Everything Savannah Guthrie Has Said About Her Fertility And IVF Journey
Struggling with infertility is a very personal journey and it's often fraught with doubt and fear. According to the National Institutes of Health, when looking at those of reproductive age in the United States, it's estimated that approximately 9% of men and about 11% of women have dealt with fertility issues.
Though many women are now devoting their early adulthood to establishing their careers and thus waiting longer to have children than in years past, age plays a role in infertility. By the time women reach their 30s, they are about half as fertile as they were in their early 20s. On top of that, a woman's chances of getting pregnant rapidly decline by the age of 35 (via babyMed). In fact, being pregnant at 35 or older used to be considered a geriatric pregnancy in medical terms but now is referred to as being pregnant at an advanced maternal age.
Co-anchor of the NBC News morning show "TODAY," Savannah Guthrie had not only had one but two pregnancies at an advanced maternal age and she has a lot to say about her fertility journey and undergoing IVF.
Savannah Guthrie never imagined being a mom of two so late in life
Savannah Guthrie and her husband, Michael Feldman were married in 2014, when Guthrie was four months pregnant with daughter, Vale (via E News!). The couple then had a son, Charles Max, just two years later in 2016.
"I knew it was the winning lottery ticket to have one child — I was 42 when I had her so I never dreamed that I would have two," Guthrie tells "TODAY." Guthrie had to undergo IVF for her second pregnancy, "When making that decision about whether to go through IVF, my husband and I talked about it a lot. I didn't want to start a process where we spent all of our present searching after some future ... when our present was so lovely and beautiful and enough."
In the end, Guthrie being an older mom is partly what led her to try for her second baby because she wanted her daughter to have a sibling and "somebody to do life with."
Several rounds of IVF were necessary for a second pregnancy
Samantha Guthrie was able to successfully give birth to her son Charley after deciding to undergo IVF to try to get pregnant again. However, her journey was not without complications. After Vale was born, the news anchor suffered a miscarriage before having Charley (via Daily Mail). Then when she started IVF, she had to go through two rounds before it resulted in a pregnancy.
"My husband and I, we decided, 'OK, let's give it a shot,' you know? But it ended up taking more than one attempt. It took a few. But we were lucky. I always say, Charley was, like, the last egg out. He really was. And we're so blessed," Guthrie said (via TODAY).
Guthrie says that working at getting pregnant in her 40s was the best thing she has done, "In your 40s, and now my mid-to-late 40s, you have the difference in attitude where you can figure out what matters and what doesn't and guess what? What matters is your family. Full stop."