Infertility can be a difficult subject to talk about, but actress Jennifer Aniston is opening up about her journey and the struggles she faced in her 30’s and 40’s. Not only did she try for many years to have a family, but she was also living her life in the spotlight. That came with rumors and other issues, especially during her very public divorce from Brad Pitt several years ago.

But now, Aniston says she has nothing to hide, and no reason not to speak openly about the treatments she went through and the difficulty of not being able to have children. One of the treatments Aniston tried to start a family with was IVF. She also experimented with teas, supplements, and other medical support that could make it more likely for her to conceive a child.

Among the things she never did was freeze her eggs. It wasn’t something suggested to her, and not something she realized would have worked for her situation. Now, at 53, that’s no longer an option for her, but she encouraged young women to learn about freezing their eggs so they would have more options than she did. 

While she knows biological children will never be part of her life, she admits there is a small amount of relief in this recognition.

The past was full of “what if” and “maybe,” and there isn’t any of that in the present or going into the future. She no longer has to think about, worry about, and wonder about the possibility of conceiving, or using medically assisted reproductive technology to produce a child. There is sadness, but there is also freedom.

Some old rumors took a long time to go away. The biggest one was that she was too interested in being a star, and that was all that mattered to her. She heard people say that she wasn’t willing to have kids, because they would get in the way, and they would hurt her career. None of that was true, and neither was the rumor that her marriage ended because she couldn’t have children. Those rumors hurt deeply, but talking about them can help Aniston, and other women, heal from infertility experiences.

At The Surrogacy Law Center in Carlsbad, California, we work to help protect our clients’ rights related to egg, sperm, and embryo donation, and in surrogacy arrangements, keeping state and other jurisdictional laws at the forefront. To learn more and to speak with an assisted reproduction attorney, contact us today!