by Jeroslyn JoVonn

July 16, 2025

Lupita Nyong’o steps up her advocacy with bold action for uterine fibroid research.

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Lupita Nyong’o is honoring Fibroid Awareness Month by sharing her personal experience with the chronic health condition and taking action through congressional bills and a research grant.

The Black Panther star got candid in a July 15 Instagram post that highlighted the Academy Award she won in 2014, the same year she learned she had uterine fibroids. In a series of captioned photos, Nyong’o shared the surgery she had to remove 30 fibroids from her uterus that her doctor told her was “only a matter of time” before they grew back.

Nyong’o wrote: “8 out of 10 Black women and 7 out of 10 white women will experience fibroids. Yet we speak so little of them.”

With uterine fibroids impacting 80% of Black women and 70% of white women by age 50, Nyong’o stresses the importance of raising awareness on this issue to stop normalizing the pain women endure during menstruation.

“When we reach puberty, we’re taught that periods mean pain, and that pain is simply part of being a woman,” the actress wrote.

But after sharing her experience with other women over the years, Nyong’o realized many were enduring the same battle, but “struggling alone.”

“We’re struggling alone with something that affects most of us,” she wrote. “No more suffering in silence!”

The experience pushed Nyong’o to take meaningful action, partnering with members of Congress to introduce legislation aimed at expanding research funding, improving early detection and treatment of uterine fibroids, and raising public awareness. The US star also teamed up with the Foundation for Women’s Health to launch the FWH x Lupita Nyong’o Uterine Fibroid Research Grant, which aims to “develop minimally invasive or non-invasive treatments for uterine fibroids to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life for the 15 million patients suffering from this chronic condition in the U.S. alone.”

“This Fibroid Awareness Month and beyond, I hope my experience will resonate with anyone else who has ever felt dismissed, confused, or alone,” she wrote. “And I hope to seek answers for the far too many women dealing with uterine fibroids (80% of Black women and 70% of white women by age 50!). We deserve better. It’s time to demand it. Silence serves no one!”

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