Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o marked her birthday with an important message filled with purpose. Instead of sharing a celebratory birthday post, she chose to shed light on a powerful issue surrounding women’s health.
As she turned 43 on March 1, “A Quiet Place: Day One” star shared a heartfelt message on Instagram, using the milestone to speak openly about her health and draw attention to issues many women quietly battle. Rather than focusing on festivities, she transformed the moment into a conversation about women’s health and the importance of being heard.
‘What I Ordered ➡️ What I Got’: The Symbol Behind 77 Fruits
In a lengthy post, Nyong’o opened up about her ongoing struggle with uterine fibroids, noncancerous growths that form in or around the uterus and can trigger heavy bleeding, chronic pain, and other serious symptoms.
“Today is my birthday, and it’s got me feeling reflective. Not about age, but about a different number: 77,” she wrote.
Doctors often use fruit to describe the size of uterine fibroids. To make that comparison visible, Nyong’o posed with a basket of fruit and shared an MRI scan showing the growths inside her body.
“What I ordered ➡️ What I got,” she captioned the image.
She then revealed the full weight of what she has carried.
“Over the course of my lifetime, I have carried 77 uterine fibroids: 25 surgically removed, and more than 50 still growing inside me today, the largest the size of an orange,” she explained.
“This is not a rare story. It is just a rarely told one,” she added. “I have endured seasons of constant pain, losing dangerous amounts of blood each month, and suffering in silence. In this image, I’m holding 77 fruits, as a symbol for each fibroid, to make visible the weight that I, and millions of women like me, carry every day.”
‘Make Fibroids Count’: Lupita Nyong’o’s Push for Fibroid Research Funding
Since first opening up about her diagnosis last year, Nyong’o said she has been flooded with messages from women who see their own stories reflected in hers. Many shared similar experiences of pain, delayed diagnoses, and feeling unheard.
That outpouring moved her to take action. Nyong’o partnered with the Foundation for Women’s Health to launch Make Fibroids Count, a campaign focused on increasing awareness and funding research into minimally invasive and non-invasive treatment options for uterine fibroids.
“So, my birthday wish is a world where no woman has to suffer through fibroids untreated, undertreated, or unheard,” she wrote. “To get there, we need research. And research needs funding.”
“Every dollar goes toward research that could change or even save a woman’s life. Maybe someone you love. Maybe someone you are… 🫶🏿” she continued. “Thank you for celebrating with me in the most meaningful way possible.💜”
Nyong’o Opened Up About Treatment Decisions on ‘Today’
The “Black Panther” star also spoke candidly about her health during a recent appearance on “Today.” She shared that more than 50 fibroids remain and said she is still weighing whether to move forward with another myomectomy, a procedure that removes fibroids while keeping the uterus intact.
“I’m not ready to make that decision,” she shared. “It’s quite invasive… and it’s a big threat to our reproductive organs.”
By opening up so publicly on her birthday, Nyong’o transformed a personal moment into a broader conversation about women’s health.
For many women listening, her honesty offers reassurance that they are not alone and that their experiences deserve to be acknowledged.
