fifi ivf journey

'You get a very rude shock.' Pregnant Fifi Box's emotional admission about IVF on The Project.

When Fifi Box announced her pregnancy on Monday, fans celebrated the radio host’s incredible news, sharing in her “absolute pure joy”. For there was something extra special about this announcement. It was one that didn’t look like most.

By sharing she’d used an anonymous sperm donor, Fifi, who is a single mum to five-year-old daughter, Trixie, reminded us that not all families look the same, and that “miracles” can happen in a number of different ways.

Speaking on The Project on Tuesday night, the 41-year-old shared more about what it took to expand her beautiful family, including how the odds were overwhelmingly stacked against her.

“It’s just so good to be able to talk about it. It’s been a really private journey,” she told the panel. “A few years ago, probably three years ago, I made the decision that the right path for me and our little family was to go through IVF with the help a donor.

“I think most women in their late 30s would know that when you walk in to see an IVF specialist and you’re shown the graph that gives you a very rude shock about your chances. From then on it was a case of fingers crossed. I had my eggs retrieved, and all of this is happening. You don’t share it necessarily because you don’t know if you’re going to have any success.

“I was given a seven per cent chance of having a baby. It’s still a bit of a shock to me, it’s still sinking in.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fifi Box (@fifi_box) on Feb 9, 2019 at 11:05pm PST

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In announcing the pregnancy via Instagram, the Fox FM broadcaster acknowledged that not all women who undergo IVF are as fortunate as her.

“I will cherish Trixie and this little angel forever, and hold them so close for the rest of our lives.”

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Top Comments

I honestly believe it's the scare-mongering from doctors and media that stresses women to the point they have trouble conceiving. You never see anything mentioned about men's fertility. Both my grandmothers and great-grandmother had children in their mid to late forties... and it wasn't considered a "miracle" back then.

Mens' fertility rates worldwide are also dropping, but it is scientific fact that a woman's fertility decreases as she ages - and IVF clinics full of older women are a testament to this. Every time there is a story advising women about fertility rates, there will be a raft of anecdotal stories of someone's mother or grandmother achieving a successful pregnancy in their late 40s, early 50s. It is not for me to say they are not true stories, but any gynae will tell you that those cases are more the exception than the rule.

Oh, for heaven's sake. Doctors aren't out "scaremongering" - it's SCIENTIFIC FACT that conceiving children after a certain age becomes more difficult than it is in your late teens and twenties. There is no grand conspiracy amongst doctors to scare and lie to people for sh*ts and giggles. The extraordinary fecundity of your grandmothers and great-grandmother doesn't invalidate simple biology, and anecdotal evidence means jack in this context. All you're doing is quoting statistical outliers.

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Fifi box tells of ‘heartbreaking’ revelation: ‘it was like a blow to my gut’.

Fifi Box wows on the red carpet

Fifi Box had achieved her “dream”, enjoying a stellar career throughout her 30s as a beloved radio star.

So when the Melbourne-based media personality reached her late thirties and looked to expand her family, Box realised she was nearly out of time.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Fifi Box wows on the red carpet.

While she had welcomed her first daughter Trixie, 10, with ex-husband Grant Kenny , Box had to turn to IVF to welcome her second.

Despite being single, the mother pressed forward with the process using a sperm donor, going on to welcome her second daughter Daisy, now three.

“It’s the only thing I really care about … When Trixie was two, and I was 38, 39, I did suddenly go, ‘Hang on a second, I want more children. I’d love that,” she told the Something to Talk About podcast.

Fifi Box and her children on Christmas Day.

“I now realise that women don’t have the luxury of ‘the right time’ – because the first appointment I had with my IVF doctor, I was thinking, I’ve seen Hollywood actresses have babies (in their) mid 40s, I’ve got years up my sleeve.

“He showed me the graph and said, ‘You’ve got basically a seven to nine per cent chance of conceiving’. It was like a blow to my gut. ‘Oh, this might not happen. I might not have another child’.”

Box, now 46, said that she was quick to go “down the path of egg retrieval”.

“I’ve got the rest of my life to fall in love but I don’t have the rest of my life to have this baby,” she said.

Following the embryo-making process, two of Box’s 30 eggs became embryos because of the “quality” and her age.

Falling pregnant with Daisy, Box has been conscious that her journey with IVF is a “success story” - noting that it can often have a different outcome.

“Even the fact that it was a seven per cent chance of success and I got my baby,” she said.

“My heart broke. Because going in and out of the clinic, I’d see women in tears. A nurse would come in, get the box of tissues and take them to the next room.

“I had a little guilt that I’d had such a successful experience when so many other women were suffering. It’s a tough journey.”

Box also called out the need to change the narrative that women should meet “the one” before thinking about conceiving children.

Fifi Box has been open about her struggle conceiving.

“In my 20s, in my early 30s, I did have a few relationships. But I haven’t met ‘the one’.

“I certainly hadn’t met somebody I felt was a life partner. I’ve been in love, and I could have gone with that feeling, but it never felt right.”

She recalled other friends who had children with their partners who were not quite the right fit - and the relationship later ended despite welcoming children.

The radio star first spoke of her “miracle pregnancy” with Daisy in 2019, sharing at the time that she was filled with “pure joy”.

“We’re having a baby! Yes Trixie and I are over the moon/jumping out of our skin/can’t stop smiling/floating on air/dancing in the streets/walking on sunshine and every other metaphor that conveys absolute pure joy,” she said on Instagram .

Fifi Box with children Trixie and Daisy.

“How did this happen you might ask?

“Well, a few years ago I made an appointment to see an IVF specialist ... and I began an IVF journey to extend our little family.

“After a series of egg retrievals and freezing, last year I started the process to become pregnant via an anonymous donor.”

Box and Kenny split in 2012 when she was five months pregnant with Trixie, New Idea reported.

Despite ongoing speculation, Trixie was not confirmed as Kenny’s child until she was three years old.

Kenny was previously married to Lisa Curry and together they have three children, Jett, 29, Morgan, 31 and Jaimi, who died aged 33 in 2020.

For more engaging celebrity content, visit 7Life on Facebook .

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Fifi Box opens up about second pregnancy and suffering from severe morning sickness

By Jessica Chandra | 6 years ago

Fifi Box has shared more details about her second pregnancy, including how she fell pregnant and the "debilitating" morning sickness she has been struggling with.

Speaking on her Fox FM breakfast show Fifi, Fev & Byron with co-host Byron Cooke this morning -- Brendan Fevola was off after undergoing a vasectomy a week earlier -- the 41-year-old TV and radio presenter ecstatically announced, "Yes, it's official -- I am pregnant!"

"It's so good to finally say it," she continued, "because it's been such a long journey -- for me, obviously, and for people close to me, and my family -- but to finally just be able to breathe out !"

When Cooke told her how much she was showing with this pregnancy, Fox explained, "They always say the second pops out faster, and whoa, this one popped out very quickly."

Box, who is already mother to 5-year-old daughter Trixie Belle, went on to reveal more about her IVF journey, which she mentioned in her Instagram Post that broke the news on Sunday afternoon.

"My IVF journey started a couple of years ago," she said. "I knew I wanted to expand my little family, and my love for Trixie, and I thought what a blessing it would be for her to have a sibling. So I went to an IVF specialist, Dr Sameer Jatker, who was amazing and so incredible, and a few years ago we started egg retrieval -- so I started freezing my eggs and went through that process -- and then last year, with the help of a donor, I went about falling pregnant."

Box said she knew how lucky she was to conceive as easily as she did.

"It happened -- and I said this in my message last night, and I do mean it -- I'm so lucky and blessed, because even just being part of the IVF process and going to the clinic, I could see the heartbreak, and so many women and couples on really heartbreaking journeys with IVF," she continued. "I had a very slim chance of having a successful pregnancy -- in fact it was a 7 per cent chance of this being successful."

Despite her happiness, Box described her first trimester as "tough". "I don't do pregnancy well, and I've been so sick, and for people who were aware that I was sick and not at work at the end of last year, I was in hospital on a drip, and I suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum, which is a very debilitating form of morning sickness," she said. "Kate Middleton went and got it, and now apparently I'm just copying her."

