Olivia Munn Reveals Hysterectomy, Freezing Her Eggs After Breast Cancer Diagnosis
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Olivia Munn recently underwent a hysterectomy as she has been battling breast cancer for over a year, she revealed in a magazine profile published over the weekend.
Munn spoke with Vogue magazine regarding the five surgeries she has undergone since she was diagnosed with luminal B breast cancer in both breasts in April 2023. According to Munn, her doctor decided the best course of action was to ensure her body no longer produces estrogen.
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“I have now had an oophorectomy and hysterectomy. I took out my uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries,” the 43-year-old told the magazine. “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 has been partnered with comedian John Mulaney since 2021 and the two share a son, Malcolm.
Munn told the magazine that a test came back positive after a prior genetic screening had come back negative for the breast cancer gene, and multiple mammograms showed no sign of the disease. Luminal B breast cancer is a hormone receptor-positive type that feeds and grows in the presence of estrogen, Munn’s doctor, Thaïs Aliabadi, M.D., told Vogue.
In November, Munn’s oncologist, Dr. Monica Mita, decided to prescribe Lupron, the estrogen-suppressing drug that is the typical course of action, that would purposefully send Munn into menopause. But as Lupron stopped Munn’s ovaries from producing the hormone, it also took a massive toll on her energy levels, she said.
Munn described the experience as “next-level, debilitating exhaustion” that would frequently keep her in bed while she was raising a toddler — so she asked Aliabadi about an alternative. The surgeries, which she underwent in April, meant she would no longer be able to carry children. But as she told Vogue, it was crystal clear to her that it was the right thing to do.
“I had friends try to cheer me up by saying, ‘Malcolm’s not going to remember this. Don’t worry,'” Munn said. “But I just kept thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to remember this, that I missed all these things.’ It’s his childhood, but it’s my motherhood, and I don’t want to miss any of these parts if I don’t have to.”
Munn also shared with writer Margaux Anbouba that she has frozen her eggs three times — at ages 33, 39 and recently at 42, in response to her diagnosis.
“It’s interesting because my 33-year-old eggs were great. My 39-year-old eggs? None of them worked,” she said. “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. 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 her doctor put her on a special cancer protocol for egg retrieval that involved lower doses of hormones. The doctors were able to get seven — three less than their goal in the hope of getting one healthy embryo.
“We got the call from my doctor,” she recalled. “He shared that we had two healthy embryos. John and I just started crying. It was just so exciting because not only did we get it in one retrieval, but it also meant that I didn’t have to keep putting myself at risk. It was just amazing.”
And she’s now changed her outlook about what may come for their family.
“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,” she said of her initial fears of trying to find a surrogate who she felt that she could trust as much as herself. “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.”
This story has been updated to note that Dr. Monica Mita prescribed Munn Lupron.
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