Lena Dunham's 'brutal' journey to motherhood after endometriosis battle and failed IVF cycle ended her 'dream' of carrying a child - as Girls star, 40, welcomes a baby via surrogate

For Lena Dunham, carrying a child had always been her 'dream'.But tragically, this opportunity was quickly snatched away from her amid a 'brutal' endometriosis battle that led to a failed IVF cycle and a hysterectomy.Still, she found a way to grow her family, and on Wednesday, the Girls star and her husband Luis Felber announced they had welcomed a baby girl via surrogate.While it was perhaps not the way she had long 'dreamed' of, the actress said she was still 'dizzy with joy'.The birth followed years of uncertainty about whether the 40-year-old would become a parent. She has long been plagued with gynaecological woes, having been forced to take a career hiatus in 2016 after going through a 'rough patch' with endometriosis - a long-term condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside the uterusUp to one in 10 women in the UK suffer from the condition, which causes severe pain, exhaustion and can lead to infertility. Lena Dunham's 'brutal' journey to motherhood after endometriosis battle and failed IVF cycle ended her 'dream' of carrying a child - as Girls star, 40, welcomes a baby via surrogate Now, she and husband Luis Felber have welcomed their first child via surrogate, which she announced in an op-ed for Vogue published on Wednesday (pictured in 2022) 'I am currently going through a rough patch with the illness and my body (along with my amazing doctors) let me know, in no uncertain terms, that it's time to rest,' she said in an Instagram post at the time.'I'm lucky enough to have support and backup from Jenni, Judd and the whole Girls gang. So many women with this disease literally don't have the option of time off and I won't take it for granted.'At the time she was with singer Jack Antonoff, whom she had been dating since 2012, but had made it clear to him that 'If fertility ends up being a challenge for me, I'm not gonna be the person who spends six years in IVF.''It's not important to me, really at all, that the child belonged to Jack and me on a genetic level,' Lena told PAPER magazine.As time went on, the pain became unbearable, and she was admitted to hospital three times in less than a year.In an attempt to rid herself of the debilitating disease, Lena made the tough decision to undergo a hysterectomy at 31.In November 2017, she checked into hospital and said she would not leave until doctors stopped the pain or gave her a hysterectomy. She detailed the experience in an essay for Vogue, writing: 'I never had a single doubt about having children.'As a child, I would stuff my shirt with a pile of hot laundry and march around the living room beaming.'With pain like this, I will never be able to be anyone's mother. Even if I could get pregnant, there's nothing I can offer.'She added that she wanted to break down in tears as she was wheeled towards the operating room. But the actress reasoned: 'I gave up on more treatment. I gave up on more pain. I gave up on more uncertainty.'The actress' hysterectomy removed her uterus, cervix and one of her ovaries, but doctors were able to leave one ovary intact. Saving one of her ovaries meant that Lena would not instantly start menopause and could still produce eggs that could be used for a surrogate pregnancy. Lena underwent a hysterectomy in 2017 at the age of 31. The following month she split from boyfriend Jack Antonoff with the actress admitting that it was a rough time (pictured in 2017)Yet Lena and Jack broke up the following month, with the actress admitting that it was a rough time.'I'd just had a hysterectomy, I'd broken up with my boyfriend, I was in the process of breaking up with my business partner — I had no business buying a pair of shoes, [let alone] getting engaged,' she told Cosmopolitan.'Then I just went, 'You know what? I've been dating since I was 15 years old. I'm allowed to take a break.''While she took a break from dating, Lena became 'obsessed' with wanting a child.'The moment I lost my fertility I started searching for a baby,' she told Harper's Bazaar Magazine.'It turned out that after everything I'd been through—the chemical menopause, surgeries by the dozen, the carelessness of drug addiction—my one remaining ovary was still producing eggs,' she wrote in the piece.'If we successfully harvested them, they might be fertilised with donor sperm and carried to term by a surrogate.'The actress, who had gone to rehab after becoming addicted to opioids following her hysterectomy, finally had hope that she would be able to welcome her own child.However, she was only met with disappointment once again.'I learned that none of my eggs were viable on Memorial Day, in the midst of a global pandemic,' she wrote. 'When [the doctor] spoke my name with that sympathetic downturn, the apologetic-doctor voice I have come to know so well, my face crumpled in apprehension.'The doctor told Lena that five of her six eggs couldn't be fertilised, with the sixth having chromosomal issues.'I was wiping my eyes and thanking him again and again,' she wrote. 'In my head, I was already telling my parents. The only comfort for this failure of biology was biology, the inherent understanding of the people who made me.'The actress said she always dreamed of having children but her body would never allow it.'When I was a little girl… I had already made every egg I was ever going to have,' she wrote.'They were inside me, destined to fail. I just didn't know it yet. I was another cocky woman-to-be, sure that I would have what I wanted because I wanted it. Because I had always gotten it. Because the world told me it was mine to take.'She continued: 'I tried to have a child. Along the way, my body broke. My relationship did, too. In the process - because of it? - I became a functional junkie. I had lost my way, and a half-dozen eggs sitting in Midtown promised to lead me home.' 