Julianne Hough and Brooks Laich are opting for IVF (in vitro fertilization) on the road to beginning a family together, according to NHL’s Laich, who spoke with Us Weekly.
“My wife and I want to have children in our future, and going through IVF was a decision we made to increase the [odds] of that happening. I wish people would perceive it that way instead of with shame or guilt,” Laich said.
Dancer, actor and singer Hough has suffered from endometriosis since she was 15, though she was not diagnosed until 2008. The disease is correlated with infertility issues, with almost 40 percent of women who struggle to conceive also having endometriosis, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Laich first spoke about the couple’s hope to be parents on his popular podcast “How Men Think.”
“Julianne has the best heart in the world — that’s her. I view her as such a better person than I am because of the amount of love she has for every living thing in the world,” he said of his wife, formerly of Dancing With the Stars.
On the podcast he continued, “Looking at the reality of our lives, my wife is a very driven business woman, has her career. She just turned 30 last year and so we wanted to [explore IVF]… She has endometriosis — which could complicate pregnancy — it doesn’t mean it will, but it could — and so the smarter thing for us to do is [was] freeze some of her eggs and if we need this as a back up plan in two years or three years from now, whenever we want to start having kids and maybe we can’t, we have a back-up plan.”
He said that he and his wife agreed that openly discussing their fertility struggles might help crush the stigma surrounding the difficulty to conceive — and the idea that such things should be kept “hush-hush,” as he put it on the podcast.
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Hough spoke with Health magazine this year about the debilitating pain of endometriosis. “I started having symptoms when I was 15, but didn’t really realize that it was anything more than just being a woman, [although] I’d have to stop for almost 30 seconds and just like, curl down for a minute,” the dancer said. Hough has said before that the endometriosis has also affected her sex life adversely.
In Hough’s case, endometriosis scar tissue spread to and infected her appendix, making emergency surgery to remove scar tissue and the appendix necessary.
“Hopefully because of my story and being able to talk about it, people will hear it and be more aware that maybe they might have it,” The America’s Got Talent judge said.
We love this brave couple’s willingness to open up their fertility journey to others who may be dealing with the same struggles.
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