On Friday, Kourtney Kardashian posted on her Instagram Stories after a work out to let people know she’s recovering from her IVF treatment. The 43-year-old influencer was going through fertility treatments with the support of her husband, 47-year-old Travis Barker, but decided to put the effort on pause.
“Finally started getting my energy back 10 months after IVF, for anyone else going through it, it gets better!” The Kardashian‘s star wrote over a black-and-white photo of herself on the treadmill.
The couple started seeking fertility treatments in 2021, and continued for nearly a year, but have been unable to conceive. Treatment can be quite taxing on the body, so the pair decided to stop and see if they could have a pregnancy naturally. The Poosh founder has been quite open about the experience, discussing it in depth on her Hulu show.
“The fertility journey, Travis and I, we stay in the moment and just do the steps that we need to do,” Kardashian said in one episode. “It is nice to hear good news and have some positivity. We love that, but we just wait to hear the final words.”
Unfortunately, the next step didn’t go as well.
“Our egg retrieval didn’t go the way we would have hoped. He was able to retrieve the egg, but it didn’t make it to [the] embryo stage. We start back again,” she explained.
In November, Barker told GQ in November that he and Kardashian made a decision to talk about IVF to normalize the process, especially for men who might be unaware of their part.
“If any of that can help people — seeing Kourtney’s journey through IVF, which is super hard for a woman. You saw her struggle with it and talk about it. That’s real,” he told the publication. “I don’t care if I’m c—ming in a cup or whatever. It’s real life… And there’s however many millions of dudes that have to go give their semen for this same procedure. So it’s, like, relatable, you know? I’ve never been fazed by any of that.”
They also stopped treatment in part to have more time for their wedding, which took place in Italy this summer. Kardashian has three children with her ex, Scott Disick: Mason, 12, Penelope, 10, and Reign, 7. Barker has two children with his ex-wife Shanna Moakler, Landon, 18, and Alabama, 16, and he’s a step-dad to Moakler’s daughter, Atiana De La Hoya.
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.