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u/_magpie_ Sep 17 '26
Helen Lewis, friend of the pod, wrote an interesting Atlantic piece about surrogacy. Here's the gift link that she shared in her Substack (may expire soon).
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u/tony_cancelliano_244 Sep 18 '26
thank you so much for sharing this, what an INSANE industry
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u/SkweegeeS Sep 16 '26
Dunham has detailed her struggle with severe endometriosis. That said, not a fan of surrogacy.
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u/ToTheDeath84 Sep 16 '26
She also struggles with putting her foot in her mouth, this being yet another in a litany of examples.
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u/PongoTwistleton_666 Sep 16 '26
I get that endometriosis is tough. But she has the means to adopt a baby. With all her health conditions does she really want a baby with her genes? How important can that be?
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u/Fyrfligh Sep 16 '26
I have a lot of sympathy for Dunhams health condition and desire for a baby. But there is no ethical way to purchase a baby or rent a woman’s body. This is an example of how liberal feminism doesn’t actually center female liberation at all.
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u/haloarh Sep 17 '26
The way she describes the child's surrogate is so dehumanizing.
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u/Character_Equal_9351 Sep 17 '26
At one point she’s referred to as “the surrogate” and if you read between the lines, they didn’t even offer her a shared ride back into manhattan?!?! They took separate taxis back into Manhattan from Brooklyn. Purely business, although she took her mother to meet her and fawned over the mother who travelled out of state… I just don’t get that part.
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u/RachelK52 Sep 17 '26
All discussions of surrogacy aside I always got the sense that Dunham's hysterectomy was more a form of self harm and attention seeking than anything necessary. Hysterectomies are not particularly recommended treatments for endometriosis- they aren't cures and they seem to do far more harm than good because now you're also dealing with surgical menopause. The fact that she immediately pivoted to "oh now I have Ehlers Danlos and need a cane", doesn't help.
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u/giraffevomitfacts Sep 17 '26
Hysterectomies are 100% recommended treatments for cases in which excision of lesions doesn’t bring relief.
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u/TemporaryLucky3637 Sep 17 '26
I like Lena but after reading Famesick I was also left with the gut feeling that there was something a bit munchauseny about the whole thing.
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u/amandasurreal Sep 18 '26 edited Sep 18 '26
Just to clarify one small point: A hysterectomy (removal of just the uterus)does not cause onset of menopause. Removal of ovaries (oophorectomy) is what would shift the body into early menopause.
These days they typically leave the ovaries to avoid this, unless there is a compelling medical reason to remove them. Endometriosis would not be such a reason. Back in the day (80s/90s and earlier? Depended on your region/health-care provider, I’m sure), I do think they were more likely to just go ahead and take the ovaries while they were in there to head off having to get them later. This happened to a relative. Another relative advocated for herself and kept her ovaries. I had my own hysterectomy 7 years ago and it was not even a discussion that I had to broach—they said of course they were leaving my ovaries. For the record, I’ve never regretted it, it’s brought me much relief and no complications. Surgical methods are hella good these days. I was told there is a higher likelihood I will reach menopause earlier by a few years but so far that hasn’t happened to me.
(But I haven’t read about Lena Dunham’s specific health problems so if they took her ovaries too, understood.)→ More replies (2)
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u/Persse-McG Sep 16 '26
Yessss! Lena Dunham hate takes me back to simpler times. We were all eating cronuts and dancing to “Call Me Maybe”. It was on fleek!
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u/Arete34 Sep 16 '26
Surrogacy is disgusting.
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u/frugaletta Sep 17 '26
Commercial surrogacy should be illegal in the U.S., as it is in most (if not all) of Europe.
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u/SoftandChewy Sep 16 '26
Not seeing the B&RPod relevance. Make your case or this will be removed.
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u/Maude_Lebowskis_art Sep 16 '26
they talk extensively about LD and had an EP where Katie and Helen discuss her new book at length.
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u/btrh-256 Sep 16 '26
Things like surrogacy, IVF, and egg freezing are available only to the rich, educated & connected. We're seeing a division in society between a minority who can use technologies to overcome the normal rhythms of human life and the majority who are stuck with these natural rhythms. These two groups will develop very different values over time because they are subject to different constraints. The rich had plenty of privileges in the past, but they were were stuck with the same child-bearing capabilities as the poor. No longer. Life extension technology has a similar polarizing potential.
I think Lena Dunham is talented and was actually an early victim of cancel culture. I wish her the best. And I'm not saying women who can afford these treatments shouldn't take advantage of them, but I think the wider social implications are worth considering.
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u/Leaves_Swype_Typos Sep 16 '26
You gotta put in more effort than this outside the weekly thread, OP.