Erin Andrews is getting candid about her journey into motherhood.
The Fox Sports reporter 43, revealed on her blog, The Real Deal with Erin Andrews, Wednesday that she is currently undergoing in vitro fertilization treatments to try to start a family with husband Jarret Stoll.
Andrews said trying to balance “sometimes working up to 14 hours a day” and setting aside time for IVF has been a “challenging” time.
“For those familiar, you know it’s a time-consuming and emotionally draining process,” she wrote. “This is my 7th one, and I’ve been going through these treatments since I was 35 years old.”
The sportscaster added that because of her age, her body is also “stacked against” her, making the process even more difficult.
“I have been trying to do IVF treatment for a while now, but sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want it,” she wrote, further explaining, “Every cycle is different in a woman’s body, so some months are better than others.”
Andrews then shared how she is sometimes forced between her career and wanting to have a child.
“I work in an industry where I think women feel the need to keep things like this quiet,” she wrote on her blog. “But no, there are so many other women who maybe put their careers on the back burner because they don’t want to miss out on any opportunities. It’s so common that people are starting families late and put so many other aspects of their lives on hold.”
Andrews said during her seventh round, she wanted to keep a more open line of communication with her producers and tell them if she was running late, perhaps it was due to her being at an IVF appointment.
“I am thankful I did it,” she wrote. “They encouraged me to be open about it because this is real life. It’s not like I’m leaving to go take a hot yoga class, I’m trying to have a baby. I am not ashamed, and I want to be vocal and honest about this.”
While Andrews said she sometimes still feels like it is “embarrassing” and wants to keep her IVF process on the down low, she is learning to embrace being more vocal about it.
She said of her fellow IVF peers, “It’s a team that no one wants to be a part of. We’re all going through this and having a tough time. It can be so isolating, but in reality, we are all there together.”
The NFL correspondent also shared the physical toll it takes on her body, stating bluntly, “You feel like s–t.”
“You feel bloated and hormonal for a week and a half,” she added. “You could go through this whole experience and get absolutely nothing out of it — that’s the crazy part. It’s a ton of money, it’s a ton of time, it’s a ton of mental and physical anguish. And more times than not, they’re unsuccessful.”
Andrews shared that part of wanting to keep it all a secret was the fear of not wanting to “jinx it.”
“Now that it’s my seventh time, something just hit me,” she said of her choice to be more outspoken, before concluding, “Why am I keeping this such a secret when this is just a part of our lives? Instead of feeling ashamed, we need to give ourselves more love.”
In March, Andrews shared on the New York Post’s podcast “Renaissance Man with Jalen Rose” that she and her husband were ready to add babies to her family next.
She and Stoll, 39, tied the knot in June 2017. Prior to their wedding, Andrews was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September 2016.
At the time, the NFL sideline reporter shared how grateful she was to have already undergone IVF prior to her diagnosis.
“Instead of being embarrassed about it, look at how incredible it is that we had an oncologist say to us, ‘There is an option,’ in case [the cancer] comes back,” she recalled to Health magazine in June 2017. “We don’t know what the future entails.”