Lena Dunham has questioned what motherhood will look like for her after undergoing a total hysterectomy in 2018.
The 36-year-old explained how she was pushed to explore the topic for her upcoming role in comedy-drama Sharp Stick, which sees her portray a pregnant woman.
The Girls star and creator underwent the life-altering procedure four years ago to remove her uterus and cervix after enduring years of endometriosis-related pain.
And now Dunham has revealed how her new movie helped her to reflect on the meaning of motherhood as the star admitted she’s at a time in her life where there are “babies everywhere.”
Speaking to WSJ Magazine, the actress, who married musician Luis Felber in 2021, shared: “I think the movie was a lot about motherhood and the different shapes motherhood could take and the questions I was asking myself about that.
“What is motherhood going to look like for me? What are my feelings about what motherhood’s supposed to look like versus what motherhood actually looks like?’
“I’m firmly in that moment in my life where there are babies, babies everywhere. So it was an exciting chance to ask myself some of those questions, while also having the kind of distance that comes from asking them through characters.”
Dunham’s upcoming feature, Sharp Stick, sees her portray a pregnant wife whose husband is tangled in an affair with his “naïve” female employee who is “living on the fringes of Hollywood”.
The Once Upon A Time in Hollywood star has previously opened up about her decision to undergo a total hysterectomy.
At the time, she wrote in an article for Vogue that she opted for the procedure after “years of complex surgeries measuring in the double digits” and after attempts at “pelvic floor therapy, massage therapy, pain therapy, colour therapy, acupuncture” were unsuccessful.
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue that behaves like the lining of the womb is found in other parts of the body.
During her hysterectomy doctors discovered that Dunham had other medical issues that were causing her pain.
The US actress wrote: “In addition to endometrial disease, an odd hump-like protrusion and a septum running down the middle, I have retrograde bleeding, a.k.a. my period running in reverse so that my stomach is full of blood.
“My ovary has settled in on the muscles around the sacral nerves in my back that allow us to walk.
“Let’s please not even talk about my uterine lining. The only beautiful detail is that the organ — which is meant to be shaped like a light bulb — was shaped like a heart.”
Dunham had thought she was “disease-free” in April 2017 after her fifth surgery to move her ovaries away from her rectal wall.
She announced the news in her Lenny newsletter, however, she was hospitalised just a month later and had to cancel her tour.
Although Dunham is now unable to carry a child, she has previously revealed that she wants to explore her options for having children.
Speaking about the different avenues she said: “I may have felt choiceless before, but I know I have choices now.
“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.”
