Olivia Munn reveals having hysterectomy amid cancer battle was 'best decision' for her family

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Olivia Munn recently revealed that she had to undergo a hysterectomy in her struggle with cancer.

On the occasion of Mother’s Day, the ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ star opened up about her motherhood journey amidst her cancer battle.

Olivia Munn reveals she underwent hysterectomy

Munn has been diagnosed with luminal B breast cancer in both her breasts. The 43-year-old actress recently shared with Vogue, “Doctors kept telling me I have an aggressive cancer,” before she added emphatically, “Aggressive cancers need aggressive treatments.”

As part of her “aggressive treatments", ‘The Predator’ star underwent four surgeries in the course of ten months in 2023. Apart from a full double mastectomy where all her breast tissues were removed, Munn also underwent a lymph node dissection, reconstructive surgery, and a nipple delay.

The second phase of her treatment started in November of the same year when the doctors administered drugs so that her body purposefully went into menopause.

According to Munn’s doctor, luminal B breast cancer is a hormone receptor-positive type that grows in the presence of estrogen. Thus, the estrogen suppressant drug Lupron was the only way her estrogen production could be controlled.

As Munn was administered the drug, her estrogen production was halted. As a side effect, however, she was drained of all energy. 

She shared, “The side effects of the medication hit me almost immediately,” she admits. “It was next-level, debilitating exhaustion. I would wake up in the morning and almost immediately need to get back into bed.”

The actress, who shares her two-year-old son Malcolm with her partner John Mulaney, shared in the interview, “If you asked Malcolm, ‘Where does daddy work?’ He'd run to his [Mulaney’s] desk, and if you asked him, ‘Where does mommy work?’ He'd point to my bed. It was so sweet. But at the same time, it was breaking my heart because this is his image of me.”

As she asked the doctor for an alternate treatment, the doctors prescribed her to undergo her fifth significant surgery which took place in April 2024.

Munn revealed, “I have now had an oophorectomy and hysterectomy. I took out my uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries.”

Though the surgery meant she wouldn’t be able to bear any more children in her womb, ‘The Newsroom’ star revealed it was the “best decision” she has taken for her two-year-old.

Munn explained, “It was a big decision to make, but it was the best decision for me because I needed to be present for my family.”

She noted that due to the debilitating effect of the drug she had prior to the surgery, she missed a significant moment of Malcolm’s growing up.

However, she had friends to cheer her up, who would say, “‘Malcolm’s not going to remember this. Don't worry.’”

Munn continued, “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.”

Olivia Munn shares she panicked after the surgery

During the interview, the actress shared that the few days after the surgery were painful. She continued, “I did have one real moment of panic,” before explaining, “A real breakdown. Because it’s just so strange when you’ve been with this body your entire life, had your period for so long, feel when you’re ovulating, and all of a sudden it’s gone.”

However, she added, in less than a week’s time, she was on the road to recovery.

Munn shared she and her partner are not “done growing our family,” and she previously froze her eggs at the ages 33, 39, and before her surgery at 42. 

She continued, “It's interesting because my 33-year-old eggs were great. My 39-year-old eggs? None of them worked. As you get older, one month can have great eggs, the other not so much.”

The star reflected, “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.”