"But it was so debilitating that it didn't allow me to experience that joy, and I think for any women who have struggled to fall pregnant, and know that it's a high risk pregnancy, you really don't relax, and you really don't let it sink in. So I've been so lucky, I've completed lots of tests and scans that have told me, assured me, that we've got a really healthy baby on the way."

Cooke revealed another fun fact about Box when she's expecting: "You also have an obsession with laying on bean bags when you're pregnant."

Box laughed. "As I said, I don't do pregnancy well."

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Fifi Box reveals years long battle for miracle baby

Fifi Box fought back tears as she discussed the “very private” and lengthy process to get pregnant via IVF on The Project.

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An emotional Fifi Box has opened up about her “very private” and years-long IVF battle after being given just a seven per cent chance of getting pregnant.

Box, who revealed she was expecting a second child via an anonymous sperm donor over the weekend , fought back tears as she discussed her pregnancy on Tuesday night’s episode of The Project.

“Thank you guys, I’m getting really emotional,” Box said after the rest of the panel congratulated her.

“This is really exciting news for me and (daughter) Trixie obviously, our little family. It’s just so good to be able to talk about it because it’s been a really private journey.”

Fifi Box fought back tears as she discussed her pregnancy

Box, 41, recounted how she had decided to try and have another child nearly three years ago but had been given “a very rude shock” when she found out her chances of conceiving.

“I made the decision that the right path for me and my little family was to go through IVF with the help of a donor,” she said.

“So I went to the clinic, I think most women in their late 30s would know that when you walk in to see an IVF specialist and you’re shown the graph, that gives you a very rude shock about your chances.

“From then on it was a case of fingers crossed, and I had my eggs retrieved and all of this is happening.

Lisa Wilkinson held hands with Fifi Box as she discussed her pregnancy

“(But) you don’t share it necessarily because you don’t know if you’re going to have any success.

“I was given a seven per cent chance of having a baby, so it’s still a bit of a shock for me, it’s still sinking in but we’re just really thrilled.”

Box, who is frequently targeted by the tabloids with false stories about her personal life, joked that for once the stories about her being pregnant were true.

“Well I thought I’d time it because they’d gone quiet for a few months and I went. ‘I’ll sneak it in now, let’s do it while they’re not watching!”’ Box said.

Box broke the news she was pregnant by sharing a cute Instagram video of her telling five-year-old Trixie she was expecting.

After years of mystery in 2016 Box confirmed former Ironman Grant Kenny was the father of Trixie in an Instagram post.

The pair had enjoyed a brief romance in 2012 and are said to be on good terms.

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Fifi, Fev & Nick - 101.9 The Fox Melbourne

Fifi's IVF Journey

Fifi takes us on a never-before-told journey through her decision to undertake IVF, the struggles, and answers listener questions related to the journey.

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The Fifi, Fev & Nick Catch Up Extended – 101.9 Fox FM Melbourne - Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola & Nick Cody

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Fifi Box welcomes adorable baby girl with floral name

Fifi Box is a mumma of two beautiful daughters, after giving birth to her second little girl.

The TV and radio star took to Instagram this morning to show off her new family of three – with big sister, six-year-old Trixie all smiles as she welcomed Daisy Belle Box to the world.

“And just like that our perfect little family became a whole lot ‘perfecter’.” Fifi wrote. “Trixie and I are so hopelessly in love with Daisy, we can’t wait to build our future with her, I am the luckiest mumma to be blessed with these two precious angels.”

View this post on Instagram My girls 💕 I couldn’t possibly be any happier 💕 💕Daisy Belle Box 💕 Trixie Belle Box A post shared by Fifi Box (@fifi_box) on Jun 25, 2019 at 3:49pm PDT

Fifi had recently shared how Trixie was getting ready for the arrival of her little sissy, including holding a ‘big sister’ party and reading books about being an older sibling .

View this post on Instagram Someone can’t wait to be a big sister!! 💕 @totbooks A post shared by Fifi Box (@fifi_box) on Jun 24, 2019 at 3:30am PDT

Fifi has been open about how difficult this pregnancy has been, as she battled hyperemesis gravidarum .

“Hyperemesis gravidarum is a terribly isolating journey of chronic nausea with no relief. I have felt poisoned every second of this pregnancy, it’s like having gastro every minute, every hour of every day for nine months. It is possibly the greatest mental and physical challenge of my life.”

View this post on Instagram I’ve had a lot of people curious about my pregnancy condition hyperemsis gravidarum (HG) and wondering what exactly is wrong with me. HG has made this much wanted and longed for pregnancy an incredibly tough journey and I’ve been happy to hide away and keep it to myself but now that I can see the finish line in sight, I feel it might be of some benefit to other sufferers to discuss it so no one else feels alone. This is the reality of how I have looked every day for 9 months, debilitated by nausea, bedridden and at times hospitalised. The easiest way of describing HG is ‘severe morning sickness’. But as fellow sufferer @amyschumer said “comparing HG to morning sickness is like having an arrow through your skull and saying it’s like a minor headache”. It is a terribly isolating journey of chronic nausea with no relief. I have felt poisoned every second of this pregnancy, it’s like having gastro every minute, every hour of every day for nine months. It is possibly the greatest mental and physical challenge of my life. And the only way through it is my daughter’s smiling face every day, the support of incredible friends and family, and knowing that each day I’m getting closer to this much wanted, longed-for baby angel 👼🏼 So for any other sufferers out there I hear you, I feel you and I know what you’re going through 😘 A post shared by Fifi Box (@fifi_box) on Jun 20, 2019 at 2:12am PDT

Other famous mums who have battled HG include Amy Schumer and Kate Middleton .

Fifi Box reveals she’s pregnant again via IVF

February 10, 2019.

Bubbly radio and TV star Fifi Box has just revealed she’s expecting her second child, via an anonymous donor and IVF. The mum-of-one shared the moment she broke the super exciting news to her five-year-old daughter Beatrix Belle Box in a sweet video.

Fifi explained on Instagram that she and Trixie, who she shares with former ironman Grant Kenny, are ‘over the moon’ and jumping out of their skin’ at the news. She explains that her journey to a second bub has been years in the making.

View this post on Instagram We’re having a baby!! Yes Trixie and I are over the moon/jumping out of our skin/can’t stop smiling/floating on air/dancing in the streets/walking on sunshine and every other metephor that conveys absolute pure joy 😍 How did this happen you might ask? Well, a few years ago I made an appointment to see an IVF specialist, the amazing Dr Sameer Jatkar at Monash IVF, and I began an IVF journey to extend our little family. After a series of egg retrievals and freezing, last year I started the process to become pregnant via an anonymous donor. I am still pinching myself that I have been this blessed and that this little miracle is growing within me, a much wanted and longed for sibling for a very excited big sister! I know the value of this miracle because I have seen first hand the heartbreak, tears and sacrifices so many women and couples suffer on their IVF journeys and my heart goes out to those who are facing that pain and struggle. It is not lost on me that I am one of the lucky ones. Being a mum is my greatest joy in life, it is quite simply everything to me. Trixie has brought me more happiness and love than I ever imagined possible and to feel my heart expanding to include this little angel kicking and rollicking within me, I am overwhelmed with how much love and happiness the future holds. I will cherish Trixie and this little angel forever, and hold them so close for the rest of our lives 💕💕💕 #family A post shared by Fifi Box (@fifi_box) on Feb 9, 2019 at 11:05pm PST

“A few years ago I made an appointment to see an IVF specialist, the amazing Dr Sameer Jatkar at Monash IVF, and I began an IVF journey to extend our little family,” Fifi explains. “After a series of egg retrievals and freezing, last year I started the process to become pregnant via an anonymous donor. I am still pinching myself that I have been this blessed and that this little miracle is growing within me, a much wanted and longed for sibling for a very excited big sister!

“I know the value of this miracle because I have seen first hand the heartbreak, tears and sacrifices so many women and couples suffer on their IVF journeys and my heart goes out to those who are facing that pain and struggle. It is not lost on me that I am one of the lucky ones. Being a mum is my greatest joy in life, it is quite simply everything to me. Trixie has brought me more happiness and love than I ever imagined possible and to feel my heart expanding to include this little angel kicking and rollicking within me, I am overwhelmed with how much love and happiness the future holds. I will cherish Trixie and this little angel forever, and hold them so close for the rest of our lives.”

We couldn’t be happier for this gorgeous mumma!

