever told me I could be cured by seeing a French guy for some bullshit!
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) October 15, 2018
In her Wednesday post, Dunham wrote, “A big lesson I’ve learned in all this is that health, like most things, isn’t linear- things improve and things falter and you start living off only cranberry juice from a sippy cup/sleeping on a glorified heating pad but you’re also happier than you’ve been in years. I feel blessed creatively and tickled by my new and improved bellybutton and so so so lucky to have health insurance as well as money for care that is off my plan. But I’m simultaneously shocked by what my body is and isn’t doing for me and red with rage that access to medical care is a privilege and not a right in this country and that women have to work extra hard just to prove what we already know about our own bodies and beg for what we need to be well. It’s humiliating.”
Dunham earlier this year wrote in a Vogue essay that her decision to have a hysterectomy came after “years of complex surgeries measuring in the double digits,” including being hospitalized three times in less than a year.
Read Dunham’s full post about having her ovary removed, below.
