Chrissy Teigen launches campaign to help women with fertility struggles
American cookbook author and former model Chrissy Teigen hopes to break the stigma around fertility struggles with a new campaign encouraging women to be more open about their troubles conceiving and seek necessary assistance.
The 35-year-old television personality, who is married to singer John Legend, is launching the Fertility Out Loud Campaign during the April 18-24 National Infertility Awareness Week.
Teigen has joined forces with the US nonprofit RESOLVE for the campaign, encouraging couples to use the organization’s resources and support to help find a fertility specialist.
Teigen has long spoken about the struggles she and Legend faced to start a family. Their two children were both born through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“This was obviously a no-brainer to be able to speak to women that are going through the issues that I went through, the confusion that I went through as a young woman struggling with infertility, to be able to give them this safe haven,” Teigen told Reuters.
“There is still a stigma attached to it. There is still this privacy that people want with it and this shame or guilt.”
In October, Teigen published harrowing photos on her Instagram page of the couple holding and mourning their stillborn son in the hospital.
“When I was in the hospital and going through the blood transfusions … I was sharing everything because … I was just bringing everyone along for the ride, and I didn’t know where that ride would end up at all. But I did know that when we did lose him, that it would be something we had to share,” she said.
“It was the most real thing we would possibly ever go through in front of people and I knew how helpful it would be, so to me it was important.”
Asked if she and Legend planned on having more children, Teigen said: “Whether it’s surrogacy or adoption, I don’t think there’s ever going to be a time where I will stop having children.” On Friday, Teigen rejoined Twitter three weeks after she had quit the social media platform due to what she called online negativity.
“As bad as it was, I think that I did take the good for granted,” she told Reuters.
“And I think this break has been really good for me.” – Rappler.com