Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o has publicly shared her personal battle with uterine fibroids, a condition that affects millions of women — especially Black women — but is too often overlooked or dismissed.
In an intense Instagram post, the 42-year-old actress revealed that she underwent surgery to remove 30 fibroids and announced the launch of a groundbreaking research grant aimed at transforming the way the condition is treated.
Nyong’o, who won an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave in 2014, the same year she was first diagnosed, said she had long suffered in silence.
“We’re struggling alone with something that affects most of us,” she wrote. “No more suffering in silence!”
Uterine fibroids are benign tumors that grow in or on the uterus. Though not cancerous, they can cause severe pain, heavy menstrual bleeding, bladder issues, and other life-altering symptoms.
According to NYU Langone Health, an estimated 15 million people in the U.S. are affected by this chronic condition.
“When we reach puberty, we’re taught that periods mean pain, and that pain is simply part of being a woman,” Nyong’o reflected. “We must reject the normalization of female pain.”
The Black Panther and A Quiet Place: Day One star is now taking action to ensure other women don’t feel as isolated as she did. Partnering with the Foundation for Women’s Health, Nyong’o has launched the FWH x Lupita Nyong’o Uterine Fibroid Research Grant, which will fund efforts to develop less invasive and more effective treatments.
The initiative prioritizes early education, better screening protocols, and the search for minimally or non-invasive solutions to manage fibroids.
“Eight out of 10 Black women and seven out of 10 white women will experience fibroids,” Nyong’o noted in her post. “Yet we speak so little of them.”
Her advocacy doesn’t end online. On July 15, Nyong’o joined lawmakers on Capitol Hill to introduce legislation that would increase federal support for fibroid research.
Current treatment options include myomectomy (surgical removal of fibroids), hysterectomy (removal of the uterus), cryotherapy (freezing), radiofrequency ablation, and medications, many of which carry serious risks or result in infertility.
“I hope my experience will resonate with anyone else who has ever felt dismissed, confused or alone,” she wrote. “We deserve better. It’s time to demand it. Silence serves no one!”
With this latest move, Nyong’o continues to use her platform to challenge stigma, push for scientific progress, and empower millions of women who, like her, refuse to accept pain as a normal part of womanhood.
