Mama June’s Health Issues: Her Vision Problems, Surgeries & Weight Loss
Mama June Shannon is back for another season of Mama June: From Hot to Not on Friday, March 13. Last year, the show focused on the family coping with Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell’s death after her cancer battle, but since then, Mama June has dealt with some of her own health issues.
She opened up about her struggles ahead of the new season premiere, and has spoken about past medical problems she’s faced over the years. Scroll down for everything we know about her diagnoses, surgeries, and weight loss.
What is Mama June diagnosed with?
Mama June is legally blind. “My eye problems started when I was born. I was born with cataracts and nothing was ever done,” she explained on a 2018 episode of Mama June: From Hot to Not. “I went blind in my right eye four years ago and now my good eye is really bad.”
After waking up one morning unable to see at all, Mama June visited her ophthalmologist and found out she had a detached retina. Mama June is completely blind in her right eye and has vision problems with her left.
In 2025, she suffered a different medical scare. “I did have some fibroid cysts that went to separated cysts, and we had a little scare,” she told Page Six. She said she feared that the diagnosis could’ve been ovarian cancer, which it was not.
In the 2026 update with Page Six, June admitted she was going through menopause and still “dealing with [other] medical issues,” which she did not specify. “I tell people, ‘We know it’s not ever gonna kill me, but it could immobilize me,'” she added.
What surgeries did Mama June have?
After detaching her retina, Mama June had emergency surgery to fix the issue. “We’re going to have to give you what’s called a scleral buckle,” the doctor told her. “The buckle will help to reattach the retina to the surface of the eye.”
As of a June 2018 interview, June had had four surgeries in her left eye to try to repair the little vision she had left. She rated her vision as a “four out of 10” following the last procedure.
When doctors found the fibroid cysts in 2025, she also had a hysterectomy. “It was not expected,” June clarified, of the procedure that removed her uterus.
In 2016, the reality star also underwent gastric sleeve surgery to help with weight loss (more on that below).
How did Mama June lose weight?
June was 450 pounds when she had her surgery in 2016. She ended up losing nearly 300 pounds in the months that followed the procedure, and was able to fit into a size 4 “revenge dress.”
However, by April 2024, she shared that she had gained back 130 pounds, which is when she turned to weight loss medication. “I decided to go with semaglutide a couple months ago through my main doctor,” she shared.
Two months later, June revealed she lost 30 pounds in just nine weeks, but said she still had 74.2 pounds to go. “It isn’t as fast as a gastric sleeve or a gastric bypass, but it is doing it, like, more safer,” she explained, adding that she had also begun to work out three to four times a week and adopted healthier eating habits.
Mama June: From Hot to Not, Friday, March 13, 9/8c, WE TV
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