'The moment I lost my fertility I started searching for a baby,' she explained, saying she tried to retrieve eggs from the one ovary that remained intact after her hysterectomy Lena acknowledged how expensive the process is as well as the mental toll it takes.'There is a lot you can correct in life - you can end a relationship, get sober, get serious, say sorry - but you can't force the universe to give you a baby that your body has told you all along was an impossibility,' she wrote.'Weak animals die in the woods as their pack mates run ahead. Bad eggs don't hatch. You can't bend nature.'The irony is that knowing I cannot have a child - my ability to accept that and move on - may be the only reason I deserve to be anyone's parent at all. I think I finally have something to teach somebody.'The star said that the process pulled her further away from her friends, her relationships, her family, herself and her reality.But happiness was just around the corner, and she met her now husband Luis during the Covid-19 lockdown, taking a nighttime walk together along the Thames for her fiThe actress first revealed she was dating the musician during an interview with The New York Times back in April 2021.'It's been a few months. I feel really lucky,' she said, adding that he was, 'the greatest person I've ever met.'In September, he popped the question after dating for less than a year.Luis told Vogue in September 2021 that the topic was broached when Lena ended up in the hospital and he didn't want her to go through anything else alone.'[Lena] said, "Oh, I want to marry you someday." And I said, "Why don't we make that someday, soon day?"' he recalled. 'The next day, I went for a walk with my friend Tom, and he was going on about his life, and I was like, 'I think I proposed to Lena last night.' And when I got home, we made it real.' But happiness was just around the corner, and she met her now husband Luis during the Covid-19 lockdown and for their first date they took a walk together along the Thames at nightThe couple officially tied the knot later that month at the Union Club, a members-only club in London, according to Vogue.In June last year, Lena told The Sunday Times that her hysterectomy 'was a grief but it was also a relief'.And she revealed that she and the British musician were in the process of 'expanding' their family 'in new ways'.Earlier this year, the actress spoke about coming to terms with not being able to carry her own children, which had always been her 'dream'.She explained on Today with Jenna and Sheinelle in April: 'Some people don't dream about being mothers, but I had, and it was a big part of my identity that I was going to do it someday in that way.'The amazing thing is, since then, I have met so many people who built their families in so many different ways, and I have really come to a place where I feel really excited. Whatever way it happens, I will feel so grateful.'Now, she and Luis have welcomed their first child via surrogate, which she announced in an op-ed for Vogue published on Wednesday. Her daughter arrived 13 days later than expected, with Lena writing: 'I sat on a hospital bed, between the legs of a woman I hadn't known a year ago, waiting for a glimpse of this person who I had been waiting for with something related to patience, but also none at all. 'I was so focused on our surrogate – in awe at her concentration, her period of quiet followed by what sounded like a roar – I forgot to look down until I heard our baby's cry.'I saw her face, gasping just as she did. Her eyes, wide and unfocused, taking in the light and shadow, blinking rapidly.'She wrote, adding: 'Hello,' I said. 'I'm your mama. You … you look nothing like I thought you would, but exactly right. We've been waiting for you, do you know that? It was so nice of you to come.'She went on to describe herself as feeling 'bashful and dizzy with joy'.Lena also reflected on her journey through surrogacy and praised her surrogate.The Girls creator said she had not been 'jealous' of the woman who carried her child through pregnancy.'Instead, I felt a different kind of jealousy — toward said baby, for the chance to be tucked into someone who radiated such safety. I could just tell she knew how to steer an SUV in the snow.'The Vogue essay was accompanied by a photo of Lena looking cheerful, holding their daughter, next to Luis and their dog. WHAT IS A HYSTERECTOMY?A hysterectomy is a surgical procedure to remove a woman's uterus.There are three kinds:PARTIAL HYSTERECTOMY: Removes two-thirds of the uterus. TOTAL HYSTERECTOMY: Removes uterus and cervix.RADICAL HYSTERECTOMY: Removes uterus, cervix and vagina.The operation is most commonly performed on women between the ages of 40 and 49.More than 20 million American women have had a hysterectomy, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.As women approach menopause, the odds that they will develop one of several serious uterine health conditions increases. Doctors may recommend a hysterectomy as a treatment for:fibroids endometriosis uterine (endometrial) cancer chronic uterine pain or bleeding collapsed uterusIn some cases, doctors may suggest a hysterectomy as a preventative measure if a woman has significant warning or early signs of developing one or more of these conditions.When necessary, surgeons may also remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes, if these have also been damaged or are at serious risk of damage.The removal of reproductive organs sends a woman's body into menopause, no matter how old she is.This comes with unpleasant side effects like hot flashes, and many women have to start hormone therapy, taking estrogen to balance out their own hormones.