Story highlights Former "Girls" star says excruciating pain led her to opt for surgery

The actress says she hasn't given up on the idea of motherhood

(CNN) Lena Dunham has talked extensively about her struggle with endometriosis, and now the former "Girls" star has revealed she underwent a hysterectomy to try and end her pain.

In an essay in the March issue of Vogue titled "The Painful Truth," Dunham wrote that she has "never had a single doubt about having children."

"As a child, I would stuff my shirt with a pile of hot laundry and march around the living room beaming," she wrote. "Later, wearing a prosthetic belly for my television show, I stroke it subconsciously with such natural ease that my best friend has to tell me I am creeping her out."

Yet as much as she yearns for the experience, Dunham said she also had to face her health challenges.

"I can feel it, deeply specific yet unverified, despite so many tests and so much medical dialogue," the actress wrote. "I just sense that the uterus I have been given is defective."

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