Lena Dunham Gives Health Update Amid Endometriosis Recovery: 'I've Been Treating Myself Like a Delicate Flower'

Lena Dunham at the Blossom Ball on Tuesday. (Photo: Getty Images)

Lena Dunham is talking about her battle with endometriosis and her recovery, which she first revealed via a Lenny Letter post in November last year.

After being taken to the hospital and undergoing surgery in March, the Girls star and creator is happy to share that she is doing much better.

“I feel great. I feel really alive,” Dunham, 29, told PEOPLE at the 8th annual Blossom Ball organized by the Endometriosis Foundation of America on Tuesday.

“I feel the general itchiness and strangeness that I always feel when I get dressed up for an event. But that’s all,” she joked about the disorder – which causes the lining of the uterus to grow outside of the uterus.

“I got much more rest time than the average woman with endo would probably be permitted, considering my job. I have been treating myself like a delicate, delicate flower.”

Dunham, who was honored with the Blossom Award, is set to film for season 6 of the hit HBO series in the coming weeks. But before she was directing the first two episodes of the final season, she took a much needed (and rare) pause from her many platforms.

“I did have a health crisis in February and March, but what was so amazing was that my jobs allowed me to rest and binge watch Kimmy Schmidt and lay with a hot water bottle, and do what it is I want to do,” she said. “And that’s not the case for so many women who have this disease.”

Amid her painful struggle, Dunham has continued to lean on her mentor Padma Lakshmi, who founded the EFA.

“Padma has been amazing. Padma reached out the minute that she learned I’d been diagnosed. And when I went public with it in my book,” Dunham shared with PEOPLE. “And she has lead me to all kinds of resources and knowledge and given me a better understanding of the community of women who are suffering with this illness. I feel very, very blessed to know her.”

As Dunham lends her voice to raise awareness for endometriosis, she understands that every woman’s battle is different.

“Every single woman’s methods for getting better are different. So what works for one woman may absolutely not for another,” she said. “Obviously, excision surgery like what I’ve had twice and what Dr. Seckin [he founded EFA with Lakshmi] does is really effective. But it’s something many women will have to battle with for their whole reproductive lives. And so, even though I’ve had these challenging moments, I feel lucky that I had the resources to handle them and smart people around me.”