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'no one can live like that'

‘Girls’ Star Opens Up About Painful Procedure That Changed Her Life

The actress says undergoing the surgery wasn’t “really a choice.”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedApr 16, 2026, 4:43 PM EDT

UpdatedApr 16, 2026, 4:43 PM EDT

Updated Apr 16, 2026, 4:43 PM EDTPublished Apr 16, 2026, 4:43 PM EDT

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On Wednesday, Lena Dunham, 39, discussed her total hysterectomy on “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle.”

After years of severe endometriosis pain, the Girls actress and creator underwent the invasive procedure to remove her uterus at 31.

“It’s interesting because the framing is that you make a choice to do this, but if you’re in pain 24 hours a day, it isn’t really a choice, because no one can live like that,” she said.

Endometriosis is a condition in which uterine lining-like tissue grows outside the uterus. It can cause symptoms such as extreme pelvic pain, severe menstrual cramps, chronic fatigue, and, in some cases, infertility.

Endometriosis affects approximately one in 10 women, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

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In her new book, Famesick: A Memoir, Dunham wrote that prior to her hysterectomy, she had tried to manage her pain with different methods, from birth control to hormone suppressants and surgeries.

During one procedure, her doctor removed 37 endometriosis lesions from her bladder, liver, abdominal wall, and spine.

According to Dunham, the doctor wondered how she had even been able to walk with the pain.

In the interview, Dunham said the final impetus for undergoing a hysterectomy came from her mother.

After Dunham spoke at a work event at the Metrograph theater in New York, her mother knowingly looked at her and said, “You can’t take it anymore.”

“It was beautiful,” Dunham recalled. “I had her with me and had her full support.”

Unfortunately, getting a doctor to agree to the procedure for a patient as young as Dunham proved challenging.

While legal consent is age 18+, many surgeons are apprehensive about performing the procedure on patients who are still considered to be in their childbearing years.

In her memoir, she wrote that she and her mother had to really push the medical staff to understand how seriously she needed the hysterectomy due to debilitating pain.

In 2018, at 31, Dunham revealed she had undergone the surgery in an essay for Vogue.

Dunham revealed that while she had dreams of pregnancy, the pain grew too unbearable.

“In the moment, my pain was so overriding that I put those other thoughts aside, and it was only in the aftermath of the surgery that I started to feel the weight of what had happened,” she said in the interview.

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Now, she’s excited about the idea of starting a family another way.

“The amazing thing is, since then, I have met so many people who built their families in so many different ways,” she said, adding, “whatever way it happens, I will feel so grateful.”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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