Olivia Munn is speaking openly about her decision to freeze her eggs, just weeks after revealing she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
In a new interview with Voguethe X-Men: Apocalypse the actress, 43, shared that she froze her eggs on three separate occasions — when she was 33, 39 and most recently 42, after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It’s interesting because my 33-year-old eggs were excellent. My 39 year old balls? None of them worked,” Munn told the newspaper. “As you get older, one month you can have great eggs, the next month not so much.”
“Clearly the month we did at 39 wasn’t a good month. After my diagnosis, we decided to try another round of egg retrieval and we were hoping it was a good month. John and I talked about it a lot and I didn’t feel “It was like we were done growing our family, but I didn’t know if I was going to have to have chemotherapy or radiation,” she said, referring to her son Malcolm, 2, whom she shares with comedian John Mulaney.
Olivia Munn, 43, reveals she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy
According to the actress’ doctors, breast cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can significantly hinder a person’s ability to have children and, in some cases, can remove that option entirely — especially since Munn’s treatment involved deliberately sending her body into menopause. Vogue reported.
Before going all out and deciding to undergo “aggressive” treatment for her luminal B-type cancer, Munn said she and Mulaney, 41, discussed putting her treatment on hold so she could undergo a final round of egg retrieval cells. While she admitted it was dangerous — considering that pumping yourself full of the hormones needed to bring back eggs can result in new cancer cells growing — she said she and Mulaney decided to give it another shot.
“We just wanted a few more eggs,” she said Vogue. “At my age, one in every 10 eggs is healthy and we hoped to make one embryo from this find.”
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Doctors ended up collecting seven eggs instead of the 10 from her last retrieval, and all that was left was for Munn and Mulaney to wait and see if any of them would result in a healthy embryo.
Olivia Munn, John Mulaney and their son Malcolm.
Olivia Munn/Instagram
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“A few hours later, my doctor called us. He told us we had two healthy embryos,” Munn recalled. “John and I just started crying. It was so exciting because not only did we get it in one return, but it also meant I didn’t have to put myself in danger all the time. It was just amazing.”
Munn later shared her cancer diagnosis with the public in March 2024, revealing that she had undergone a double mastectomy. The actress used the opportunity to encourage others to get cancer screenings and be proactive about their health.
“We are very protective of our little life, but I knew from the day she was diagnosed that the risk assessment test her doctor did saved her life,” Mulaney said. Vogue his partner’s decision to share her cancer diagnosis with the public. “So, while we like to live our lives privately, I fully supported Olivia coming forward with her story.”
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Source: HIS Education