Oscar Winner, 42, Reveals Devastating Health Struggle

Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o gave an update on her heartbreaking health struggle to help others.

Nyong’o, 42, said that she was diagnosed with 50 uterine fibroids in an interview with Today. Uterine fibroids are growths that, while typically noncancerous, can cause severe pain, difficulty with urination and periods, and fertility problems.

“When you have fibroids, doctors usually use fruit to explain to you what size your fibroids are. So your fibroid could be the size of a grape,” Nyong’o explained.

”My biggest fibroid is the size of an orange,” she added.

The Mexican-born actress skyrocketed to stardom after her breakout performance in Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed historical drama, 12 Years a Slave (2013). She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2014 for her portrayal of Patsey in the film and was diagnosed with uterine fibroids that same year.

“The first time I got the fibroids taken out, they took out 23,” the Black Panther star explained.

The surgery in question is a myomectomy, an operation that removes fibroids without removing the uterus.

Now, 12 years later, Nyong’o voiced hesitation about undergoing the procedure again.

“I’m being faced with the same options: surgery or live with the pain. I haven’t yet chosen the surgery. I’m not ready to make that decision,” she said.

“It’s quite invasive, and a lot of women just get a hysterectomy,” Nyong’o said, adding, “and it’s a big threat to our reproductive organs.”

Hysterectomy is a surgery in which the entire uterus is removed, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Nyong’o told Today that in 2014, before the fibroids were discovered, she suffered from fatigue and pelvic pain once a month, and she was pre-anemic.

Once her period started, she learned that she should “expect to be in pain every month,” she recalled.

“So, when I was experiencing the heavy bleeding, it didn’t sound an alarm. The clotting was not anything remarkable to me. I didn’t understand my body. I didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t know to be worried,” she said.

Now, Nyong’o is partnering with the Foundation of Women’s Health for their Make Fibroids Count campaign.

“I’m excited right now because speaking up has really empowered me,” she told the Today hosts. “I have found community, I have locked arms with women who have been fighting this fight for a long time, and we get to raise this money with this campaign. And have women who are most affected participate in the solution we long to find.”

Nyong’o continued, “Black women have an early onset of fibroids, and they are seven times more likely to have surgical intervention, and they are three times more likely to have hysterectomies. So really, we are more adversely affected, and nobody knows why. Nobody can explain why.”

Nyong’o was accompanied on the show by the founder and executive director of the Foundation of Women’s Health, Katy Brodsky Falco.

Brodsky Falco said that the campaign’s purpose is to help with the urgent need for funds “to come up with better treatments for the 26 million women currently living with fibroids in the United States.”