Dolly Parton Lived with Endometriosis. What She Said About Having to ‘Manage’ the Condition Before Her Death at 80

Country icon Dolly Parton died on Aug. 25 after a “brief battle with cancer” of an undisclosed type, her team confirmed.

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Dolly Parton was one of the first public figures to speak about living with endometriosis

EndoFound co-founder Padma Lakshmi praised Parton for being so open about her health “without shame”

Parton died on Aug. 25 at 80 after a “brief battle with cancer”

Dolly Parton never shied away from discussing the various health challenges she faced throughout her life.

On Aug. 21, just four days before her death at 80 following a “brief battle with cancer,” the “Jolene” singer shared a statement with PEOPLE, in which she nodded to her past gynecological problems.

“As I’ve shared in video messages throughout the past year, I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” Parton said at the time. “You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to manage something like this. Back in the early ‘80s, I was down for several months with female issues, and I was struggling with my weight at the time too, so it’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health.”

Parton, who lived with endometriosis, was one of the first public figures to speak about the condition. Per the Mayo Clinic, endometriosis is a condition in which tissue similar to the inner lining of the uterus grows elsewhere in the body, often affecting the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining the pelvis.

According to an interview with Closer Weekly from 2018, Parton reportedly had to cancel a tour in the early ‘80s due to severe abdominal pain and bleeding — common symptoms of the condition. Endometriosis is also one of the leading causes of female infertility, according to the Endometriosis Foundation of America.

Parton, who underwent a partial hysterectomy in the ‘80s, never had children with husband Carl Dean, and in 1987 during an interview with TODAY contributor Gloria Steinem, Parton addressed her infertility struggles.

“I can’t have children physically. I love children. I don’t know that it also wasn’t God’s will, you know, for me not to have kids. I mean, I try to look at things in a way that I can put them in a proper place because somebody has to be out there doing something to entertain other people’s children,” she said at the time.

courtesy Dolly Parton

EndoFound co-founder and TV host Padma Lakshmi tells PEOPLE in a statement that Parton’s willingness to be so open about her experience really matters.

“Dolly talked openly about women’s reproductive health long before most people were comfortable having those conversations. She shared deeply personal parts of her life at a time when women were often expected to keep those things private,” says the bestselling author and “America’s Culinary Cup” and “Taste the Nation” creator.

“As someone who has spoken publicly about my own experience with endometriosis, I know how much it matters when women are willing to talk openly about their health. Dolly did that with honesty and without shame, and in doing so helped make these conversations a little easier for the women who came after her,” Lakshmi added.

“Dolly will be remembered for so many things, but her willingness to speak openly about women’s health is one more part of her legacy that is especially meaningful to me. Dolly’s honesty about something so personal helped countless women.”

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic; Frazer Harrison/Getty

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Parton also continued to speak openly about how not having children affected her life.

In a 2020 episode of Apple TV+’s The Oprah Conversation, Parton told Oprah Winfrey that not being a mother gave her an independence that ultimately allowed her career to thrive.

“Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom,” she said. “So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work.”

She admitted that she’d made “sacrifices” over the years, but believed there was a reason why her life shook out as it did.

“I didn’t have children because I believed that God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine, so I could do things like Imagination Library, because if I hadn’t had the freedom to work, I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done,” she told Winfrey. “I wouldn’t be in a position to do all of the things I’m doing now.”

In one of her final interviews, she opened up more about the sacrifices she’s made along the way, telling PEOPLE in 2025 that she’s grateful she never had to feel guilty about leaving children behind to work or tour.

“You know, I have just been going so fast my whole life. And I just start thinking, ‘How in the world did I even have a life? How did I even get it done?’ I really realized when I was putting this book [Star of the Show: My Life on Stage] together just how much I had sacrificed in my life,” she said. “I never had children, so at least I didn’t have a guilty feeling. I’m thankful that I got to see my dreams come true.”

Parton — who was notably Miley Cyrus’ godmother — did admit that motherhood was something she thought about early in her marriage, but she hasn’t “missed” raising kids like she thought she might.

“When you’re a young couple, you think you’re going to have kids, but it just wasn’t one of those burning things for me,” she told Saga magazine in 2023. “I had my career and my music, and I was traveling. If I’d had kids, I’d have stayed home with them, I’m sure, and worried myself to death about them.”

Despite not having children of her own, Parton was a devoted aunt. In 2014, she told PEOPLE Country that her nieces and nephews call her Aunt Granny and GeeGee.

“I think kids relate to me because they think of me like a Mother Goose or a Fairy Godmother,” she said. “I’m like a cartoon character — my voice is little, and I’m an excitable little person like them! I’m very childlike in that way, in my nature.”

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