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ENTERTAINMENT

Fifi Box and Grant Kenny: Our miracle baby

Fifi Box, Grant Kenny and daughter Trixie looked every inch the picture-perfect family as they strolled the streets of Melbourne last September in a rare public outing.

And now, New Idea can reveal the trio had every reason to be smiling, as just moments earlier, radio star Fifi had just found out she was expecting her second child via IVF. Five months on, and not only is Fifi sporting a blossoming baby bump, but she’s finally shared her joy with the world.

“We’re having a baby,” Fifi announced on Instagram last week by sharing a sweet video.

The doting mum added she is “jumping out of her skin” with excitement and “can’t stop smiling”.

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While news of Fifi’s pregnancy may come as a complete shock to some, those close to the 41-year-old, including her ex-partner Grant, couldn’t be happier for her.

“A few years ago, I made an appointment to see an IVF specialist, the amazing Dr Sameer Jatkar at Monash IVF and I began an IVF journey to extend our little family,” says Fifi of her journey to motherhood.

“After a series of retrievals and freezing, last year I started the process to become pregnant via an anonymous donor. I am still pinching myself that I have been blessed and that this little miracle is growing within me.”

Fifi and Grant secretly dated in 2012 but broke up just before the former Neighbours star revealed she was pregnant with daughter Trixie – something neither have publicly addressed.

And while Fifi, who split from actor Damien Richardson last year, is adamant that Grant is not the father of baby number two, New Idea understands the former Ironman champion has been a huge support and a shoulder to lean on throughout the course of her IVF journey.

“Grant has made it very clear that he will be there for Fifi, Trixie and the new baby when he or she arrives,” a family friend reveals.

“When Fifi told him the news he had to hold back tears. He knows what this means for Fifi and for Trixie to have a sibling and for him personally, he can’t wait to have another little one crawling around, especially since becoming a grandfather.”

Grant’s daughter Morgan, whom he shares with ex-wife Lisa Curry, welcomed son Flynn into the world in March last year.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fifi Box (@fifi_box)

“Grant has been such a hands-on ‘Poppy’ and spends as much time with little Flynn as he can,” adds our source. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he is secretly hoping Fifi has a boy.”

The source adds another little one couldn’t have come at a better time for Fifi, with Trixie starting school this year.

“It’s not only a miracle but it’s perfect timing.”

In January, Fifi took to Instagram to share photos of Trixie ahead of her first day at school.

“This happened today,” she captioned the photo, along with three crying-face emojis. “How did this happen? She was just born,” she wrote on another.”

According to statistics, IVF success rates are climbing with more than 13,500 IVF babies born in Australia in 2016/17. However, the process of getting a successful result is not lost on Fifi, who wrote: “I know the value of this miracle because I have seen first-hand the heartbreak, tears and sacrifices so many women and couples suffer on their IVF journeys and my heart goes out to those who are facing that pain.”

“Being a mum is my greatest joy … it is quite simply everything to me.”

For more, pick up the latest copy of New Idea on sale now!

Milly is a journalist who passionately devours all the latest and juiciest news. A devout tea enthusiast who's a firm believer in quality downtime, Milly's weekends are usually spent relaxing with a big plate of food, a nice cuppa and the crossword.

All the stars who have been suprisingly honest about IVF

Having kids isn’t always easy – just ask these star mums who have opened up about their fertility journeys and experiences with in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

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From international powerhouses like Kim Kardashian, who used IVF to conceive her second child with Kanye West, to local stars like Nicole Kidman, IVF is not uncommon among celebrity families.

In fact, it’s probably more accessible to the rich and powerful given how expensive multiple rounds of IVF can be, but for many mums the hefty price tag is worth it.

“It’s a beautiful thing that we’d love to have happen, but the journey is a bit hard for any woman who went on it,” Kourtney Kardashian recently told Entertainment Tonight of undergoing IVF.

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We’ve collected some of the most powerful comments these star women have made about their IVF journeys below.

Kourtney Kardashian

Having just married Travis Barker , Kourtney is keen to have more children with him but confessed on The Kardashians that her IVF journey “hasn’t been the most amazing experience.”

“Every single person on social media is always like, ‘Kourtney’s pregnant, Kourtney’s pregnant, Kourtney’s gained so much weight.’ … It’s so rude to comment on people when you have no idea what they’re actually going through,” she said.

“The medication that they’ve been giving me, they put me into menopause … The medication basically put me into depression.”

Kim Kardashian

After conceiving her first child naturally, Kim turned to IVF to welcome her second, telling Elle UK : “I loved being part of a huge family – and I want that for North. We’d do IVF if nothing happens, but we both want to keep trying naturally.”

When she was unable to fall pregnant, she sought IVF but confessed it had a major effect on her body and she had a difficult pregnancy with son Saint.

She later hired a surrogate to welcome her third and fourth children, Chicago and Psalm, confessing on KUWTK : “Even though I will appreciate not having to gain the weight and then lose the weight … I so would have rather have done it on my own.”

Khloe Kardashian

The reality TV star first tried IVF in the early 2010s while married to Lamar Odom, after revealing on KUWTK that her body doesn’t ovulate and her uterine lining can’t support a pregnancy.

In 2016 she confessed on her TV show that it didn’t work, but that was for the best: “At the time, I was like ‘Ugh! Gotta have a baby’ … I thought maybe it would fix the situation. So I’m also happy that it didn’t happen. I was young, I was 27, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, a baby will fix this!'”

She went on to welcome daughter True with boyfriend Tristan Thompson in 2018 and hopes to have a second child with eggs she froze, but sadly none were viable when they were unfrozen in 2021.

Nicole Kidman

She shares daughters Sunday and Faith with Keith Urban , but the couple used IVF and a surrogate to carry Faith after struggling to conceive.

“Anyone that’s been in the place of wanting another child or wanting a child knows the disappointment, the pain and the loss that you go through trying and struggling with fertility,” Nicole told 60 Minutes .

“Fertility is such a big thing, and it’s not something I’ve ever run away from talking about.”

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness

Though the couple eventually adopted two children, Hugh opened up about his and Deborra’s experience with IVF in 2012 on Katie Couric’s US talk show.

“We did IVF and Deb had a couple of miscarriages. I’ll never forget it, the miscarriage thing … It happens to one in three pregnancies,” he said.

“But it’s very, very rarely talked about. It’s almost secretive, so I hope Deb doesn’t mind me bringing it up now.”

Chrissy Teigen

After trying to fall pregnant with husband John Legend for years, the couple turned to IVF to welcome daughter Luna and son Miles, sharing the process to normalize IVF.

“There are so many different factors that go into being able to conceive a baby. The [IVF] process really makes you appreciate that,” she said in a 2018 interview with The Cut .

“But it’s also easy to grow resentful of how easy it is for some people, when you’re literally mixing your own powders and chemicals to inject into your belly, shoving progesterone up there.”

Chrissy added that it’s easy to think IVF will work on the first try but that’s rarely the case and it can be hard for mothers not to blame themselves.

Jesinta Franklin

Jesinta went through several rounds of IVF before falling pregnant with her two kids with Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin, Tullulah and Rocky.

“I had struggled to fall pregnant and there had been losses along the way, as a woman who had been through that I felt like I was doing so many couples a disservice to come out and say, ‘Surprise we are pregnant’,” she told the Herald Sun. “I know that would make me feel even worse about our pregnancy journey. I wanted other women to find comfort in the fact that this was not a surprise. It really was an effort and took us a long time.”

Sonia Kruger

“When I went into that first round of IVF (around 45) I learned that my chances of success [conceiving naturally] were zero. The doctor telling me that was quite confronting,” she told the Herald Sun of conceiving daughter Maggie through IVF . “I was surprised by that information because like a lot of women I’d seen high-profile women fall pregnant in their late 40s and thought, ‘Well, it’s possible’.

“But I didn’t know the details until the doctors said, ‘Make no mistake; these women will have used egg donors.’”

Amy Schumer

After welcoming son Gene in 2019, the actress began her IVF journey to give him a sibling but was left feeling “really run down and emotional” just one week into treatment.

“I did IVF, we made embryos and I went through the IVF process, which is so hard. People do it so many times. I did it one time and I was like, I’m gonna die. This is awful,” she later told Chelsea Handler on her podcast.

