In March, Olivia Munn revealed that she had been battling an aggressive form of breast cancer and had undergone four surgeries as part of her treatment. In an interview with Vogue published on Mother’s Day, the actress said that last month she underwent a fifth surgery: a hysterectomy.
“I have now had an oophorectomy and hysterectomy,” she said. “I took out my uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries.” Of the choice to have the surgery, she said, “It was a big decision to make, but it was the best decision for me because I needed to be present for my family.”
Munn said the hysterectomy was an alternative to continuing to take Lupron, an estrogen-suppressing drug that drained her of her energy. The medication caused “next-level, debilitating exhaustion,” she explained, adding that while on it she would wake up in the morning and “almost immediately” need to get back into bed. One of the hardest parts, Munn said, was that Malcolm, her 2-year-old son with John Mulaney, noticed the drop in her energy. “If you asked Malcolm, ‘Where does Daddy work?’ He’d run to his desk, and if you asked him, ‘Where does mommy work?’ He’d point to my bed. It was so sweet. But at the same time, it was breaking my heart because this is his image of me.”
When Munn shared her diagnosis in March, she said that she’d had a full double mastectomy, and three other surgeries. She told Vogue that she’d also had a lymph-node dissection, reconstructive surgery, and a nipple delay. Munn also revealed that she has frozen her eggs three times — when she was 33, when she was 39, and again at 42, in light of her cancer diagnosis. “John and I talked about it a lot and we don’t feel like we’re done growing our family but didn’t know if I would have to do chemotherapy or radiation,” she said. Munn said that apart from “one real moment of panic” following the hysterectomy, she’s relieved to be able to start feeling normal again. On Instagram on Sunday, she described the hysterectomy as her “fifth, and hopefully, final surgery in [her] battle against breast cancer.”
