There are many forms of discrimination in this country, but you know what doesn't discriminate? Infertility. Infertility affects people regardless of race, religion, sexuality, or socioeconomic status. And it's actually pretty common. It's so common that 1 in 8 couples in the United States struggle with infertility every year. What's really confounding is that even though this is an issue that affects so many people, very few speak about it openly, which gives the impression that infertility isn't nearly as common as it actually is. That's why we really appreciate when celebrities who have struggled with infertility share their stories to help spread awareness.
More from MamásLatinas: Celebrities who've opened up about not being able to have children
Infertility is generally defined as not being able to get pregnant after six months of trying if you are over 35 years old and 12 months of trying if you are under 35 years old. There are many reasons why people don't discuss infertility publicly, including fear of being stigmatized, shame, feelings of failure, and not wanting to burden others. But none of those things should even be a factor, because infertility can happen to anyone. It's awful that anyone who has already had to endure the pain of infertility should suffer in silence and feel isolated. These celebrities know what it's like to deal with the pain and difficulties of infertility, and they want others who are going through similar circumstances to know that they are not alone.
Lilliana Vazquez welcomed her first child more than six years after her first fertility treatment.
"It was just complete and over the top elation," the Emmy-award winning TV personality told People of finding out that she was pregnant for the first time. "I don't think it's a feeling I'd ever really felt before." Lilliana gave birth to a little boy, whom she named Santiago, on July 19, 2021.
Natti Natasha was told she would have to undergo IVF.
In February 2021, the Dominican singer announced that she and fiancé Raphy Pina were expecting a baby. This is a big deal, because in the past she's had uterine cysts and a fallopian tube removed. Doctors told her that in order to get pregnant she would have to try in vitro fertilization. She told People, "The hormones drive you crazy; you don't know whether to laugh, cry. But I didn't care. I was happy because I was doing it." Natti gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Vida on May 22, 2021.
Roselyn Sánchez went through many rounds of IVF.
Puerto Rican actress Roselyn Sánchez has two children and underwent fertility treatments to get pregnant both times, but with her second child, it was much more difficult. She was in her 40s at that point and had to undergo six rounds of IVF treatments.
Jordana Brewster turned to surrogacy.
Actress Jordana Brewster, who was born in Panama to Brazilian parents, has two boys now, but she wasn't able to carry them on her own. Her fertility struggles led her to become a mother via surrogacy.
Rebel Wilson shared that she got bad news.
On May 2, 2021, Rebel Wilson posted a somber looking photo of herself with the following caption that made it clear that she is dealing with fertility issues.
" I got some bad news today and didn’t have anyone to share it with…but I guess I gotta tell someone," she posted. "To all the women out there struggling with fertility, I feel ya. The universe works in mysterious ways and sometimes it all doesn’t make sense…but I hope there’s light about to shine through all the dark clouds."
Sarah Jessica Parker had twins via gestational surrogate.
In 2002, Sarah Jessica Parker gave birth to son James Wilkie Broderick. In 2009, when she and Matthew Broderick wanted to expand their family, they had twins via gestational surrogate. When asked about whether she had experienced disappointment along the way, her response was very telling. “Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t pretend otherwise,” she said. “It would be a complicated. It would be odd to have made this choice if I was able to, you know, have successful pregnancies since my son’s birth.”
Nicole Kidman is very open about her road to motherhood.
Nicole had difficulty conceiving and experienced an ectopic pregnancy and a miscarriage while she was married to Tom Cruise. She and Tom adopted Isabella and Connor in 1992 and 1995. In 2006, Nicole married Keith Urban and two years later she gave birth to their daughter Sunday Rose. Two years after that, their daughter Faith Margaret was born via gestational surrogate. "We were in a place of desperately wanting another child,” she said during an interview. “This opportunity arose for us, and I couldn’t get pregnant…children are children—you’ll die for your children. And when you feel that as a parent—that’s the unconditional love.”
Alejandra Espinoza's road to motherhood was filled with loss.
The TV personality has been candid about having three miscarriages. She said that the third one, which happened in 2013, was the hardest because it happened 13 weeks into her pregnancy when she felt sure she was going to have that child. She welcomed her first child, Matteo, with husband Anibal Marrero in 2015.
Michelle Galván experienced three losses before welcoming her daughter into the world.
The cohost of Primer Impacto was six months pregnant in 2018, when she experienced a miscarriage. Unfortunately, she would go on to have two more miscarriages. Then on July 22, 2020, she and husband Fernando Guajardo welcomed their daughter Megan into the world.