“We only got one normal embryo and we tried and it didn’t work … and now I don’t have a uterus… So we’re gonna have just one child and we’re just enjoying our little family and I’m just focusing on that.”

Recalling her fertility journey in her memoir Is This My Beautiful Life? , the now mum-of-two said she often struggled with comparisons and other people’s comments.

“I wanted to scream, ‘I’m on IVF and I don’t know if I can be a mum… Don’t tell me how wonderful it is to be a mother! And don’t you dare complain about how tired you are’,” she penned.

“As I listened to them I made a promise never to bore people with endless stories of my children. I would never whinge, complain or find it difficult once I had my precious child. I would know how hard fought it had been.”

Jackie Gillies

The Real Housewives of Melbourne star had almost given up on becoming a mum when she finally fell pregnant in 2021 after multiple rounds of IVF.

“I’ve gone through over seven rounds of IVF, egg retrieval and transfers,” she told The Herald Sun before welcoming her twins.

“A lot of ups and downs and it’s been emotionally challenging but to get to where we’ve got to has been so rewarding. You’ve got to keep pushing forward and having faith.”

Wife Isabella carried and delivered daughter Svea in 2020 after two failed rounds of IVF, so in 2021 Moana decided to experience pregnancy for herself.

“From what I’m told, pregnancy is like a roller coaster of an experience,” Moana told Now To Love before announcing she was expecting.

“I’m trying to carry the second one, which is going to be exciting! I know at the same time, watching Belle go through it was one experience, but doing it yourself is completely different.”

Fiona Falkiner

Fiona and wife Hayley Willis welcomed son Hunter in 2021 after multiple gruelling rounds of IVF, with Fiona calling the daily injections and regular tests a real “mental battle”.

“IVF can be quite a sad process… it really is a difficult thing,” Fiona told Woman’s Day in 2022, while Hayley was pregnant with their second child.

“I’m so lucky to have Hayley as a partner and that on my second full round of IVF we had Hunter… he was a little miracle.”

After welcoming daughter Trixie with ex-partner Grant Kenny, Fifi opted for IVF and a sperm donor to conceive her second child, Daisy.

But it wasn’t easy, as Fifi learned when her doctor showed her a confronting chart of the likelihood of a woman falling pregnant over 40.

“I had just turned 40 and saw the graph and just panicked. This is a real problem for me so we got the eggs out. I did two egg retrievals and I was so lucky, I got 30 eggs and then we froze the eggs,” she said on Byron Cooke’s podcast.

“Then I went through the 12 month period getting a donor and working out that path I was going to go on. I ended up with three embryos… because of my age I was so lucky to have three embryos and on my first transferal I got Daisy. I still pinch myself with how lucky I am.”

Maddison is a senior journalist covering everything from celebrity news, to entertainment, fashion and beauty.

Trump says he would make IVF treatments free for families if he's elected

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What’s IUI? What’s IVF? A look at the fertility treatments the Walz family is talking about

Vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz celebrates with his daughter, Hope, his son, Gus, and wife, Gwen, at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Aug. 21, in Chicago. The Walzes clarified last week that they didn’t use IVF but another kind of fertility treatment to grow their family. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The broader scope of fertility treatments entered the spotlight last week after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, shared that they had children through a less commonly known procedure.

Since Vice President Kamala Harris selected Gov. Walz as her running mate, he has discussed his family’s fertility journey during speeches in Pennsylvania , Nebraska and mostly recently at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois .

“It took Gwen and I years,” Walz said on Wednesday night. “But we had access to fertility treatments. And when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.”

Last week, the Walzes clarified that they conceived via intrauterine insemination, not in vitro fertilization.

IUI involves injecting sperm into the uterus during or just before ovulation to increase the chances of fertilization and pregnancy.

“Our fertility journey was an incredibly personal and difficult experience. Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time — not even sharing the details with our wonderful and close family,” Gwen Walz said in a statement provided to States Newsroom. “The only person who knew in detail what we were going through was our next door neighbor. She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process.”

During IVF, eggs and sperm are combined in a lab and an embryo is inserted into the uterus. IVF has been drawn into national reproductive rights debates for much of this year, and Walz has been talking about it on the campaign trail while discussing his family’s fertility journey.

U.S. Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, accused his opponent of lying about how he and his wife had children. In an Aug. 20 social media post, Vance said , “Today it came out that Tim Walz had lied about having a family via IVF. Who lies about something like that?” He also shared a clip of Walz talking about fertility care and families on Aug. 9 .

In a statement, Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said, “Governor Walz talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.”

Experts said that patients commonly get IUI and IVF confused or refer to them interchangeably, given that in vitro fertilization is more popular.

“There’s such a huge sort of alphabet soup that comes along with assisted reproduction,” said Kimberly Mutcherson, a professor at Rutgers University-Camden who specializes in reproductive justice, bioethics, and family and health law.

Where fertilization occurs

Dr. Kelly Acharya, a fertility physician and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University, said patients’ partners are more likely to mix up the two treatments or rope related procedures into IVF.

“A lot of times in my line of work, I see people that are referring to other things, like egg freezing, they call that IVF, even though technically it’s not,” she said.

Both Acharya and Mutcherson said the main differences between IUI and IVF are where fertilization occurs, the price and effectiveness.

“Intrauterine insemination or IUI is basically less invasive. It’s typically less expensive, and it is often what is recommended as the first thing that somebody tries,” Acharya said. “When somebody has mild forms of infertility, like if there are mild differences in the semen analysis, or if somebody is young and they’re not quite sure why they’re not getting pregnant, then often a provider will recommend that they do IUI as a first step to help things along.”

IUI is performed during or near ovulation, and it typically takes 10 minutes and is a minor procedure, according to Acharya. The price of IUI varies, depending on insurance coverage, from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars .

Mutcherson noted that some people also confuse IUI with intracervical insemination, or ICI. During this method, the sperm is inserted into the cervix — the passageway to the uterus, according to the Carolina Fertility Institute .

Doctors often recommend ICI or IUI as a precursor to IVF, which Mutcherson said can cost $12,000 to $15,000 per cycle — or more with grading and genetic testing. During IVF, “fertilization happens outside of the body,” Acharya said.

IUI, the treatment the Walz family used to have children, is not under the same scrutiny as IVF, which has faced opposition from anti-abortion hardliners. “It sometimes is listed as being less controversial than IVF, because it’s just helping along the natural process of getting the sperm inside the uterus and then expecting fertilization to happen inside the body,” Acharya said.

But Mutcherson said that could also be attributed to the fact that it’s a less well-known procedure.

“I think the really big issue when it comes to something like artificial insemination is that it allows people to create families that a lot of these folks — unfortunately, in the Republican Party and folks who are evangelicals — don’t approve of: families with two moms, families with two dads, single women who are having children,” she said.

Price is a significant barrier to fertility care. Only 21 states require insurers to cover fertility procedures, Stateline reported. A successful birth via IVF can cost more than $60,000, according to a 2022 study published in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology.

“It requires a lot more physically, emotionally and economically to be able to do IVF,” Mutcherson, who conceived via IUI, said.

Alabama case heightened awareness

IVF became a national reproductive rights issue in February after the Alabama Supreme Court likened frozen embryos to “unborn children” in a ruling. The plaintiffs were couples who sued for damages under an 1872 wrongful death of children law after their embryos were accidentally destroyed in a clinic four years ago, Alabama Reflector reported. Alabama’s fertility clinics temporarily closed after the ruling until Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation in March shielding providers from criminal and civil liabilities, the Reflector reported.

But there’s still uncertainty over whether embryos and fetuses in the state have legal “personhood” rights. Despite the new law, two fertility clinics in Alabama announced plans to close by the end of the year, though one denied the decision was related to the ruling.

Since the Alabama ruling, polls have shown most Americans back IVF. A survey conducted by Pew in April found that 70% said IVF is a good thing, while 22% said they’re not sure, and 8% said it’s a bad thing. Awareness is growing, too: 42% of Americans said they or someone they know have had fertility treatments , according to a 2023 Pew poll.

