Kourtney Kardashian has opened up about the awful experience she had on IVF treatment and how medication caused her to put on weight, feel depressed and "put me into menopause".
The oldest of the Kardashian sisters, Kourtney, 43, was already mum to sons Mason and Reign and daughter Penelope, all with former partner Scott Disick, when she and fiancé Travis Barker decided they wanted to have a child together.
But unfortunately, the couple's journey to having a baby has not completely gone to plan.
In a clip from the family's new series The Kardashians, streaming now on Hulu, Kourtney tells her mum Kris Jenner that her appointments with her doctor have been "awful".
"Travis and I want to have a baby," she said. "And so, my doctor took us down this road of doing IVF and like, it hasn't been the most amazing experience.
"Every single person on social media is always like 'Kourtney's pregnant', 'Kourtney's gained so much weight' and I'm like, it's so rude to comment on people when you have no idea what they're actually going through."
"The medication that they've been giving me, they put me into menopause... Literally, menopause," she added. "I think because I'm so clean and careful with what I put into my body, it's just like having the complete opposite reaction and is working as a contraceptive instead of helping us."
Kourtney goes on to say that whilst she has "everything in the world to be happy about," her IVF medication has had her feeling low.
"I just feel a little bit off and not like myself. Super moody and hormonal, like I am a lunatic half the time," she said.
The clip comes just a fortnight after Kourtney's sister Kim Kardashian spoke to Ellen DeGeneres on The Ellen Show and confirmed that the new series of The Kardashians would show Kourtney and Travis' journey together as a couple and their quest to have a baby.
"I think that when you find love that you can't live without and there's still a chance [to have a baby together] - she's in her early-40s - I think they definitely wanna see what life would be like with a baby," Kim said on the programme.
"[In the series], they share their whole story and have been super open and I think people really wanna see how cute they are and how much they make out!"
Kourtney and Travis had been friends for years before they started dating and were first spotted going out for dinner dates together as early as 2018, though the couple didn't confirm their relationship until January, 2021.
Travis, a musician and drummer in rock band Blink-182, proposed to Kourtney in October, 2021 and she confirmed their engagement via Instagram by sharing a photo of her wearing her engagement ring, with the simple caption: "Forever".
The latest parts of their relationship journey, including Kourtney's IVF treatments, were filmed for Hulu series The Kardashians, which is airing now on Hulu and Disney+.
What is IVF?
The NHS explains that IVF, which stands for in vitro fertilisation, is one of several techniques available to help people with fertility problems have a baby.
During IVF, an egg is removed from the woman's ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory, the NHS says. The fertilised egg, called an embryo, is then returned to the woman's womb to grow and develop.
IVF can be carried out by using a woman's own eggs and her partner's sperm, or with eggs and sperm from donors.
Typically, IVF is offered to women in the UK who are under the age of 43 and have been trying to get pregnant through regular unprotected sex for two years, or those who have had 12 cycles of artificial insemination, with at least six of these cycles using a method called intrauterine insemination.
The NHS lists several risks of IVF treatment, including side effects from the medicines used during treatment, such as hot flushes and headaches, the risk of multiple births (such as having twins or triplets) which can be dangerous for the mother and children, the risk of an ectopic pregnancy (where the embryo implants in the fallopian tubes rather than in the womb)and the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) (where the ovaries overreact to the medicines used during IVF).
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