Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has revealed that she underwent a hysterectomy over the summer.
Mrs McDonald said that her womb and ovaries were removed and added that she was speaking out about the procedure because there was a need for open conversations about women’s health.
The Sinn Fein president has returned to work after several months away from the political front line and will join party colleagues at a think-in event in Dublin on Friday.
In an interview with Virgin Media’s Ireland AM show, Mrs McDonald said she underwent the procedure on June 24.
She said: “So I lost my womb, my ovaries. So it was fairly significant surgery.
“Fortunately it was done by keyhole, which is great because it aids your recovery.
“And more fortunately, that was it for me.
“I had the surgery, the growths, the tumours were removed and I didn’t require any further treatments or therapies.
“So it was serious surgery, it knocks you off course, but I was extremely lucky.”
It is very important that we can talk about this issue, it is very important for women's health that we can actually have these conversations— Mary Lou McDonald
Mrs McDonald praised the care she received at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.
She also said she believed it was important to be able to talk openly about such issues.
She added: “I don’t think you can have that procedure and not reflect on that, your sense of yourself as a woman, as a mother, also the fact of getting a bit older, although I am very young, I’m in the first flush of my youth.
“You are at an age, you are confronted by the fact that you are not superhuman and that you are at another stage in your life.”
“It is very important that we can talk about this issue, it is very important for women’s health that we can actually have these conversations and actually understand what women and girls are going through.
“Everything from menstruation, menopause, we need to be able to have these conversations and men need to be part, and boys need to be part of the conversation.”