Nationally, Republicans and Democrats condemned the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling and filed bills seeking to protect IVF this spring, though all of them stalled in Congress. The Republican Party’s platform featured support for both IVF and the equal protections clause of the 14th Amendment, which conservative legal scholars argue can be used to solidify “ fetal personhood ” along with effectively banning abortion. And in June, the Southern Baptist Convention — the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. — voted to condemn IVF, particularly the destruction or donation of embryos that are not implanted in the uterus.

“People who believe that life begins at conception, people who believe that an embryo is no different than a 5-year-old sitting in a kindergarten classroom, those are people who have really deep and abiding principles related to procedures like in vitro fertilization,” Mutcherson said.

The number of babies born in the U.S. using assisted reproductive technology has increased in recent years: 2.5% of newborns were conceived using fertility treatments in 2022, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine . That’s up from 2.3% in 2021 , per federal data.

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Christian Parents Have a Blueprint for IVF

Instead of maximizing the numbers of embryos created, some couples are trying to create only as many as they’ll use.

Embryo selection for in-vitro fertilization (IVF), light micrograph

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

Updated at 4:28 p.m. at August 27, 2024 For many Christian families who desire children, in-vitro fertilization has long held an uneasy position. To maximize the chances of a viable pregnancy, IVF usually involves creating more embryos than a given couple is likely to use. But for couples who consider each embryo a human life, destroying the extras—or donating them for research, or freezing them in perpetuity—can go against their core beliefs.

Instead, some couples turn to options such as compassionate transfer, in which a spare embryo is released into a patient’s body at a time when she’s unlikely to get pregnant. Others choose to fertilize only a few of the eggs they produce. Still others, in a process called minimal-stimulation IVF—or mini-IVF—use less medication than in a conventional IVF cycle, in order to limit egg production.

These ways of navigating the ethics of fertility treatment could become more standard—and perhaps more couples’ only options—amid legal challenges to IVF. Earlier this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created through IVF are children and cannot be destroyed without “incurring the wrath of a holy God”; more than a dozen states have recently considered bills that would codify legal rights for embryos. The Catholic Church reiterated its long-standing opposition to IVF in a letter to the U.S. Senate, and this spring the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, voted to oppose IVF.

Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, Tennessee, goes further than perhaps any other clinic in its emphasis on this type of treatment and its explicit mission to practice IVF in a way that takes into consideration a patient’s religious concerns. It has become a destination for Christian parents trying to navigate the morals and ethics of IVF. Typically during a round of IVF, a patient receives up to 90 injections over two weeks to help the ovaries develop and release potentially dozens of eggs in a single menstrual cycle. Rejoice offers conventional IVF, but it more routinely performs mini-IVF, in which a patient receives oral fertility medications and only a few days of low-dose hormone shots. The clinic also offers natural-cycle IVF, which uses the single egg that a woman ovulates each month for fertilization and transfer. At least 85 percent of the clinic’s patients are there for mini-IVF and natural-cycle IVF, according to John David Gordon, the clinic’s medical director.

Natural-cycle and minimal-stimulation IVF date back to the 1970s, when the procedure was first introduced. Fertility clinics in Europe and Japan have been using a lower-dose form of IVF for years. Because it involves fewer hormones, it’s thought to lower the negative side effects for patients, including the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which causes the ovaries to swell and can be life-threatening in rare cases. Most clinics in the United States prefer to use conventional IVF because it has a higher success rate, Sean Tipton, the chief advocacy and policy officer for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, told me. (Monitoring and newer injection protocols have also limited the risk of severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.)

Gordon’s own religious convictions led him to put more emphasis on treatments that limit embryo creation. He devises his patients’ treatment protocols based on the family each one sees themselves having and the number of embryos they’re comfortable creating. For example, if a couple wants two children, he’ll walk them through the math: Fertilizing six eggs will probably yield two or three viable embryos, and one or two of those could turn into children. If the couple is uncomfortable with six, they could start with four.

“You're not put in the position of having 18 embryos in the freezer,” he said. “For some patients, even one extra embryo in the freezer is too many.”

When Rachel and Rollin Mayes chose to see a fertility specialist in 2022, they had been trying to have a baby for eight years, and Rollin, a pastor at a church in College Station, Texas, had long wondered whether to just accept that God didn’t have plans to give them a child. But Rachel, who leads the church’s ministry for students at Texas A&M University, wanted to find a way to pursue fertility treatment without compromising her religious beliefs, which is how they eventually ended up at Rejoice for mini-IVF.

The Mayeses knew, going in, that they wanted to honor their religious convictions, more than maximize their results. “We’re not trying to stand on high ground here in terms of ‘this is how this ought to be done,’” Rollin said. “I do think that it is important, broadly speaking for couples and particularly couples of faith, to make sure that they understand the process, and their ethics are aligned with the technology.”

No large study has directly compared success rates for mini-IVF and traditional methods; one 2017 study did show that the live-birth rate peaked for patients who’d had 15 to 25 eggs retrieved. For mini-IVF, the retrieval numbers are closer to three to eight. Many proponents of mini-IVF argue that, even if fewer eggs are retrieved, those eggs are of better quality and are more likely to lead to pregnancy. The theory is that conventional IVF could be overriding the body’s natural selection of the most viable of a woman’s eggs to ovulate in a month. But some studies have found no association between the dosage of medication given in an IVF cycle and the quality of the eggs, though it is true that the number of viable eggs does not increase proportionally to the number of eggs retrieved.

“Many eggs that are ovulated are not capable of fertilization, growing into an embryo, or being a healthy embryo that can implant. The whole premise of IVF is to try to overcome that by starting with the greatest number of eggs possible,” says Lucky Sekhon, a reproductive endocrinologist at the fertility clinic RMA of New York. For patients who have objections to creating multiple embryos, she still recommends the conventional protocol for retrieving eggs, but will leave some eggs unfertilized before freezing them.

Limiting the number of embryos isn’t the only potential draw to mini-IVF. Several fertility doctors told me that it can be a low-cost option that makes IVF accessible to more patients. From the beginning, a couple doing mini-IVF typically knows they might go through more cycles than in conventional IVF. Each round, however, is cheaper—$5,000 to $8,000, compared with $15,000 to $30,000. Thawing just a few eggs or embryos at a time can add to these fees, depending on the pricing structure of the clinic.

For now, Rejoice remains an outlier in its emphasis on mini-IVF. Kendra Knox, a writer and radio host for the American Family Association, a nonprofit ministry in Tupelo, Mississippi, told me that when she asked clinics about mini-IVF as a first-line treatment, they’d acted as if she’d made a bizarre request. “You would have thought I had a second head growing,” she said. She ended up at Rejoice, and is currently pregnant with her second baby from her third round of mini-IVF.

When Knox started IVF, she told Gordon she wanted to aim for three to five eggs from her cycle to produce just two or three embryos. Freezing any embryos at all made her nervous, because she was worried that if something happened to her or her husband, those embryos would never have a chance to be born. Gordon’s practice was aligned with her wishes. It is also a no-discard facility, meaning that every viable embryo it creates is either transferred into the patient who requested its creation, frozen for future use by that patient, or, in rare cases, donated to embryo-adoption agencies.

Gordon told me he believes that Rejoice is the only IVF clinic in the country that has a no-discard policy, and I wasn’t able to find any others, either. But even this set of practices might not answer every objection to IVF. Though Rejoice’s policies reduce the number of embryos that end up being frozen, they don’t eliminate the chance of one being accidentally destroyed, for example by being dropped when being handled in the freezer, as in the incident that spurred the Alabama court’s decision on embryo personhood. And for some Christians, separating conception from the act of sex is still problematic.

The Mayeses’ first round of mini-IVF at Rejoice resulted in two embryos. But neither resulted in a pregnancy. Rachel and Rollin were devastated, but a reader of a blog they run about their fertility journey for their friends, family, and ministry partners offered to sponsor another round. This time, nine of Rachel’s eggs were successfully retrieved. After choosing to fertilize eight eggs, the couple ended up with six embryos. In April of this year, they had their first child. They plan to use the remaining embryos in the next few years, and welcome the rest of their family, however big it ends up being, into the world.

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What’s IUI? What’s IVF? A look at the fertility treatments the Walz family is talking about

Vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz celebrates with his daughter Hope, son Gus and wife Gwen at Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Aug. 21, in Chicago. The Walzes clarified this week that they didn’t use IVF but another kind of fertility treatment to grow their family. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The broader scope of fertility treatments entered the spotlight last week after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife Gwen shared that they had children through a less commonly known procedure.

