Lena Dunham is commemorating the nine-month anniversary of her total hysterectomy surgery in a very body-positive way.
“I’ve never celebrated the 9 month anniversary of anything and I realized last night why that number feels so funny ― I won’t ever do it the way I planned to,” the actress wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday.
Dunham, 32, chose to surgically remove her uterus and cervix in 2017 after years of publicly battling endometriosis. Endometriosis, which affects about 176 million women worldwide, occurs when endometrial tissue (that normally lines the inside of the uterus) grows in and on other organs.
The “Girls” creator marked the anniversary by celebrating her body and her uterus, aptly dubbed “Judy,” with a few naked photos.
“My body is mostly healed and every day I find a new bruise on my heart, but today I offer myself gratitude: from the most pained place, I somehow knew to choose myself,” she wrote. “The purest glint of who we are and know we can be is always available to us, calm and true at our center.”
Dunham summed up her post by thanking her body and Judy: “Today I give thanks for Judy, for her graceful exit and for this body, which is stronger than I’ve ever given it credit for. Happy Giving Birth To Myself Day.”
The actress, who has spoken openly about her endometriosis over the years, told Vogue in February that she chose to undergo a hysterectomy following “years of complex surgeries measuring in the double digits.” Last year, Dunham announced she was “endometriosis-free” after undergoing a surgery to move her ovaries away from her rectal wall. Unfortunately, a few weeks later she suffered complications and doctors discovered the disease in other spots in her body.
“So many people who suffer will never have the resources I’ve had,” Dunham said last April. “My job is to educate people, to try to change the pathetic lack of resources for endometriosis, but it’s also to seize this gift. I’ll be more useful that way.”
