Oscar winning actor says she has to have ‘surgery or live with the pain’
Lupita Nyong’o has opened up about living with uterine fibroids and her hesitance to undergo surgery again to have them removed.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Today show, the Oscar-winning actor, 43, opened up about her diagnosis of 50 uterine fibroids, which are common growths on the uterus.
“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 said. “My biggest fibroid is the size of an orange.”
The Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave actor explained that before her fibroids were discovered, she regularly experienced pelvic pain and fatigue. Once her period started, she was told to “expect to be in pain every month.”
“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.
Following her 2014 Oscar win for her role of Patsey, Nyong’o was diagnosed with fibroids. She had surgery — a myomectomy — to remove them for the first time when she was 23.
Currently, the actor is debating whether she wants to undergo the procedure again to remove the new growths.
“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,” she added, referencing the common surgery that removes the entire uterus.
This is not the first time Nyong’o has spoken about her experience with the condition. In July 2025, she shared an Instagram post in honor of Fibroid Awareness Month.
The star told fans she had surgery to remove 30 fibroids, but was told by doctors, “It’s only a matter of time until they grow again.”
Nyong’o noted that while some people with fibroids experience no symptoms at all, others are faced with “debilitating side effects” including “heavy menstrual bleeding and anaemia, pelvic pain, frequent urination, and complications with pregnancy.”
She added that “eight out of 10 Black women” and “seven out of 10 white women” experience fibroids at some point in their lifetime.
Despite how common the condition is, Nyong’o said society doesn’t speak enough about it or women’s reproductive health more generally.
“When we reach puberty, we’re taught that periods mean pain, and that pain is simply part of being a woman,” she wrote. “I started talking about my experience privately, and I realized so many women are going through this. We’re struggling alone with something that affects most of us. No more suffering in silence!”
Nyong’o argued that it is vital that we “stop treating this massive issue like a series of unfortunate coincidences” and “reject the normalization of female pain.”