“It took Gwen and I years,” Walz said on last Wednesday night. “But we had access to fertility treatments. And when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.”

This week, the Walzes clarified that they conceived via intrauterine insemination, not in vitro fertilization.

IUI involves injecting sperm into the uterus during or just before ovulation to increase the chances of fertilization and pregnancy.

In a statement, Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said, “Governor Walz talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.”

Experts said that patients commonly get IUI and IVF confused or refer to them interchangeably, given that in vitro fertilization is more popular.

“A lot of times in my line of work, I see people that are referring to other things, like egg freezing, they call that IVF, even though technically it’s not,” she said.

Both Acharya and Mutcherson said the main differences between IUI and IVF are where fertilization occurs, the price and effectiveness.

But Mutcherson said that could also be attributed to the fact that it’s a less well-known procedure.

“It requires a lot more physically, emotionally and economically to be able to do IVF,” Mutcherson, who conceived via IUI, said.

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The Australian celebrities who have bravely opened up about their struggles with infertility

Deciding to fall pregnant is the start of a unique journey that has no guarantees, and it isn’t always a straightforward process.

According to IVF Australia one in six Australian couples are affected by infertility, which is an issue that effects both men and women.

IVF Australia also reports that 40 per cent of cases are “found within the female reproductive system, and a third will have a combination of male and female factors.”

There are a host of reasons infertility may occur from problems with eggs, sperm, anatomical structure, hormonal, or immunity issues.

The infertility industry is mammoth and there are plenty of options for couples to choose like IVF , egg freezing, adoption, and surrogacy.

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Jesinta Franklin isn’t afraid to get real about parenting with these relatable mum moments

Megan Gale takes on the less glamorous side of parenting in a gnarly and unexpectedly relatable moment

The journey to conceive a child can be deeply emotional, physically exhausting, and expensive.

The process of create a family is deeply personal and the choice to be private about it is valid, but these Australian celebrities have chosen to bravely open up about their experience with infertility.

Their admissions about their experience and how it affected them has been important to help normalise alternative ways to have a child.

These are the candid stories of how Australian celebrities have braved infertility to have their children.

While the radio star welcomed her first daughter Trixie with her ex-husband Grant Kenny, Fifi turned to IVF for her second daughter Daisy.

Speaking on her Something to Talk About podcast, Fifi revealed her doctor gave her a seven to nine per cent change of conceiving at just 39 years old, just two years after giving birth to Trixie.

“It was like a blow to my gut. ‘Oh, this might not happen. I might not have another child’,” she said. “I’ve got the rest of my life to fall in love but I don’t have the rest of my life to have this baby.”

Fifi’s IVF journey is a “success story,” however she is very aware these processes can have a very different outcome.

Ellidy Pullin

After losing her soulmate, Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin in a fishing accident, Ellidy Pullin made the difficult decision to collect his sperm.

She became pregnant on the second round of IVF which is “often not the case,” confessing to the Australian Women’s Weekly : “I was like, ‘If it’s going to happen, it will happen. It’s got to be a meant-to-be thing. Chump’s got to be guiding this.'”

On October 25, 2021 Ellidy gave birth to her miracle child Minnie Alex Pullin.

Ada Nicodeou

Ada Nicodemou

After a year of trying to conceive, Ada turned to IVF and fell pregnant with her adorable son Johnas.

During the later months of her pregnancy, she told New Idea how happy she was that the IVF worked so quickly after trying for so long.

“For it to happen so quickly after we struggled for so long is a really nice surprise and we feel really, really lucky.”

Deborah Knight

Deborah opened up to Mammamia about her intense 12 rounds of IVF.

“In the morning, I was going off and having blood tests for rounds of IVF and being told that an implantation had failed and then I’d have to go into work,” she said.

“That was quite difficult to put that mask on. I would put the hair and makeup on and my mask on and go and try to do my job. It was hard.”

Penny McNamee

The Home and Away actress is mum to Jack and Neve, but in 2018 she opened up to New Idea about her infertility struggle due to her endometriosis.

“I had the surgery, and typically doctors say that you really need to fall pregnant within the first six months after. That’s your best chance because the endometriosis hasn’t started to grow back yet,” she said.

“We had planned to try for six months and then the next step for us was IVF. So to fall pregnant in the fifth month – we just felt such relief and gratitude. I was a little bit sceptical at first and didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

Hugh jACKMAN

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness

The Hollywood couple underwent multiple rounds of IVF and went through numerous miscarriages before adopting their two children, Oscar and Ava.

During an appearance on Katie Couric’s US talk show in 2012 Hugh talked about his journey to fatherhood .

“We did IVF and Deb had a couple of miscarriages. I’ll never forget it, the miscarriage thing … It happens to one in three pregnancies. But it’s very, very rarely talked about. It’s almost secretive, so I hope Deb doesn’t mind me bringing it up now.”

Jesinta Franklin

Jesinta had to undergo rounds of IVF when she was struggling to conceive. The model is now the mother to Tullulah and Rocky.

“I had struggled to fall pregnant and there had been losses along the way, as a woman who had been through that I felt like I was doing so many couples a disservice to come out and say, “Surprise we are pregnant.

“I know that would make me feel even worse about our pregnancy journey. I wanted other women to find comfort in the fact that this was not a surprise. It really was an effort and took us a long time,” she told the Herald Sun .

Emily Symons

After years of unsuccessful IVF attempts and had “given up hope,” the Home And Away star became a mother at 50 . She once feared her age would inhibit her changes of having a child.

“IVF can take over your life. It gets to the point where you’re so desperate to have a baby, everything else falls by the wayside,” she told New Idea.

In an interview with Mother & Baby in 2017, she revealed: “I spent a lot of my 30s being so anguished about not having a baby.”

“I thought it would be impossible but it isn’t. I’d given up, really, I thought I had tried every avenue that was available to us. My advice is to not give up if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole process.”

Nicole Kidman

When Nicole and Keith Urban attempted to fall pregnant for a second time, after welcoming the first daughter, Sunday Rose, together, they struggled to conceive. They eventually opted for a surrogate, and Faith Margaret was born.

During a 60 Minutes interview, Nicole revealed why she was open about her journey and the paint that came with it.

Jessica Rowe

In her emotional book This My Beautiful Life, Jessica details her journey with infertility and how seeing mothers put a strain on her mental health.

“I wanted to scream, ‘I’m on IVF and I don’t know if I can be a mum. I have just come from having a blood test to see if my body is responding to the hormones I’m pumping through my body. Don’t tell me how wonderful it is to be a mother! And don’t you dare complain about how tired you are,'” she wrote.

Everything paid off in the end, and Jessica has two daughters, Allegra and Giselle.

Sonia Kruger

Sonia gave birth to her daughter Maggie through the help of IVF, and the presenter has been open about her journey because she is passionate about normalising the treatment.

In an interview with The Herald Sun , Sonia openly discussed her journey: “When I went into that first round of IVF (around 45) I learned that my chances of success were zero. The doctor telling me that was quite confronting. It took a little while to come to terms with what I was going to do next.

“I was surprised by that information because like a lot of women I’d seen high-profile women fall pregnant in their late 40s and thought, ‘Well, it’s possible’. But I didn’t know the details until the doctors said, ‘Make no mistake; these women will have used egg donors.”

Faye Couros is a digital journalist for Now To Love, and she writes about fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and popular culture.

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Walz Family Fertility Journey Ran Not Through I.V.F. but Another Common Treatment

Unlike in vitro fertilization, the procedure used by the Walzes does not involve lab-created embryos that may be discarded, so it has not been targeted by anti-abortion leaders.

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By Amy Harmon

As Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota has introduced himself to Americans through stump speeches across the country in recent weeks, he has alluded to a journey through infertility for his family while warning that conservatives want to restrict in vitro fertilization.

“Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business,” Mr. Walz said on the night that Vice President Kamala Harris introduced him in their first joint rally in Philadelphia. “Look, that includes I.V.F. And this gets personal for me and my family.”

Many have assumed that his family relied on I.V.F. to conceive their two children. Several news outlets, including The New York Times, The Associated Press and The Minnesota Star Tribune , have reported that the family relied on in vitro fertilization. Fertility advocates concluded as much after hearing Mr. Walz talk. In April, the Tim Walz for Governor campaign office mailed out a fund-raising letter in an envelope that read: “My wife and I used I.V.F. to start a family.’’

