Gabrielle Union opened up about her struggle with infertility, saying, “I’ve had eight or nine miscarriages”
In her new book, actress Gabrielle Union revealed she’s had “eight or nine miscarriages,” and we think it’s so important that she’s opening up about her struggle with infertility.
Union gets real in her new memoir We’re Going to Need More Wine about serious topics that have affected her, including sexual assault, race, and gender equality, and she also wrote about her struggle to conceive a child with her husband, Dwyane Wade. The painful admission revealed that she’s been trying for a baby for several years, and has suffered multiple miscarriages and failed fertility treatments.
“I have had eight or nine miscarriages,” Union writes in her book. “For three years, my body has been a prisoner of trying to get pregnant — I’ve either been about to go into an IVF cycle, in the middle of an IVF cycle, or coming out of an IVF cycle.”
The actress has spoken about her attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF), which is an often emotionally and physically taxing series of procedures designed to help a woman conceive, but she has never publicly revealed that she has suffered miscarriages.
She writes that the hormones and procedures have left her with physical side effects, such as bloating, but that she’s no less committed to trying to conceive a baby. She and Wade “remain bursting with love and ready to do anything to meet the child we’ve both dreamed of.”
Union became a stepmom to Wade’s three sons from prior relationships, Xavier, Zion, and Zaire, when they wed in 2014. She told People.com, “I never wanted kids. Then I became a stepmom, and there was no place I’d rather be than with them.”
We feel for Union and Wade in their struggles to conceive, and can’t even imagine the pain of enduring one miscarriage — let alone many. We hope she’s able to have the child she dreams of soon.
We also applaud her for speaking so openly about her experience. Her platform reaches many people, and sharing her story helps to reduce the stigma around miscarriage and infertility — which will only help other couples going through the same thing.
We’re Going to Need More Wine is out October 17th, and we hope that her honesty will let others know they are not alone.
