"I lie here with a broken heart." Camilla Franks has shared the heartbreak of removing her ovaries.

Australian fashion designer Camilla Franks has opened up about her difficult decision to have her ovaries removed.

On Thursday, the designer uploaded a photo to her social media accounts of herself in hospital post-surgery, accompanied by a long-form caption detailing the experience.

"Tonight I’m hugging Luna’s teddy, which she gave me as I left her for surgery," Franks wrote.

"It's my comfort in a sea of sadness and I’m clinging to it like a life raft, breathing in her smell, feeling her presence and warmth. Its little furry body is soaked with a torrent of tears that I can’t seem to stop.

"I lie here with a broken heart as I recover from surgery to finally remove my ovaries. The grief and pain is excruciating. I feel as if my chest is going to burst as I mourn the loss of children I can no longer bear," she continued.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CAMILLA (@camillawithlove)

Just months after giving birth to her daughter, Luna Gypsy, in 2018, Franks was diagnosed with breast cancer. 

She went through six months of intense chemotherapy and underwent a double mastectomy, breast reconstruction, and the removal of her fallopian tubes.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CAMILLA (@camillawithlove)

"This hideous journey of breast cancer never ends," she wrote.

"The gut-wrenching fear, sickness and debilitating rounds of immediate treatment are one thing, but it goes on. I have a harmful BRCA2 gene variant and with that diagnosis came a horrible reality.

"That not only did I have to fight the breast cancer I had, I also had to prevent the future cancers I was so much more likely to get – more breast cancer, ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, and others. 

"I had to fight to save my life. A life which is so much more precious now that I have a little girl who loves and needs me," she said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CAMILLA (@camillawithlove)

Franks detailed the road to this surgery.

"First was the discovery of a lump, and the heartache of having to wean my 8-week old baby off my breast within days. Then 6 months of the bazooka of all chemo to attack my cancer, successfully. Then my treatment shifted to prevention," she wrote. 

"I underwent a double mastectomy, saying goodbye to my breasts which had only just been nourishing my beautiful newborn. Next went my fallopian tubes. But now, this. The divine essence of my womanhood. My ovaries, the most sacred givers of life, being taken from me, leaves the biggest hole of all."

Read more: "Dear future me..." After surviving breast cancer, Camilla Franks shares a letter of hope.

The fashion designer, behind the eponymous label Camilla, explained that behind all the sparkles is a private battle.

"Everyone has a public face, but we all have our private side too. And sometimes it’s a private hell. I want you to know that behind the scenes of all the glamorous fashion shoots, parties, events and all the wonderful creative explosions of my brand, a different story has been playing out in private," Franks wrote.

"I’ve spent the past 18 months in pursuit of the dream of becoming a mother again," she said.

"I kept putting this final lifesaving surgery off in the hope that I could pull off a miracle. But five unsuccessful rounds of IVF later, with all the hope and disappointment they brought, has delivered me to this point. I just really wanted to carry a baby again. I wanted to have a brood of bubbas, and now must accept that I will have one biological child."

She also hopes her honesty will inspire women to fight for their bodies too.

"I’m sharing this latest reality in my fight for life in the hope that I can inspire action," Franks wrote. 

"My hope is that you will stay vigilant with your own bodies, that you will support each other through treatment – however long it takes, and that you will fund the organisations that can change the statistics.

"Today, I am more determined than ever to fight to find a cure and wipe this bloody breast cancer off the face of the earth. I never want to see my daughter, or any other person go through this," she said.

"There will always be an undertone of grief and sadness but I will thrive again. I will laugh. I will feel joy. Because that is who I am. I’m a fighter and I will be ok, but right now I’m not."

Franks also urges her followers to donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which you can do here.

Feature image: Instagram/@camillawithlove