Lena Dunham has undergone a hysterectomy after enduring chronic pain from endometriosis for several years.

Ms Dunham, the 31 year-old Jewish star of hit sitcom Girls, said she made the difficult decision to have her cervix and uterus removed after “years of complex surgeries measuring in the double digits.”

In an article in the March 2018 issue of Vogue (in which the actress goes into sometimes graphic detail) she wrote:  “In addition to endometrial disease, I have retrograde bleeding, a.k.a. my period running in reverse so that my stomach is full of blood.

“My ovary has settled in on the muscles around the sacral nerves in my back that allow us to walk.

“Let’s please not even talk about my uterine lining. The only beautiful detail is that the organ—which is meant to be shaped like a light bulb—was shaped like a heart.”

Ms Dunham, who has been very open about her condition in a bid to raise awareness, thought she was endometriosis-free last April.

Sadly she was rushed to the hospital during the Met Gala a month later, and she found out the illness was still there.

The actress said the condition left her feeling she had no choices regarding having children but added that she was now optimistic about having them in the future.

She wrote: “Soon I’ll start exploring whether my ovaries, which remain someplace inside me in that vast cavern of organs and scar tissue, have eggs.

“Adoption is a thrilling truth I’ll pursue with all my might.”