Lena Dunham reveals she's 'in the process of expanding our family' with her husband after endometriosis battle and a hysterectomy

Girls star Lena Dunham is hoping to become a mother after a battle with endometriosis that resulted in a hysterectomy at 31.

The actress, writer and producer, who previously admitted she ''struggled'' with the idea of choosing "my own health over being able to bear children," candidly told The Times she was hoping to "expand her family" with husband Luis Felber.

Speaking of the hysterectomy she underwent in order to overcome the pain of endometriosis, Dunham told The Times, "It was a grief but it was also a relief".

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She also talked about the finality of the surgery.

"I thought I would have the opportunity to experience my fertility and my cycle waning and it never was," she said.

"Instead it was a very quick, sharp cut-off..."

Dunham, now 39, also revealed she and Felber had not given up on the idea of starting a family.

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"I will say we're in the process of expanding our family in new ways," she said.

"I want to safely meet our children and then figure out how to talk about it."

Dunham rose to fame as the star and creator of TV show Girls, which ran from six seasons from 2012 to 2017 and netted Dunham a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series, as well as an Emmy for directing.

Her health battle came to light after the star collapsed at the 2017 Met Gala and was rushed to hospital.

She went on to have a number of operations to ease her severe pain before eventually undergoing a hysterectomy at 31 – something she struggled with.

"I struggled with this idea, that I had chosen my own health over being able to bear children," she once told The Observer.

"But really it wasn't a choice at all because the person I would have continued to be had I remained in that kind of pain would not have been a person I could really live as."

Since her surgery, Dunham has become vocal about endometriosis, even writing a 2018 opinion piece for Vogue, in which she detailed the lead up to her surgery, during which she told hospital staff, "I am not leaving until they stop this pain or take my uterus".

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She said she was told the doctor needed "evidence he's operating on someone resolved enough to give consent and never take it back".

It prompted her to write a 1000-word essay from her hospital bed.

She told The Times she took an intentional break from acting before returning to the screen in the new series Too Much.

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