GabrielleUnion is well-known for being candid about real issues that affect humans. She’s no different when it comes to discussing personal issues like struggling with infertility and being sexually assaulted when she was a teenager.
On Wednesday, Union sat down at the 2018 #BlogHer conference in New York and opened up about very intimate moments in her life which included experiencing multiple miscarriages, infertility and being raped at the age of 19.
The actress previously told the story of how she was assaulted in a Payless store, where she was working at the time. However, when talking about the incident this time, Union says she wouldn’t consider it bravery.
“I don’t look at it as brave, I look at it as necessary,” she told the audience. “There is so much that we internalize and we hold to ourselves out of fear of judgment and sometimes that fear can literally kill us,” said Union. She went on to say she was inspired to tell her story. “I have seen the devil up close, I can’t go any lower. When you are being raped at gunpoint at work, I can’t go any lower; when I watched my girlfriend at 35 die a slow death because she was afraid of finding out what the lump was in her chest, I can’t go any lower. I’ve seen it,” she said. “So at this point, I can only go up — and I’m trying to take as many people with me as I can.”
In addition to her assault, Union discussed her complications with fertility. “Towards the end of my fertility journey, I finally got some answers, because everyone said ‘You’re a career woman, you’ve prioritized your career, you waited too long and now you’re just too old to have a kid — and that’s on you for wanting a career. The reality is I actually have adenomyosis,” she said. “The gag is, I had it in my early 20s, and instead of someone diagnosing me they were like ‘Oh you have periods that last 9 or 10 days and you’re bleeding through overnight pads? Not a mere inconvenience perhaps there’s something more there.”
Union topped off the convo prompting women to always seek understanding about their health and bodies – in particular when taking birth control. “The pill can mask all kinds of things. It is amazing at preventing pregnancy; not so great with addressing adenomyosis.”
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