As time goes on, Olivia Munn is becoming more candid about her battle with breast cancer, and this Mother’s Day, she delved into her future of motherhood.
In an interview with Vogue, the 43-year-old actress reveals that she froze her eggs prior to undergoing an oophorectomy and hysterectomy.
Although she had previously disclosed undergoing four surgeries, including a double mastectomy, and undergoing medically induced menopause due to luminal B breast cancer, a type that thrives on estrogen, she now tells Vogue that this treatment with the drug Lupron not only stopped estrogen production in her ovaries, it depleted her energy entirely, forcing her to not be present for her family.
Celebrity
Olivia Munn says breast cancer led her to medically induced menopause
12:06 PM, Apr 18, 2024
She asked her doctors for a different option, but they said surgery was the only alternative to the drug, making it her fifth procedure in her fight against cancer.
“I have now had an oophorectomy and hysterectomy. I took out my uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries,” Munn tells Vogue, adding that the surgery took place last month. “It was a big decision to make, but it was the best decision for me because I needed to be present for my family.”
However, Munn tells Vogue that while she’s not able to carry her own babies, she feels lucky to have options, as before her hysterectomy, she froze her eggs three times at ages 33, 39, and 42.
“It’s interesting because my 33-year-old eggs were great. My 39-year-old eggs? None of them worked. As you get older, one month can have great eggs, the other not so much. Clearly, the month we did at 39 was not a good month. After my diagnosis, we decided to try one more round of egg retrievals and hoped it was a good month,” Munn tells Vogue.
She mentions that during her last procedure, doctors retrieved seven eggs, and out of those, they successfully obtained two healthy embryos.
As she continues her recovery, both physically and mentally, her dedication remains unwavering: to raise awareness about breast cancer and to empower women to embrace alternative options for motherhood without fear.
“A surrogate isn’t a scary prospect to me anymore because there’s nothing I can do. I don’t have the ability to carry a baby anymore, so if we want to build our family, this is our option. This journey has made me realize how grateful I am to have options for not only fighting cancer, but also having more children if we want, because I know a lot of people don’t have those options,” said Munn.
