Infertility is a highly personal issue which causes a significant amount of emotional trauma for the women who are forced to cope with it. This is difficult for any woman but it is particularly hard for celebrities who often have to ride out this personal experience under the scrutiny of Hollywood's cameras. Some celebrities opt to stow themselves away while coping with this time in their lives. However, others have chosen to share the ups and downs of their experience with their fans. When they do, they serve to inspire those women who frequently feel as though their suffering with fertility problems all on their own.
Infertility Choices
There are several different choices that women have when they find out that they're having trouble getting pregnant. Some women are able to use in vitro fertilization to get pregnant and carry their own children. Others have to use a surrogate who will carry the baby for them (but the baby will typically have their own DNA). And still others will opt to use adoption to create their families. Any of these may be good fertility solutions and all have been used by different celebrities.
Celebrity In-vitro Fertilization
Here are some of the celebrities who have opted to use in vitro fertilization to get pregnant and create a family:
Marcia Cross
This Desperate Housewives star has been one of the leading celebrities giving attention to in vitro fertilization. She's happy to be mom to her in vitro twins but she's the first to say that having a baby when you're young enough not to face fertility problems is probably not a bad idea.Nicole Kidman
This actress faced fertility problems for a long, long time. When she was still married to Tom Cruise, she got pregnant but miscarried as the result of an ectopic pregnancy. Now married to Keith Urban, she successfully used fertility treatments to get pregnant.Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon
This Haitian actress and model struggled with infertility for five years and finally determined that in vitro was the way to go. She recently gave birth to twins.Dixie Chicks
Two of the three Dixie Chicks (Martie Maguire and Emily Robison) have used in vitro fertilization to get pregnant. Maguire is currently pregnant with her second in vitro baby.Celine Dion
This well-known singer caused some controversy when she decided to have her eggs frozen for future implantation. She hasn't used those frozen eggs yet but she does already have one child as a result of in vitro.Cindy Margolis
Supermodel Cindy Margolis not only dealt with infertility … she wrote a book about it. The book is surprisingly helpful to women facing infertility and has turned out to be a source of inspiration for many.
Celebrity Surrogacy
Here are some of the celebrities who have opted to use a surrogate mother to bring their babies into the world:
Marissa Jaret Winokur
This actress has been noticed on TV (Dharma and Greg, Dancing with the Stars) and Broadway (Hairspray) but she's making headlines lately because she's awaiting the birth of a baby. A survivor of cervical cancer, she couldn't carry the baby on her own so a surrogate is bringing her biological child into the world.Kelly Klein
During the time that she was married to Calvin Klein, Kelly became interested in having a baby. She hadn't planned on waiting until after her fiftieth birthday but life just seemed to get in the way. Now that she's divorced, she used a surrogate to bring that baby into the world.Chris Meloni
You know him as the star of Law and Order SVU but his two kids just know him as “daddy”. They came into the life of him and his wife through the assistance of a surrogate mother.Dennis Quaid
He was already a dad before his twins were born at the end of 2007. However, his new wife couldn't have kids of her own so they opted to use a surrogate to bring their biological kids to life.Joan Lunden
Joan Lunded used a surrogate to bring twins into her family. She enjoyed the experience so much that she opted to do again and now has two sets of twins to raise.
Celebrity Adoption
Celebrity adoption has recently become a major headline maker. The first names that probably comes to mind are Madonna and Angelina Jolie. However it's a method of resolving infertility that celebrities have been using for years. Here are a few of those who adopted:
Diane Keaton
She was in her fifties when she realized that she wasn't going to find the man she wanted to raise kids with. She decided to raise them on her own and adopted a boy and a girl.Mary-Louise Parker
She got well-known from her role on Weeds and got media attention when she opted to adopt a baby from Africa.Sheryl Crow
She was forty five before she decided that she was ready to be a mom; she adopted an infant at that time.
Causes of Celebrity Infertility
Women may struggle with their fertility for any number of different reasons so of course the same is true for celebrities. However, there are two leading causes that a majority of celebrities cite as the source of their fertility problems. The first is age. Women who wait until their later years to get pregnant often have trouble conceiving.
Hollywood stars who have spent their youth chasing their dreams frequently don't decide to get pregnant until later in life and therefore have to deal with these problems at that time. The second reason cited is health. Let's face it; Hollywood causes a lot of difficulty with body image and eating disorders. Women who don't take proper care of themselves may find that fertility problems crop up as a result. As the women reported on in this article prove, these are problems that are serious but they can be overcome.
