Celebrities that struggle with infertility

How many times have you wished to have the perfect life of your favorite Hollywood stars? But are you sure their lives are perfect? Flash news, they aren’t. They struggle just as you in many aspects of their life. One aspect of course is infertility. Infertility can knock your door even if you are a rich movie star, and although in 2022 infertility is still considered a taboo to talk about, stars are opening the way to break that taboo. They confess their struggles, they open up about their experiences and feelings and how they managed to deal with this situation. They also state how important they found infertility communities to be and how strength you can gain from hearing other similar stories.

For that purpose we have also created a Facebook group in order to create a love circle of people that want to share their story and find comfort in hearing other people who deal with infertility too. 

Let’s see some Hollywood stars that have shared their fertility journey:

• Sarah Jessica Parker. Sara has experienced secondary infertility. This type of infertility presents when you have successfully conceived one child, but struggle to conceive another. As she was over 40 years old, doctors consulted her about the IVF risks so she decided to have a child via gestational surrogacy, and actually had two twin daughters!

• Courteney Cox, aka Monica Geller from Friends experienced several miscarriages during set without knowing why. Later she found out that she had a rare antibody in her blood that prevented full-term pregnancies. Doctors recommended IVF and after two tries she managed to give birth to a healthy daughter. 
• Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness have been outspoken about adoption for as long as we can remember. But, that wasn’t always the case. They have also tried the IVF journey twice with no success. Strength and resilience were two of the important words in this family’s dictionary.
• Nicole Kidman. She now has four children – two of which were adopted, one birthed naturally, and the last one was delivered through gestational surrogacy. Similarly to Sarah Jessica Parker, Kidman was informed of the IVF risks over the age of 40, but she is a shining example that not all hope should be lost. She used her own eggs for the process and succeeded!

• Brooke Shields. She has written a book about your fertility journey and IVF, a book worth a read for everyone struggling with infertility. After several attempts she managed to give birth to a healthy daughter. 
• Emma Thompson. Emma Thompson and her husband Greg Wise gave birth to their first daughter through IVF treatment. She has stated after her attempts and emotional rollercoaster they have experienced that “you pick yourself up, look around and see this unbelievably beautiful little baby you’ve got anyway.” She later on adopted a son also.
• Celine Dion. Strength and resilience again in Celine’s situation. After several IVF attempts she managed to give birth to 3 boys, and gave courage to many women experiencing the same.
• Chrissy Teigan. Chrissy is an infertility advocate and has spoken her truth many times on social media. Through several miscarriages she managed to conceive through IVF. In one of her interviews she stated “You realize there’s no right way to do it, or right way to react. I don’t know. There’s no right way to do IVF. You just have to keep hoping that it will happen.” 
• Khloe Kardashian. Although her life is always in the spotlight and many people consider her to lead a perfect life, this wasn’t the case. At 28 years old, she found out that her uterine lining wasn’t thick enough to support a pregnancy. Before lockdown, Khloe revealed that she was attempting a second round of IVF and would also be freezing her eggs. 

•  Elizabeth Banks. Both her sons were born via gestational surrogacy because she had a medical condition where embryos couldn’t implant in her womb, and natural conception was no option for her. Elizabeth has stated how useful she has found the fertility communities, and how strength she gained to proceed with treatment while reading other similar stories.
• Michelle Obama. Former first Lady have struggled for many years with infertility in an era where infertile people hid themselves and felt ashamed of themselves. While she was feeling lost and alone she decided to pursue IVF and then managed to give birth to her two daughters. She once said that “I think it’s the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work, and how they don’t work,”. She has also shared her experience in her memoir with the title Becoming.
•  Amy Shumer. You might know her from her comical roles in movies and think she is always this fun and outgoing person, but Amy has suffered from secondary infertility too. Although she already had one son, she tried to conceive again through IVF with no success. Brave enough she shared her story on social media and interacted with many women who dealt with the same experiences. In early 2022, she further opened up about the process of having her uterus removed, adding, “So we’re gonna have just one child and we’re just enjoying our little family and I’m just focusing on that.”

So you see it’s not always champagne, red carpets and happiness for these people too. Infertility sees no gender, age, occupation and living standards. Maybe it is even harder for famous people to deal with infertility because everyone expects them to be perfect all the time. But they are not, they struggle too, as you may struggle too, and for that reason everyone should feel able to talk about their feelings.

There are people who care, in your family circle or not, that they are there to help you deal with the emotional rollercoaster and maybe also give you advice on their own personal stories. MEDIPASS is here to help you, and make your fertility journey safer and easier, as much as possible.