Lena Dunham has shared a photo of herself in hospital just three days after revealing she underwent a hysterectomy.
Alongside an image of herself sitting on a hospital bed, the 31 year old wrote a message of gratitude to all her fans.
Your body failing you is a loss that’s hard to explain and yet the amount of messages I’ve gotten from women in a similar predicament has been so overwhelming, loving and heartening,” the Girls star wrote.
“More than 60 million women in America are living with hysterectomies and those of you who’ve shared your plight and perseverance make me feel so honored to be in your company,” she continued.
“Thank you to the village of women who took care of me through this entire process. I have a broken heart and I hear those don’t mend overnight, but we are linked forever by this experience and our refusal to let it hold any of us back from even the grandest dreams.”
News of Lena’s shock surgery broke via an essay she wrote for the March 2018 of Vogue about having her uterus and cervix removed last year in an attempt to end her pain from endometriosis, a condition that can cause pelvic discomfort, fertility issues and heavy bleeding during menstrual cycles.
Lena, who split from her boyfriend of five years, Jack Antonoff last Decemeber, said she can no longer carry a child of her own, but is still hopeful that she will become a mother one day.
“I may have felt choiceless before, but I know I have choices now,” she wrote. “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.”
This article originally appeared on New Idea.
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