But when asked if the Walzes wanted to share more details about their effort to conceive, the Harris-Walz campaign recently clarified that the couple did not rely on I.V.F. but rather another common fertility procedure called intrauterine insemination, or I.U.I.

The treatments have a key distinction: Unlike I.V.F., I.U.I. does not involve creating or discarding embryos. And so anti-abortion leaders are not trying to restrict the treatment.

But for people having trouble getting pregnant, the procedures are often linked. Some patients say they are “doing I.V.F.” as a catchall phrase for a wide range of fertility treatments. Mr. Walz has said that he and his wife spent seven years trying to have children.

I.V.F. has a much higher success rate than I.U.I. But reproductive endocrinologists, or fertility doctors, may suggest that people struggling with infertility start with I.U.I., which is much less expensive and less invasive. In both cases, patients often take hormone medication to induce or augment ovulation. And individuals and couples going through the two procedures often walk through similar emotional journeys, where success can bring elation but each failed attempt can be devastating.

Those who begin such treatments can also find themselves entering a world of dizzying and occasionally awkward medical terminology.

I.U.I. works by taking a sample of highly concentrated sperm and inserting it into a woman’s uterus with a catheter — effectively trying to mimic natural conception. The I.V.F. process often involves creating and freezing multiple embryos in a laboratory, and transferring those most likely to result in a healthy pregnancy.

Since Mr. Walz began sharing his story, he has typically referred to his family as having undergone “treatments like” I.V.F. “Governor Walz talks how normal people talk,’’ said Mia Ehrenberg, a campaign spokeswoman. “He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.”

By tying I.V.F. to his family’s experience, Mr. Walz has become a powerful messenger for the Democratic Party on a difficult issue for Republican leaders, who have tried to distance themselves from efforts by influential conservative Christians to restrict a popular procedure.

Infertility struggles are common. About one in seven women in this country have trouble getting pregnant or sustaining a pregnancy , according to federal data, and some 12 percent of women have used fertility services , which can include testing for themselves or their partners, ovulation medications, I.U.I., surgeries to reverse blockages and I.V.F.

I.V.F. accounted for close to 100,000 infants born in the United States in 2022, and a Pew Research Center poll from this year showed that it was viewed positively by a large majority of Americans .

The issue of I.V.F. entered the national spotlight in February when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos in test tubes should be considered children. The ruling prompted fertility clinics in Alabama to pause I.V.F. services for fear that patients or providers could be legally liable if embryos were destroyed. Republican leaders like former President Donald J. Trump scrambled to reassure voters that they supported I.V.F.

In the ensuing backlash, Democrats saw that I.V.F. could become a potent campaign issue in a consequential election year. It was also then that Mr. Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, agreed that the governor should speak more openly about their own experience, Ms. Walz said in a statement provided to The Times by the Harris-Walz campaign.

“Gwen and I have two beautiful children because of reproductive health care like I.V.F.,’’ he posted on Facebook after the ruling. “Don’t let these guys get away with this by telling you they support I.V.F. when their handpicked judges oppose it.’’

In Mr. Walz’s State of the State address a few weeks after the Alabama ruling, he characterized the decision as a “direct attack on my children.’’ On July 25, as Ms. Harris, newly seeking the presidency, considered running mates, Mr. Walz criticized Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, for “opposing the miracle of I.V.F.’’ by voting against legislation that would have protected access to the procedure.

Barbara Collura, the president of the infertility advocacy group Resolve, said that she recalled Mr. Walz addressing her organization’s annual event in 2017.

At the time, Mr. Walz was the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and Ms. Collura’s organization was pressing for veterans to have broader health insurance coverage for I.V.F. services. She recalled coming away from the speech with an understanding that Mr. Walz was “an I.V.F. dad.” Ms. Collura said she was surprised but not bothered to learn that the Walzes had undergone a different fertility treatment.

People have approached Ms. Collura in recent days about Mr. Walz, she said, saying, “somebody is actually telling their fertility story, and that is meaningful to me.”

Conversations about infertility have long been held largely in private, and so there is a lack of common public language and knowledge.

“I think every reproductive endocrinologist would agree on this: These are very delicate issues for our patients,’’ said Dr. Gerard Letterie, a reproductive endocrinologist at Seattle Reproductive Medicine. “Guys don’t want to step forward and say, ‘I have low sperm count.’ Women don’t want to say, ‘I need technology to help me get pregnant.’’’

But since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, discussions of reproductive health care have grown more frank, with more women sharing stories about harrowing pregnancies, miscarriages and efforts to conceive. And Mr. Walz appears to be breaking ground as a vice-presidential candidate by discussing his family’s experience with infertility.

In a statement, Ms. Walz, who was working as a high school English teacher as the couple was undergoing fertility treatments in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, said that the only person who knew in detail what they were going through was a next-door neighbor. “She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the I.U.I. process,’’ Ms. Walz said. “I’d rush home from school and she would give me the shots to ensure we stayed on track.’’

Ms. Walz described “the journey that is infertility” as a “desperation that can eat away at your soul.’’

In interviews, some advocates for people dealing with infertility said they were unconcerned about precisely which treatments the Walzes had undergone, and found the family to be an important voice for a large group of Americans who have often struggled in private, with little understanding from the broader public.

“That’s what politicians try to do,” said Briana Helgestad, of Lakeville, Minn., who, with her husband, Bill Helgestad, has undergone several years of infertility treatments, including I.U.I. and I.V.F. “connect with people who are voting.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of the summary with this article referred imprecisely to why some anti-abortion leaders have not opposed intrauterine insemination. It is because that procedure, unlike in-vitro fertilization, does not involve the possibility of laboratory-created embryos being discarded; it is not related to the freezing of embryos.

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Gwen Walz Is Sharing Her Fertility Struggles for the First Time

In the midst of one the most challenging moments of her life, Gwen Walz —the wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz —didn’t turn to her closest family or friends. No matter how much she loved them, she just couldn’t bring herself to share the full details of her fertility struggles, the daily reality of what trying to conceive looked like, the private agony of what it entailed.

“Our fertility journey was an incredibly personal and difficult experience,” she shares with Glamour , going into depth for the first time about her path to parenthood . “Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time.”

Instead, it was a neighbor—a nurse—who would come around to help “with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process.” A teacher, Walz would “rush home from school,” her neighbor would come over, “and she would give me the shots to ensure we stayed on track.”

IUI— intrauterine insemination —is when sperm is placed directly into the uterus (increasing the number of healthy sperm that will ideally reach the fallopian tubes) to improve the chances of egg fertilization.

The couple, who married 1994, finally gave birth to their daughter, Hope , now 23, in 2001, and their son Gus, now 17, in 2006. “Like millions of families across the country,” she says, “for years, Tim and I tried to start a family through fertility treatments.”

Tim Walz with his daughter, Hope, at Halloween

But now Gwen Walz is choosing to share more details about “the anxiety, the agony, and the desperation that can eat away at your soul” because “we hope other families find solace in our story.” And because, she says, “Knowing that pain, I cannot fathom the cruelty of politicians who want to take away the freedom for couples to access the care they need.

“After seeing the extreme attacks on reproductive health care across the country—particularly the efforts in Alabama that jeopardized access to fertility treatments—Tim and I agreed that it was time to formally speak out about our experience.”

In February 2024 the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos were legally considered children after two couples filed a wrongful death lawsuit when their IVF embryos were accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic. As a result, fearing legal challenges, multiple fertility clinics halted IVF treatment. (In vitro fertilization is a complex and physically grueling process during which eggs are retrieved from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a laboratory, before some of the fertilized embryos are placed back in the uterus.)

After widespread and bipartisan backlash , Alabama lawmakers swiftly passed a bill that shielded doctors from legal liability for the destruction of embryos, which led to clinics reopening. But the law did not explicitly address the legal question of “fetal personhood” from the original Supreme Court ruling.

While IUI treatment, which the Walzes underwent, hasn’t been directly threatened by the Alabama ruling, it’s typically far less successful than IVF—according to a paper published in 2022 , IUI typically resulted in pregnancy in 10% of every cycle, whereas IVF has an average likelihood of success of roughly 32%.

