Lena Dunham recently revealed why she decided to undergo a hysterectomy in hopes of relieving her endometriosis pain. For a disease that affects 176 million women worldwide, according to the Endometriosis Foundation of America, we’re told the measure the 31-year-old chose is not nearly as common as other remedies.
“This is the last line that I use to treat a patient with endometriosis,” Dr. Zaher Merhi, of New Hope Fertility Center in Manhattan, told us on Friday. “I think its going to alleviate some pain but its not going to cure the pain,” he said of the pain that Dunham described as “unbearable” in Vogue where she wrote her first-person account.
Endometriosis occurs when the tissue that lines the uterus grows outside of the uterus instead of inside, according to the foundation’s website, which also notes the cause of the disease in unknown.
Merhi — who has not treated Dunham — said Dunham’s decision to not have her ovaries removed, so she can potentially have biological children, was surprising because ovaries are a direct cause of the disease’s pain.
“Endometriosis can be all over the abdomen so if the ovaries are still there and a woman is cycling than that can cause pain, so the ideal treatment would be to take out everything,” he said. “The ovaries are what make endometriosis get worse every month,” he added.
However, since Dunham decided to keep her ovaries, Merhi recommends that she freezes her eggs immediately.
“If she does not want to have children right now, I highly recommend she freezes her eggs because endometriosis makes the quality of the eggs worse every year, because it’s an inflammation.”
Dunham wrote that her next step after her recovery would be to see if she had eggs left to freeze, and if not, she will happily look into adoption.
“Soon I’ll start exploring whether my ovaries, which remain someplace inside me in that vast cavern of organs and scar tissue, have eggs,” she said. “Adoption is a thrilling truth I’ll pursue with all my might. ”
Common ways to alleviate endometriosis pain include birth control pills to keep hormones constant. “They help tremendously,” Merhi said, adding said Motrin or Ibuprofen can manage the pain along with dietary changes such as cutting out alcohol, caffeine and any foods with inflammatory characteristics.
The HBO star also tried other means of pain management in the months leading up to what would be her ninth procedure.
“From August to November I try desperately to manage this new level of pain. I try so hard it becomes a second job. I go to pelvic-floor therapy, massage therapy, pain therapy, color therapy, acupuncture, yoga, and a brief yet horrifying foray into vaginal massage from a stranger,” she recalled.
As for the long-lasting effect of the actress’ now high-profile procedure, Merhi expressed concern that more women who suffer from endometriosis will assume that a hysterectomy is the go-to cure.
“Personally, I wouldn’t have taken her uterus out,” he said of Dunham’s surgery. “It’s a big decision to make for endometriosis … It’s really not [a quick fix],” he said.
Dunham acknowledged in her article that both she and her doctor did not take the procedure lightly.
“My sobbing could easily be seen as doubt and reverse it all,” she said, later adding, “I try to absorb the gravity of the moment—at least a dozen people dressed in blue scrubs with face masks, the fact that I could run right now but instead I am choosing to stay, choosing this. I have to admit I am really choosing this—I gave up on more treatment.”
Now months into her recovery, she concludes that despite a limp as a result of a pinched nerve, she is “healing like a champ.”