“Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o is using her voice to spotlight a common yet overlooked women’s health issue—uterine fibroids. In an emotional testimony before the Congressional Black Caucus in July, Nyong’o publicly shared her personal, decade-long struggle with fibroids for the first time.
Nyong’o revealed she was diagnosed in 2014—the same year she won an Oscar—with 30 fibroids. While the world celebrated her achievements, she said, she was quietly battling a condition she knew little about. “So while the world was celebrating my achievement with me, I was privately contending with a threat to my reproductive system—a threat I never saw coming,” she said.
Fibroids are non-cancerous growths in the uterus that can cause heavy bleeding, severe pelvic pain, infertility, and in many cases, lead to hysterectomy. The condition affects up to 80% of Black women and nearly 70% of all women by age 50, yet research, education, and treatment options remain limited.
“We need to stop treating this massive issue like a series of unfortunate coincidences,” Nyong’o said in a powerful Instagram post that garnered over 250,000 likes. “We must reject the normalization of female pain.”
Alongside her testimony, Nyong’o announced a $200,000 research grant in partnership with the Foundation for Women’s Health to fund better detection and treatment options. “The norm cannot be a hysterectomy,” she said. “Transformation begins with understanding, and understanding requires research. So let’s start researching some female bodies.”
Her advocacy supports the reintroduction of the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Uterine Fibroids Research and Education Act, led by Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The bill would allocate $150 million over five years to the National Institutes of Health for fibroids research and awareness, as well as medical training to improve diagnosis and treatment.
“This is a crisis of medical misinformation, confusion, and self-doubt,” said Clarke. “It is a crisis of intentional neglect and limited resources.”
Advocates say progress has been slow despite fibroids being the most common gynecologic condition in the U.S. “It’s far past time that we solve this public health crisis,” said Sateria Venable, founder of the Fibroid Foundation.
Lawmakers and advocates hope that Nyong’o’s courage to speak out will inspire more awareness and urgency around this issue. Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio), who has also experienced fibroids, added, “It’s time to break the silence.”
By sharing her story, Nyong’o is helping to give Black women—and all women—permission to speak loudly and demand better when it comes to their health. “No more suffering in silence,” she said.