Gwen Walz with baby daughter Hope

Either way, many critics argue that if IVF is threatened, so is most fertility treatment—because if the fertility clinics shutter, access to even the less legally fraught procedures becomes harder to access. At a time when birth rates are already declining , this would have a significant impact. According to the most recent CDC data , approximately 2.3% of all infants born in the US each year are conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART), which includes IVF.

Angelina Jolie Says She Lives in LA Because of Her Divorce: ‘I Have to Be Here’

At the same time, there is a human cost to these legal battles—a perception that those who desperately want children, and who cannot conceive easily, do not count.

Mrs. Walz recently criticized Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, on a Democrat fundraising call, arguing, “If Trump had his way, I would have never become a mom.” And adding, in reference to Vance’s resurfaced “childless cat lady” comments , “if Vance had his way, that would make me a second-class citizen.”

“That’s not the future I want for my children, or your children, or any children,” she continued.

Governor Tim Walz shares his wife’s concerns. “When and if to start a family is one of our most basic freedoms in this country,” he tells Glamour . “Attacking the ability for families to even have children exposes Republicans’ true colors and shows just how far they are willing to go to limit freedom.

“This should scare the hell out of every single person in this country—no matter which political party you belong to.”

Gwen Walz says she has been “greatly touched by the women who have shared their stories with me” after she and her husband went public with their story in March 2024 for the first time. But it’s a journey full of emotional pain she might well have kept private had the political climate not shifted so dramatically.

Even today, she admits, “Many of our closest family and friends were surprised when we shared these experiences so many years later.”

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Fifi Box on her IVF journey to conceive daughter Daisy
Fifi Box reveals her 'brutal' experience with IVF
IVF Journey Final Stages
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Starting My IVF Journey: Chapter 1
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Fifi Box on her IVF journey to conceive daughter Daisy
Fifi Box opens up about her IVF journey to conceive "miracle" daughter Daisy at 40 ''I still pinch myself with how lucky I am.''
Fifi Box shares IVF journey after announcing she's pregnant.
Fifi Box shares IVF journey after announcing she's pregnant. 'You get a very rude shock.'. Pregnant Fifi Box's emotional admission about IVF on The Project. When Fifi Box announced her pregnancy on Monday, fans celebrated the radio host's incredible news, sharing in her "absolute pure joy". For there was something extra special about this ...
Radio host Fifi Box shares emotional video: 'Explosion of love'
Following the embryo-making process, only two of Box's 30 eggs became embryos because of the "quality" and her age. Fifi Box. Credit: Instagram After falling pregnant with Daisy, Box has been conscious that her journey with IVF is a "success story" - noting that it can often have a different outcome.
Fifi Box shares her IVF advice for any expectant parents
Whilst she shares her eldest with former Ironman Grant Kenny, Fifi Box welcomed her second child through IVF (in vitro fertilisation) but advises expectant parents going through the treatment to ...
Fifi Box
Well, a few years ago I made an appointment to see an IVF specialist, the amazing Dr Sameer Jatkar at Monash IVF, and I began an IVF journey to extend our little family. After a series of egg retrievals and freezing, last year I started the process to become pregnant via an anonymous donor.
Radio host Fifi Box's IVF treatment advice as she issues ...
Following the embryo-making process, two of Box's 30 eggs became embryos because of the "quality" and her age. Fifi Box. Credit: Instagram Falling pregnant with Daisy, Box has been conscious that her journey with IVF is a "success story" - noting that it can often have a different outcome.
Fifi Box opens up about second pregnancy and suffering from severe
Box, who is already mother to 5-year-old daughter Trixie Belle, went on to reveal more about her IVF journey, which she mentioned in her Instagram Post that broke the news on Sunday afternoon. "My IVF journey started a couple of years ago," she said.
Fifi Box pregnant: Radio host reveals emotional IVF battle on The
An emotional Fifi Box has opened up about her "very private" and years-long IVF battle after being given just a seven per cent chance of getting pregnant.
Fifi Box's former partners revealed
WATCH BELOW: Fifi Box on her IVF journey to conceive daughter Daisy. The trio is the ultimate family unit after Fifi welcomed second child Daisy through IVF in 2019. While Fifi, 44, insists her love life is " just not that exciting", behind-the-scenes it's a different story.
Fifi's IVF Journey
Fifi takes us on a never-before-told journey through her decision to undertake IVF, the struggles, and answers listener questions related to the journey.
Does Fifi Box have a partner? A look back at her love life
The trio is the ultimate family unit after Fifi welcomed second child Daisy through IVF in 2019. While Fifi, 44, insists her love life is "just not that exciting", behind-the-scenes it's a ...
Fifi Box's pregnancy & baby journey
Read Fifi Box's baby news as we follow her parenting journey from pregnancy, birth and beyond. Fifi has two daughters.
Fifi Box and Grant Kenny: Our miracle baby
And while Fifi, who split from actor Damien Richardson last year, is adamant that Grant is not the father of baby number two, New Idea understands the former Ironman champion has been a huge support and a shoulder to lean on throughout the course of her IVF journey.
IVF JOURNEY
Progesterone in oil shots have arrived! We're counting down to my frozen embryo transfer.
Part 3
285 Likes, TikTok video from camijoy (@cami_ivfmama): "Experience my embryo transfer day in Part 3 of the series, as I share the benefits of being hotel loyal and receiving free upgrades through the loyalty program. Follow along for insights on IVF, bed rest, and more! #CapCut #embryo #ivfjourney".
Have you ever come across a term during your fertility journey and
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Celebrities who have gone through IVF journeys speak up
Having kids isn't always easy - just ask these star mums who have opened up about their fertility journeys and experiences with in vitro fertilization (IVF). From international powerhouses like Kim Kardashian, who used IVF to conceive her second child with Kanye West, to local stars like Jackie Gillies, IVF is not uncommon among celebrity families.
Fifi Box gives birth to a beautiful baby girl
"A few years ago I made an appointment to see an IVF specialist, the amazing Dr Sameer Jatkar at Monash IVF, and I began an IVF journey to extend our little family," Fifi revealed on Instagram.
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How to get ready for a good IVF journey? 27 Aug, 2024. Tavishi Dogra. Prioritize Nutrition. Eat whole grains and lean proteins. Try not to eat too many sugary and processed foods.
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Former President Donald Trump campaigned Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin where he focused on women's reproductive care. Speaking to the crowd in Michigan, Trump said if he's elected, "your ...
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IVF has been drawn into national reproductive rights debates for much of this year, and Walz has been talking about it on the campaign trail while discussing his family's fertility journey.
Christian Parents Have a Blueprint for IVF
Updated at 4:28 p.m. at August 27, 2024 For many Christian families who desire children, in-vitro fertilization has long held an uneasy position. To maximize the chances of a viable pregnancy, IVF ...
Gwen Walz clarifies they did not use IVF in fertility journey
In a separate MSNBC hit, he said: "Thank god for IVF. My wife and I have two beautiful children." At other times, the Minnesota Democrat has said the family used technology "like IVF." Between the lines: Some experts argue that attacks on IVF could ultimately threaten other types of fertility treatments like IUI, Glamour reports.
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Fifi Box has debuted her new mystery man at her daughter's birthday party, with the new couple spotted looking affectionate outside the celebration.
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The broader scope of fertility treatments entered the spotlight last week after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife Gwen shared that they had children through a less commonly known procedure. Since Vice President Kamala Harris selected Gov. Walz as her running mate, he has discussed his family's fertility journey during speeches in Pennsylvania, Nebraska and mostly recently […]
Australian celebrities who struggled with infertility
Fifi's IVF journey is a "success story," however she is very aware these processes can have a very different outcome. (Image: Instagram)
Walz Family Fertility Journey Ran Not Through I.V.F. but Another Common
I.V.F. has a much higher success rate than I.U.I. But reproductive endocrinologists, or fertility doctors, may suggest that people struggling with infertility start with I.U.I., which is much less ...
Gwen Walz Is Sharing Her Fertility Struggles for the First Time
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and his wife Gwen Walz had kept their fertility journey private for years, until a reproductive ruling in Alabama threatened access to IVF. Now Gwen ...

'You get a very rude shock.' Pregnant Fifi Box's emotional admission about IVF on The Project.

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