Jennifer Aniston should never have to hide her fertility experience but her honesty about IVF is something we all need to hear
After keeping quiet about the “Poor Jen” tag that has dogged her for years, Jennifer Aniston has decided that, “there’s nothing to hide at this point,” now is the time to talk about it.
The trouble surrounding why America’s sweetheart refuses to raise children, or whether she’s pregnant, has always been a constant in Aniston’s life.
Now 53 years old, the beloved actress is talking openly about not having children and, as she revealed, the decision was not made by her at all.
In addition to facing the trials of IVF, Aniston also faced a double-edged sword: constant rumors about what the press described as her “infertility battle”, and its effect on her marriage to Brad Pitt and Justin Theroux.
“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the road to childbirth,” Aniston noted in Attractive magazine.
“All these years after years and years of speculation… It was really tough. I went through IVF, drank Chinese tea. I threw everything at it.
“I would give anything if someone said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Help yourself. ‘ You just don’t think about it. So here I am today. The ship has set sail,” she said.
The article went on to report that, since she could no longer have children, Aniston felt a degree of “relief”.
“That’s why I’m so grateful for those things,” she said. “Otherwise, I would be stuck being someone who was so scared, so worried, that I wasn’t sure who they were. And now, I don’t care. “
Close
Jennifer Aniston has noted that she will cover her experience more fully in the future: “Someday I’ll write a book,” she said. Photo: Getty / James Devaney / GC Images
“I only care about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and childless,” she added in the interview. “And the reason my husband [Pitt] left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, is because I won’t bear him a child. That is an absolute lie. I have nothing to hide at this point.”
Aniston has noted that she will describe her experience more fully in the future: “Someday I will (write a book),” she said. “I have spent many years defending my story about IVF. I am very protective of these parts because I feel there is too little to keep to myself. The world makes up stories that aren’t true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like coming out of hibernation.”
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the book the world desperately needs.
God, I’m madly in love with this refreshing candlelight. This is a much-needed book in a world where the belief that a woman’s worth is still bound by how good and how often she reproduces.
While more and more women discuss the significant costs – financial, emotional, physical – of infertility treatment, these stories almost always come with a happy ending: a baby in your arms and all the happiness in the house / chaos / sleepless nights that followed. After all, a major currency in the fertility conversation is hope.
This is often why the journey we are used to hearing, and the journey that most people in their circumstances want or need to know about, is the positive journey.
But Aniston proves that there is plenty of room for other conversation: one that seems less hopeful. Less “happy”. One in which there is silence and heartbreak and another ending.
These stories of affection often remain untold.
Author/Podcaster Elizabeth Day is one of the few voices in the public conversation about IVF that is still childless, but as she readily tells herself, she lives very high hopes on IVF. Successful Future.
Close
Jennifer Aniston proves that there’s a lot of room for another conversation: one that seems less hopeful. Photo: Getty / James Devaney / GC Images
However, when the end result goes, an IVF journey with no child at the end of it is equally valuable as the others. The IVF journey where a woman simply gets on with her life is probably not the full stop she wants, but it is a full stop.
A while ago, a friend of mine confided that she was seeing a fertility doctor, and that she and her husband were on a total attrition regimen for both of them.
It didn’t take long for the anguish that lurked beneath her cheerful, confident guise to rise to the surface.
It was a conversation she simultaneously resented having to have, and at the same time desperate to lighten the load and ease the loneliness.
Two years later, still not a bad business.
How much suffering has my friend had since then? I am ashamed to say that I am afraid to speak out.
Part of me wanted to be respectful, not intrude on something very private and allow her to say this when she wanted to. But what happens in this case is more silence. Shocked, useless silence.
I don’t have a dog in my infertility battle, but I still eagerly await the day Jennifer Aniston expands on these experiences in a book. So many people need to hear about life after IVF and get nothing.
And for everyone else on the “Poor Jen” watch, the boring fake story that career-obsessed Aniston “forgot” to have kids can finally let off steam.
https://www.independent.ie/life/jennifer-aniston-should-never-have-had-to-hide-her-fertility-experience-but-her-honesty-about-ivf-is-something-we-all-needed-to-hear-42134129.html Jennifer Aniston should never have to hide her fertility experience but her honesty about IVF is something we all need to hear