Adamari López has been candid about what it took to become a mother.
In her 2015 book, Amando, Adamari shared her struggles with infertility after battling breast cancer. Before having her daughter Alaïa Costa with partner Toni Costa, she had to end a very dangerous ectopic pregnancy. She also went through two failed IVF rounds.
Paula Garces went through a six-year IVF journey.
The Devious Maids actress first became a mother when she was 17 years old. A couple of decades later, when she wanted to have another child, conceiving was difficult for her and her husband Antonio Hernandez. She underwent IVF treatments and experienced two miscarriages before giving birth to a little boy named Antonio in 2013.
Michelle Obama turned to IVF after miscarrying.
The former first lady wrote about her fertility struggles in her memoir, Becoming. "We were trying to get pregnant and it wasn’t going well," she wrote. "We had one pregnancy test come back positive, which caused us both to forget every worry and swoon with joy, but a couple of weeks later I had a miscarriage, which left me physically uncomfortable and cratered any optimism we felt."
After the miscarriage, she underwent IVF treatments and was eventually able to have Malia in 1998 and Sasha in 2001.
Mariah Carey had a miscarriage before conceiving her twins, Moroccan and Monroe.
In an interview with Barbara Walters, Mariah Carey shared that she had a miscarriage which prompted her to seek out fertility treatments. "The main thing I did … was to go on progesterone like every month," she share. "And then when I was pregnant, I had to stay with the progesterone for 10 weeks. It minimizes the chance of miscarriage by 50%."
Chrissy Teigen has been open about her fertility issues.
Before having her daughter Luna in 2016 and son Miles in 2018, Chrissy Teigen told Tyra Banks about her struggles with IVF. “John and I were having trouble," she said in 2015. "We would have had kids five, six years ago if it had happened. But my gosh, it’s been a process." In 2020, Chrissy suffered a pregnancy loss and wrote an emotional essay about it that she shared on social media.
Kim Kardashian had a hard time getting pregnant with her second child.
After having North West in 2013, Kim struggled to get pregnant again. "I had so many complications," Kim told C Magazine in 2015. "I had this condition called placenta accreta. There were a couple little operations to fix all that, so that created a little hole in my uterus, which I think made it really tough to get pregnant again. It was a long road. I would go to the doctor in Beverly Hills every day at five in the morning to get tested to see if I was ovulating." After having her second child Saint in 2015, Kim and Kanye West went on to have two more children via surrogacy: Chicago in 2018 and Psalm in 2019.
Khloé Kardashian has shared her fertility issues.
"It's more about my hormones being off," she told Redbook in 2013 when she was married to Lamar Odom. "I was taking hormone shots to stabilize them, and you have to take those shots consistently and they have to be done by a doctor — you can do them yourself, but I couldn't."
In 2018, Khloé gave birth to True Thompson. Now, that she is considering having a second child with True's father, Tristan Thompson, she has said that doctors have told her that carrying the child herself would be high risk, so she is exploring other options.
Beyoncé had a miscarriage before having Blue Ivy.
Before Beyoncé delivered Blue Ivy in 2015, she suffered a miscarriage. "About two years ago, I was pregnant for the first time," she revealed in the 2013 HBO documentary, Life Is But a Dream. "And I heard the heartbeat, which was the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life." Then after Blue Ivy was born, she and husband Jay-Z tried for more kids with the help of in vitro fertilization. They had almost given up hope when she got pregnant with her twins, who were born in 2017.
Anne Hathaway wants other women with fertility issues to know she’s been through them herself.
When Anne Hathaway revealed that she was pregnant with her second child on July 24, 2019, she wrote:
It’s not for a movie…
#2
All kidding aside, for everyone going through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line to either of my pregnancies. Sending you extra love
Constance Marie did not expect to have such a hard time.
"I was 38 1/2 years old when we started trying to have a baby," Constance shared in an interview. "I thought it would be no problem, but the 3 1/2 years it took us was the most difficult period of my life." She and her partner, Kent Katich, were blessed with their daughter Luna Marie in 2009 thanks to in vitro fertilization.
Tyra Banks shared her own infertility struggles.
"It’s so funny when I was 23 years old, I used to tell myself, ‘In three years, I’m going to have kids,’" Tyra told Chrissy Teigen in 2015 on their talk show FABlife. "Then I turned 24. ‘In three years, I’m going to have kids.' Every single year I kept saying that. And then after a while it’s like, ‘OK, now I want to.’ And it’s not so easy.” In 2016, she became mom to York Banks Asla with the help of a gestational surrogate.
