The Oscar-winning actress is back in the spotlight—not for a role, but for a raw, personal battle with uterine fibroids that millions of women, especially Black women, know all too well.

Lupita Nyong’o has built a career on commanding attention—but the story she’s telling now may be the most important one yet. The Academy Award-winning actress recently sat down with Today to speak openly about her ongoing battle with uterine fibroids, a condition she first disclosed publicly after revealing she underwent a myomectomy to remove 30 fibroids shortly after her Oscar win in 2014. More than a decade later, the fibroids have returned—this time, 50 of them.

Her decision to speak out is more than a celebrity disclosure. It is a rallying cry for the millions of women navigating a condition that remains chronically underfunded, misunderstood, and, for far too many, silently endured.

What Are Uterine Fibroids?

Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths that develop in or on the wall of the uterus. According to the Mayo Clinic, they are among the most common reproductive health issues affecting women of childbearing age. Fibroids range widely in size—some no larger than a seed, others growing to the size of a grapefruit or beyond. While they carry no cancer risk, their impact can be significant: heavy menstrual bleeding, pelvic pain, frequent urination, and complications during pregnancy are among the most commonly reported effects.

Statistics underscore just how widespread the condition is. Research suggests approximately 80 percent of women will develop fibroids by age 50—yet awareness remains low, and treatment options remain limited.

Nyong’o’s Proactive Approach to a Recurring Condition

When Nyong’o first received her diagnosis, she did what many women with access to quality healthcare might do: she sought answers. She asked her doctor about prevention. The response, she recalled, was blunt and discouraging—recurrence, she was told, was essentially inevitable. That stark reality has played out in her own life.

Rather than retreat into silence, Nyong’o has leaned forward. She spoke candidly with host Hoda Kotb about the shame and isolation that often accompany a fibroid diagnosis—emotions that, she emphasized, are not only common but also deeply unnecessary. Her message is clear: the physical pain is real, but so is the emotional weight, and both deserve to be addressed.

The Truth About Fibroid Recurrence—and a Troubling Racial Disparity

Nyong’o’s experience is not unusual. Research published in the journal PLoS One found that between 15 and 33 percent of women who undergo a myomectomy experience a recurrence within two years. But the numbers become even more striking when examined through a racial lens.

According to the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Black women face a recurrence rate of 44 percent following a myomectomy, compared to 28 percent for non-Hispanic white women. That gap is not incidental—it reflects systemic inequities in medical research, access to care, and the historical underrepresentation of Black women in clinical studies. Nyong’o’s visibility as a prominent Black woman speaking openly about fibroids places that disparity in unavoidable focus.

Nyong’o’s Advice for Women Facing Fibroids

During her conversation with Kotb, Nyong’o offered two direct recommendations for women navigating a fibroid diagnosis:

• Get a second opinion. It is essential for women to seek multiple medical perspectives before committing to any course of treatment.
• Do not accept a hysterectomy as the first resort. Major surgery should be a last option, not a default—and women deserve the time and support to explore every alternative available to them.

Beyond personal advice, Nyong’o is putting her platform behind action. She is actively fundraising through the MakeFibroidsCount campaign, an initiative dedicated to developing less invasive treatment options and driving the kind of research the medical community has long deprioritized. Her advocacy is both deeply personal and pointedly political.

A Larger Reckoning for Women’s Health

What makes Nyong’o’s disclosure so powerful is its timing. Women’s reproductive health continues to be a charged and contested space, and conditions like fibroids—which disproportionately burden Black women—have historically received a fraction of the research funding directed toward comparable conditions affecting other demographics.

Her willingness to describe the emotional dimensions of living with fibroids—the shame, the loneliness, the sense that one’s body is working against them—breaks a silence that has persisted far too long. For women who have endured the same experience in private, Nyong’o’s openness can feel like permission: to speak, to push back, to demand better.

Resources on uterine fibroids are available through the Mayo Clinic, PLoS One, and the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology for those seeking more information about diagnosis, treatment, and current research.