Lena Dunham latest editor's note for her feminist newsletter, Lenny Letter, was a sad one. Dunham announced she's cancelling the “LennyLetter: America IRL” tour. Even sadder may be the reason: her endometriosis has returned.
Last month, Dunham announced that after five surgeries she was no longer suffering from endometriosis, a chronic condition where the uterine lining grows outside of your uterus. But, in Friday's letter Dunham wrote, "To be perfectly honest, I’m in the greatest amount of physical pain that I have ever experienced. After being told I was endometriosis-free after my last procedure, more disease was found in deeper spots that required immediate surgery and now physical therapy.”
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Dunham, who was recently rushed to the hospital after the Met Gala due to complications from her surgeries, wrote she "doesn’t have what it takes to do this tour," a six-city trip that was originally set to begin on May 31. "Lenny is about giving 100 percent of ourselves, 100 percent of the time, and I couldn’t bear to limp through this," Dunham said. "Not for you, our favorite people, and not for the women giving their time to join me on the road."
All tickets will be refunded — "We’re not monsters!" Dunham wrote — and she hopes to reschedule this tour once her "uterus has taken a chill pill." Of course, as she pointed out, this wasn't in reference to her "spiritual uterus. She’ll never chill. She’s incapable of chill."
It's true that Dunham has never been shy about talking about her health struggles in hopes of helping others. Recently, she turned her post-Met Gala hospital visit into an opportunity to talk about healthcare.
"When the healthcare of so many American women, especially our trans sisters, is at-risk- or already nonexistent- I am lucky to be in the position to seek help when I'm in pain," she wrote on Instagram. "To those in that privileged spot- never forget that we are blessed and can pay it forward by supporting Planned Parenthood and LGBTQ clinics like Callen-Lorde."
In her Lenny Letter post, Dunham thanked the charities that partnered with her on this tour. "We won’t let you down," she wrote. "And I’ll be making personal donations to let you know you’re loved and needed."
Dunham ended her note with a special message to fans on how they can fill their time now that they can't meet Lenny Letter IRL. "I encourage you all to gather your girls for evenings of dissent and laughter and wine and analysis and bingeing of Fleabag and Chewing Gum," she wrote. "Holding each other close and giving of ourselves is the most radical thing we can do right now."
Sounds like a plan, Lena.