Lena Dunham's Health Issues Mean She Will Never Be Able to Biologically Carry a Child

Lena Dunham is a very accomplished (although, sometimes controversial) woman. The Girls creator and actress has gone on to publish the New York Times bestseller Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned." She also released her own plus-size fashion collection.

However, while Lena appears to be doing well in the public, behind closed doors, she continues to deal with a series of medical complications. Here's what we know about Lena Dunham's current health.

In 2019, Lena shared a photo of herself on Instagram in which she is seen wearing a nightgown while gripping a cane. "I could choose to be embarrassed by these paparazzi pics. I mean, that’s probably the point of someone publishing them in the first place. But I’m really not," she wrote alongside the photo. The Girls star then explained that she was in the middle of an Ehler-Danlos syndrome flare and needed a cane to support her.

According to the Ehlers-Danlos Society, Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) are a group of hereditary disorders of connective tissue that are varied in the ways they affect the body and in their genetic causes. They are generally characterized by joint deformities, skin hyperextensibility, abnormal scarring, and other structural weaknesses.

While the photo showed a sick-looking Lena in a nightgown en route to a doctor's appointment, Lena explained that an hour later she was in professional attire and back to work. "That’s the two-fold life of a woman with chronic illness; we still rock our dreams and goals and passions (and fashions) and we live many lives in one day," she wrote.

In April 2021, Lena appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show where she further opened up about her health struggles. This time, she addressed another disorder she had been grappling with: endometriosis. According to Medline Plus, when a woman has endometriosis, the tissue or lining of her uterus grows in different parts of her body. This may cause pain, infertility, and very heavy periods.

For Lena, juggling endometriosis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, as well as another autoimmune disease she mentioned but did not elaborate on, was becoming too much of a burden on her body. In order to alleviate some of her pain, she made the decision to have a hysterectomy, as well as have one of her ovaries removed at age 31.

Lena, now 35, explained that her decision was "terrifying, not just because it was a massive surgery but because I really want to be a mom and had always thought that I was going to do it in the traditional way."

In Sept. 2021, Lena married Luis Felber. While it's unknown if they plan to start a family, Lena will not be able to biologically carry a child. She further opened up about this feeling in her essay for Harper's Bazaar titled "False Labor: Giving up on Motherhood."

For future health updates on Lena, you can follow her on Instagram, where she is usually refreshingly open and honest with fans. In the meantime, we wish her all the best!