Singer Liz McClarnon has detailed the heartbreaking IVF journey she and her husband faces as they went through eight rounds of treatment before getting pregnant
Liz McClarnon details gruelling IVF journey
Atomic Kitten star Liz McClarnon has revealed the gruelling toll IVF has had on her as she prepares to welcome her first child. The singer, 44, announced she is pregnant in May after eight rounds of treatment.
She had revealed to the Mirror how she began trying for children with her doctor husband Peter Cho through IVF since she was 40 but struggled when three embryo transfers failed. Last year, Liz suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages after their first successful cycles.
After years of trying, Liz shared the happy news she is pregnant and expecting a baby boy. However, Liz has now opened up on the challenging journey to get pregnant and the hormonal imbalances along the way.
A cycle of IVF takes around three to six weeks to complete with hormone medications playing a vital role. They stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs and prepare the uterus for implantation.
Liz has looked back at her treatments over the past few years with Peter by her side and shared a candid look at the side effects. She explained: “After 8 IVF cycles within 3 years, as you can imagine, I’ve been on hormones more often than not.
“I just wanted to share how it can look. Sometimes normal and sometimes very not.” In her social media video, Liz looked drained as she captioned it: “Sometimes you could tell.”
Her video then cut to her looking energic and posing for the camera as she added: “Sometimes you couldn’t.” Peter could be seen helping her with her injections as she said: “Life carried on as normal.”
As the cycle progressed, Liz needed more injections as she shared: “I started to gain weight… of course that didn’t matter.” However, she shared how she felt “a little bit broken” as the cycle went on.
The video ended with Peter injecting Liz with her final injection as they headed to their last trip to the clinic with the singer having a “look of hope.”
Liz was praised by her followers for the very candid post as Ian H Watkins commented: “Huge love xxx.” A fan added: “Incredible, you are going to be the absolute best mama xx.”
Someone else commented: “Love you even more than I did xx. you are amazing and you are going to be the best mum ever x.” A fourth wrote: “You are an absolute hero. Such an incredibly hard thing to go through.”
Last month, Liz appeared on Loose Women where she revealed she is expecting a boy despite thinking they were having a girl. “Lots of names going around in my head and we’re getting excited,” she revealed.
However, Liz added that she’s “still very scared” but added that the “fear dissipates slowly”. Opening up about her pregnancy journey, Liz revealed that it was “awful” for her and her husband.
“The first time we got about 10 eggs and a couple were fertilised. Then we went on holiday because it’s so stressful – we went away to France for a few days,” she shared.
It was during this break that the couple were told that no eggs had reached the stage where the transfer could happen. “It was just the biggest shock of my life. I didn’t expect them to say that,” she said.
Liz revealed that when she took a pregnancy test for the last time, she uncontrollably started crying. “I turned around and there was a faint line. Everything was amazing. I’m still super scared now but it was a good thing,” she said.
If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at the Miscarriage Association. You can call them on 01924 200799 or email [email protected]
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