Lupita Nyong’o Teams Up With U.S. Lawmakers To Push Fibroid Awareness

The Oscar-winning actress has partnered with members of Congress, Senate, and top health organizations to push for research, awareness, and better treatment for millions of women.

On Tuesday, Academy-Award winning actress Lupita Nyong’o took to Instagram and announced two grand career developments with a deeply personal touch. In a carousel-styled post, Lupita shared the story about her bout with uterine fibroids, revealing that the same year she won her first Academy Award—which was granted due to her iconic performance in the film 12 Years a Slave, she was found to have 30 of the noncancerous myomas.

“I started talking about my experience privately, and I realized so many women are going through this,” she wrote on the 6th slide of the carousel post. “We’re struggling with something that affects most of us. No more suffering in silence!”

Using the story of her personal bout with fibroids, Lupita announced her collaboration with four members of Congress — Representatives Shontel Brown, Yvette D. Clarke, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Robin Kelly, as well as two members of the Senate, Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester. In unison at Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, they introduced a package of uterine fibroid bills advocating for expanded research funding, improved early detection and intervention, studies into the causes of uterine cancer, and increased public awareness.

Lupita also went on announcing her partnership with the Foundation for Women’s Health where she is launching the FWH x Lupita Nyong’o Uterine Fibroid Research Grant, which will take after research proposals to develop minimally invasive or non-invasive treatments for uterine fibroids to reduce symptoms and “improve quality of life for 15 millions patients suffering from this chronic condition in the U.S. alone.”

Such timing of Lupita’s profound initiatives are moreover appropriate, as July is the month of fibroid awareness. As Dr. Leslie Farrington, retired OB-GYN and founder of the Black Coalition for Safe Motherhood, told me, “It starts when people start having their periods — their pain is dismissed, their suffering is dismissed. The treatment of women’s issues in general is problematic, and it starts right there.”

It is a common conversation among women who suffer from the condition, which according to John Hopkins Medicine, as high as 77% of women will have fibroid growths during their childbearing years, with close to 80% of Black women and 70% of white women developing them by the age of 50 as reported by the National Library of Medicine. There is a glaring lack of awareness concerning the condition, spanning from lack of research, lack of public discussion, lack of patient empowerment and a systemic dismissal of women’s health needs.

“Considering that 70 percent of women have fibroids, you would think there would be more knowledge, but there hasn’t been that much change because they’re not doing that much research,” said Dr. Farrington. “There’s just not enough attention given to it.”

In her advocacy work, Dr. Farrington now leads the Black Coalition for Safe Motherhood, offering ACTT workshops — a free program that teaches women how to “Ask questions, Claim their space, Trust their bodies, and Tell their stories” when navigating the healthcare system. These workshops are designed to empower women, particularly Black women, with the tools to advocate for themselves in medical settings where their concerns are too often dismissed. As Dr. Farrington put it, “We’re going to shift the culture by raising the expectations of healthcare consumers. The doctor is not your boss — you are the expert on your own body.”

Lupita’s announcement also sparked a powerful wave of solidarity. Celebrities like Gabrielle Union, Halle Berry, Kerry Washington, Jessica Alba, and India Arie shared their support in the comments under Lupita’s post, showing that awareness of fibroids is more widespread than we may think, yet the conversation around it is only now breaking through into the public eye.

In addition to the Black Coalition for Safe Motherhood, organizations like The White Dress Project, which raises awareness through education and public events, and Health in Her HUE, which connects Black women to culturally competent healthcare providers, are crucial in the fight for better uterine health outcomes. These groups not only advocate for research and policy change but provide women with much-needed community, resources, and a space to be heard.

The fight against fibroids goes beyond advancing treatment and is fixated on reshaping the healthcare system to listen to women, believe their pain, and invest in their well-being. With figures like Lupita Nyong’o using their reach to amplify these issues, and grassroots organizations training women to advocate for themselves, a long-overdue cultural shift may finally be within reach.