Lifestyle

HOLLYWOOD'S SECRET

Marilyn Monroe Doc Shines Light on Her Hidden Health Battle

The legendary blonde quietly suffered from a debilitating condition for decades.

Tamilore OshikanluBreaking News Intern

PublishedJun 4, 2026, 5:58 PM EDT

UpdatedJun 4, 2026, 8:30 PM EDT

Updated Jun 4, 2026, 8:30 PM EDTPublished Jun 4, 2026, 5:58 PM EDT

Comments

A new documentary is using Marilyn Monroe’s hidden health struggles to spotlight a disease that still leaves millions of women fighting for answers decades later.

End of the Cycle, a documentary about endometriosis, sheds new light on Marilyn Monroe’s private battle with the condition, which her biographer Anthony Summers said was so severe that it “destroyed her marriages, her wish for children, her career and ultimately her life.”

The documentary follows co-director Sammy Jaye, who also suffers from endometriosis, a disease estimated to affect more than 265 million women globally.

“The way she’s been portrayed all these years has not been accurate,” Jaye said during a screening of the documentary at New York City’s Whitby Hotel. “If anyone mentions Marilyn Monroe in a negative way, you can revert back to this and know what she was going through at a time when she couldn’t have said anything, and there wasn’t social media.”

Summers, who authored the 1985 biography Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, confirmed the actress’ diagnosis with the help of her physician while researching the book.

Looking back decades later, he admitted he initially underestimated the extent to which the disease shaped Monroe’s life.

GETTING ANSWERS

Steve Irwin’s Daughter Details 10-Year Chronic Illness Fight

Roosa Rahkonen

“I had no notion of its real significance to her entire adult life,” Summers said in the documentary. “From the age of 16, when she first married, she had significant pain.”

Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, often causing chronic pelvic pain, inflammation, painful periods, gastrointestinal symptoms, and infertility.

With no cure, current treatments largely focus on symptom management through hormonal birth control, hormone-suppressing medications, pain relievers, and surgery to remove endometrial lesions.

Monroe’s first husband, Jim Dougherty, recalled the extent of her suffering while speaking to Summers.

“Norma Jeane had so much trouble during her menstrual periods the pain would just about knock her out,” Dougherty told Summers. “Marilyn would sometimes say, ‘Stop the car,’ and she would lie on the grass verge beside the road writhing in pain.”

In an audio recording featured in the documentary, Monroe’s close friend Amy Greene described witnessing the actress’ agony firsthand. “It was like her whole womb was crying,” Greene said in the 1982 tape.

The pain became so severe that Greene accompanied the frightened star to a gynecologist appointment. According to Greene, the doctor suggested she undergo a hysterectomy if Monroe’s symptoms were so unbearable—a plan that the actress immediately rejected.

Play Video

“No, I want to have children,” Greene recalled Monroe replying, “That’s why I have to go through all this pain.”

In another archival recording, photographer and close friend Milton Greene said Monroe wanted children “more than anything in the world,” describing the star as “excellent” with children and someone who “understood them better than any mother I’ve known.”

The documentary also highlights a deeply personal note Monroe wrote to her doctor before a 1952 appendectomy. Although the surgery had nothing to do with her reproductive organs, Monroe anxiously begged physicians not to remove her ovaries.

“I know it seems vain…the fact that I’m a woman is important and means much to me,” Monroe continued. “For God’s sake, Dear Doctor, no ovaries removed.”

With few options beyond repeated recommendations for hysterectomies, Monroe relied heavily on medication to cope with her symptoms.

“It’s very striking to me to know the extent to which she was medicated all the time,” Summers said. “No less than 14 boxes of pills, almost all were painkillers prescribed for menstrual cramps.”

For Jaye, Monroe’s story is also a reminder of how little progress many patients feel has been made.

“You look at what has and hasn’t changed over the past 100 years with treatments and medicines … not much has changed,” she said while reflecting on what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday.

Despite affecting millions of women worldwide, endometriosis received about $28 million in NIH funding in 2024—less than some comparable reproductive health conditions, including Crohn’s disease, which received roughly $90 million.

The condition’s impact also extends beyond physical symptoms. Research has found that people with endometriosis face elevated risks of anxiety, depression, and self-harm.

Tamilore OshikanluBreaking News Intern

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast.