Fertility Struggles Quotes

Back in my mid-20s I was told I'd never be able to have children as I wasn't having periods. Doctors tried to start up my monthly cycles, but when nothing worked, they actually offered me a hysterectomy. Without it, they said I might get ovarian cancer in the future. I chose not to have the operation, and am so glad I didn't.

I am the celebrity spokesperson for Resolve, the national infertility association, and my three precious children were born through infertility procedures. I struggled for many years trying to have children. My beautiful son was born through in vitro fertilization. I had my beautiful twins via a surrogate. So I wanted to give back.

There was something to me that was really compelling about that woman, already knowing she couldn't get pregnant. When I made that movie I was maybe 24, and to be 24 and already know you can't get pregnant, that was really interesting to me.

Not to be too detailed, but I've had an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriages and I've had fertility treatments. I've done all the stuff you can possibly do to try get pregnant.

IVF became the only way for us to have children after I was treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma 10 years ago with fertility-destroying chemotherapy. And while the cancer treatment was predictably punishing for me, I was struck by the anguish of the IVF process and in particularly the failed cycle.

I think people think celebrities get babies really easily, like Angelina Jolie, but they don't hear about the ones who aren't successful because we don't like talking about it, it's too painful.

An IVF patient is - is living and breathing hope. It's... it's, um... it's - You wouldn't do it if you didn't have a sense of hope. Why would you put yourself through it?

My rational mind knows I am blessed. So many women - some of whom I've interviewed over the years - endure infertility and childlessness.

When a woman opens up about her fertility struggles, I feel less alone, and I hope to help others in the same way.

Those that don't know that I've gone through so many IVF treatments, and I've gone through six cycles to get this child, that's on its way via surrogate, biological child - and it's been great.

The difficulty of IVF or of any fertility issues is the hope and the shattered hope, the dream that it might happen this time and then it doesn't happen.

I went through years of unsuccessful fertility treatments, first in my hometown of D.C., then in New York City, where it finally happened - I got pregnant with my son, my miracle boy.

Having seen many of my friends go through the trial of trying month after month to conceive, then finally the joy of getting pregnant followed by the heartbreak of miscarriage, I know how lonely and isolating it can be to have to go back to square one carrying that heartbreak with you.

I couldn't have children, I tried to for years. I've never been pregnant in my life. When I was a girl and fooling around I was scared to death I'd get pregnant, and then when I got married and wanted to have children I couldn't have any. But I don't miss it. I did for awhile, but I realize that I am everybody's mother.

I think if you talk to anybody who would like to have had children... I mean, you look at families all the time and you see there is something there that you don't have.

I was 27, an unemployed actress living in a really crappy studio apartment. I had just moved to Los Angeles alone, away from my family. I had cervical and uterine cancer and I was told that I would never be able to carry a baby.

It can get discouraging - 'Oh, it didn't work,' or, 'Oh, I lost the baby,' or, 'I can't do this again.' You can. And when you get the kid, you'll be happy that you did. But it's a very painful process for a lot of people. You just have to figure out how it's gonna get done.

Infertility costs an average of about $16-20,000 per procedure, and you don't always get pregnant the first time. I had to go through it seven times. And adoption and surrogacy are not covered through insurance companies.

I had a few fibroids removed, and they left me with a Grand Canyon of scar tissue in my uterus. The doctors weren't sure I'd be able to reproduce. I was prepared for a rough road, and then out of nowhere we conceived.

Meeting people at my fertility doctor's office who are going through the same things I'm going through, I thought, 'Why not share my story?' It's been really emotional.

We tried - we tried for a year, and we tried different methods and different - and I had in vitro and it didn't work. It didn't stick. It didn't - didn't produce a baby at all.

For anyone who has found it easy to conceive, it is perhaps hard to imagine how IVF can become all-encompassing in someone's life. The endless check-ups, scans, tests, periods of waiting and finally the day when you learn the result. It's a physically punishing process for the women and an emotionally exhausting process for both partners.

For my wife and I, our first child was really easy to have, but our second one was really hard to have. We had to go to a lot of fertility clinics and do that whole thing.

I remember one day I came home and shouted to my grandmother, "Grandma, Sarah is pregnant!" Poor Sarah! For weeks before I had read how difficult it was for her to get pregnant. "Grandma! I have news for you!" "What did you learn?" "I have news, Grandma: Sarah is pregnant!" [Genesis 16 - 21].

Usually people have gone through years of in vitro, just trying. The dilemma that faces infertile couples right now in America, there's so many of them. That's why - you know that's why I started talking about it, so that they didn't hear just the terrible stories.