Current:Home > reviewsABC News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis details infertility, surrogacy experience for 'GMA' -TruePath Finance
ABC News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis details infertility, surrogacy experience for 'GMA'
View
Date:2025-04-15 18:33:59
ABC News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis is sharing her experience with infertility in an essay shared with "Good Morning America" Wednesday.
The essay comes after the "long road" of Jarvis' nearly decade-long struggle with infertility. The chief business, technology and economics correspondent and her husband, Matt Hanson, welcomed a son, Leo, via surrogate earlier this month.
"It has been a very long road for us, for fertility, for pregnancy," she wrote. "And through the journey, I've come to see how common it is and how many families are facing these challenges — the emotional and the physical toll, the costs involved, the sadness and heartbreak and the hope, too."
The journalist started trying to get pregnant with the couple's first child, 4-year-old Isabel, almost 10 years ago, which involved constant doctor's visits and appointments, tests and eight rounds of in vitro fertilization, she wrote.
In vitro fertilization, or IVF, is a treatment in which eggs and sperm are combined in a laboratory to create embryos, then transferred into a uterus, according to Yale Medicine. The treatment is often used for people with a variety of infertility causes, including blocked, damaged or missing fallopian tubes or severe sperm abnormalities.
The hardest part for Jarvis was having her experience go "unexplained," she wrote: "I know now, having gone through this, that that's the case for so many women."
Two years ago Jarvis suffered a miscarriage after undergoing another round of IVF in the hopes of having a second child.
The couple asked doctors, "What do we do? This keeps happening."
Estrogenis one of two major sex hormones in females. Here's why it matters.
"Every time I lost a pregnancy, to have that taken away was so tough," the former investment banker wrote. "I will also say, as a mom to Isabel, it was very tough for me because I wanted to be a great mom to her too. I didn't want that pain that I felt to take away from the joy that I felt with her."
Jarvis' doctor suggested surrogacy, which she wrote was difficult to hear at the time.
"It can take a very, very long time to match with a surrogate," she wrote. "And one of the things that we really talked a lot about beforehand was whether or not we could even ask another person to do something like that with their body."
Eventually, the couple found a surrogate — "our angel," Jarvis wrote — but the uncertainty remained. "(I) didn't want to feel that massive excitement and that massive joy until I really felt that it was truly a sure thing," she wrote. "But when I did allow myself to feel that way, it was truly the best feeling."
Earlier in November, the couple flew from New York City to be at their surrogate's side as she gave birth to their son.
Jarvis thanked their surrogate and her family: "I just wanted to hug her and give her all of our love that we were also pouring over Leo, because there's no way this would've been possible without her."
I'm single at 35 and want a family.This decision brought an immense amount of relief.
veryGood! (4)
Related
- Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
- Two wounded in shooting on Bowie State University campus in Maryland
- Is Indigenous Peoples' Day a federal holiday? What to know about commemoration
- Eminem and Hailie Jade Are the Ultimate Father-Daughter Team at NFL Game
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- 49ers vs. Cowboys Sunday Night Football highlights: San Francisco steamrolls Dallas
- San Francisco 49ers copied Detroit Lions trick play from same day that also resulted in TD
- 150-year-old Florida Keys lighthouse illuminated for first time in a decade
- Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
- From Coke floats to Cronuts, going viral can have a lasting effect on a small business
Ranking
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- A surge in rail traffic on North Korea-Russia border suggests arms supply to Russia, think tank says
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes bill to make free condoms available for high school students
- What is Hamas? Militant group behind surprise Israel attack has ruled Gaza for years
- Taylor Swift Eras Archive site launches on singer's 35th birthday. What is it?
- WNBA star Candace Parker 'nervous' to reintroduce herself in new documentary: 'It's scary'
- What we know about the Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel's response in Gaza
- Two wounded in shooting on Bowie State University campus in Maryland
Recommendation
Man can't find second winning lottery ticket, sues over $394 million jackpot, lawsuit says
Jobs report shows payrolls grew by 336K jobs in September while unemployment held at 3.8%
An autopsy rules that an Atlanta church deacon’s death during his arrest was a homicide
EU Commission suspends ‘all payments immediately’ to the Palestinians following the Hamas attack
House passes bill to add 66 new federal judgeships, but prospects murky after Biden veto threat
Prime Day deals you can't miss: Amazon's October 2023 sale is (almost) here
European soccer’s governing body UEFA postpones upcoming games in Israel
What is Hamas? Militant group behind surprise Israel attack has ruled Gaza for years