Nina Hartley Survives Major Surgery

LOS ANGELES—Congratulations, Nina Hartley! Looks like you just delivered a beautiful, bouncing seven-pound ... uterine fibroid tumor!

In fact, it isn't a joking matter. Hartley has suffered from the painful fibroids for more than 20 years, and had undergone hormone treatments to try to shrink them, after hoping that reaching menopause would take care of them more naturally. But the treatments didn't work, forcing the surgery, which originally was supposed to have occurred in March, but was postponed to try to give the hormone treatments more time to work.

"Just dropping a note to let you know that I've come through my surgery and am now recovering at home," Hartley wrote AVN late Saturday afternoon. "I had the operation on Tuesday the 14th. They had hoped to do it via laparoscope but were unable. They did a traditional low-bikini incision; the operation took seven hours and they removed a seven-pound mass, the size of a healthy newborn baby. There were complications and I received two pints of blood. I was released from the hospital this past Friday afternoon."

"I wanted to thank you, and all of my fans, for their support and good thoughts," she continued. "It really helped to know people were rooting for me! I'll be able to do non-sex roles starting mid-July, and should be cleared for XXX work by mid-August."

During her convalescence, Hartley will be living on the funds raised by donations to the website GiveForward.com, but given the length of time she'll be out of work, she may have to reactivate the donation page. Check back with AVN.com for future developments in that area.