Lena Dunham opens up about heartbreaking IVF attempt as it ‘destroyed’ her body

Lena Dunham has opened up about her heartbreaking IVF journey.

The actress, 34, was left with no choice but to explore other avenues of motherhood other than falling pregnant and giving birth by traditional methods.

This was because Lena was forced to have her cervix, uterus and one ovary removed at the age of 31 due to chronic endometriosis.

Turning to IVF, the star received the heartbreaking news back in May that her attempt was ill-fated.

Describing her emotional experience in an essay in Harper’s mag, Lena penned: “I learned that none of my eggs were viable on Memorial Day, in the midst of a global pandemic.”

“We were unable to fertilise any of the eggs’,” she recalled her doctor telling her over the phone.

Her doc said: “‘As you know, we had six. Five did not take. The one that did seems to have chromosomal issues and ultimately…’

“He trailed off as I tried to picture it — the dark room, the glowing dish, the sperm meeting my dusty eggs so violently that they combusted. It was hard to understand that they were gone.”

And after learning to accept the harsh reality of the fact IVF is not for her, Lena has now opened up about what the future looks like for her when it comes to being a mother.

She told People : “This journey has forced me to rethink what motherhood will look like.”

Lena admitted that the process has completely “destroyed” her body after going through such “excruciating pain”.

She explained: “IVF destroyed my body — as a woman who tends towards rampant endometriosis, filling my body with oestrogen… and because of what my body has been through, subjecting it to such excruciating pain, only to come to the end and learn those eggs were not viable after working so hard through illness and discomfort and going through anxiety and depression, it is just clearly not something I can ever repeat.”

“I think women often have a keen instinct about what is happening with their own bodies — and I had an instinct that it probably wouldn’t work.”

But despite her ill-fated attempt at IVF, Lena is not planning on giving up hope on becoming a mother just yet.

“I had hopes it would, but to be honest, I’d already made my peace about becoming an adoptive mother. But then when everyone got so excited about there being this possibility that my one ovary could produce eggs, and with IVF and surrogacy, I could maybe still have a biological child, it pulled me away from what I think I already instinctively knew,” she said.

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