Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o is known for her bold roles and effortless grace, but behind the red carpets and movie sets, she’s been fighting a deeply personal health battle: uterine fibroids.
In a raw and heartfelt series of Instagram posts, Lupita opened up about being diagnosed with fibroids back in 2014—the same year she won her Academy Award. Doctors found 30 fibroids in her uterus, and she had to undergo surgery.
But what hit her hardest? Being told they could come back—and that there wasn’t much she could do to stop it.
“Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous growths that can cause heavy bleeding, intense cramps, pelvic pain, and sometimes even affect pregnancy,” she shared. “Some women don’t feel a thing—but for others, it’s debilitating.”
Lupita didn’t speak up at first. But when she finally started opening up to close friends and other women, she realized just how many were silently suffering.
“We should stop treating this massive issue like a series of unfortunate coincidences,” she wrote. “We must reject the normalization of female pain.”
Here’s the real shocker: 8 in 10 Black women and 7 in 10 white women will develop fibroids at some point. Yet most of us don’t even know what they are until we’re already in pain.
Now, Lupita’s using her voice to change that.
She recently joined lawmakers in Washington, D.C., pushing for more research, better education, and less invasive treatments through a new legislative push. And she’s not stopping there—she’s launched the Lupita Nyong’o Uterine Fibroid Research Grant, in partnership with the Foundation for Women’s Health.
The goal? To fund research into treatments that actually work and improve women’s lives.
Her mission is simple but powerful: get people talking, stop the silence, and demand better. Whether that’s in school, at the doctor’s office, or over lunch with friends—this conversation matters.
Lupita’s courage is a reminder that being vulnerable is powerful. And for the millions of women dealing with fibroids, her honesty is a game-changer.
So let’s keep the conversation going—because women’s health should never be an afterthought.