Roselyn Sanchez on IVF after 40: what you put your body through, its not easy
Roselyn Sanchez, who played Carmen Luna on Devious Maids, is expecting her second child with husband, actor Eric Winter. The couple, who have a five-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sebella, have revealed their second will be a boy. They have also spoken to People about how physically and emotionally trying it is to conceive through IVF. Roselyn is 44 and Eric is 41. They didn’t start trying for a family until their mid 30s and were stunned that they couldn’t conceive after three years of trying. Even after successfully carrying their daughter, they struggled again to conceive their son.
Actors Eric Winter and Roselyn Sanchez are finally going to welcome a second child into their family, but the road to that reality was not an easy one.
“We tried [to conceive naturally] for at least three years [before Sebi] and it was a shock,” says Devious Maids star Sanchez, 44. “I have four siblings … my mom is very fertile. I knew that I had endometriosis, but with me, it wasn’t an indication that I was going to have a problem with conceiving because my tubes were clean and my ovaries were clean. It was devastating.”
“All your life you avoid having children and when you want to have children, it’s so difficult when you leave it for late,” adds the second-time mom-to-be, who tells PEOPLE she and Winter, 41, didn’t start trying to have a baby until she was in her mid 30s.
“We did artificial insemination. We’ve done the IVF,” she says. “[Sometimes], even though I did my whole cycle of shots and I got my eggs, my body would just go haywire. And we didn’t time it properly and I would ovulate, so the whole cycle was lost.”
“We put in multiple embryos and the doctor basically said, ‘Look, even with multiple embryos, you have less than 15 percent chance of getting pregnant,’ ” Winter adds. “If anyone told you you had a 15 percent chance at anything, you would never believe it.”
Says Sanchez, “It’s been up and down … the journey to conceive [our son] started two years ago, and I have been basically pumping my body with hormones for six years on and off.”
“Even though [I’m] 44, I don’t feel like I’m 44,” Sanchez says. “I take care of my body, I’m very clean, I’m very healthy. It’s brutal, mentally and emotionally, when you go, ‘Why is this happening to me when I take care of myself? What do you mean my eggs are not viable anymore?’ ”
“I just wish that [conversations about fertility were] more out in the open,” she says, “so you can make a more educated decision of when you want to be a mom.”
“[Fertility treatments are] super expensive — what you put your body through, it’s not easy, and it’s sad,” Sanchez continues.
“If I have any advice, it’s don’t wait until you’re 40-something. It’s not that easy. It’s possible — we’re doing it. I feel awesome because I’m going, ‘You know what? It happened at a point in my life that I’m very mature.’ I was ready, I’m fulfilled, I’m financially stable. All those things are great, but it’s not easy.”
I’ve heard similar comments from women about how they spent so much time trying not to get pregnant and then they spent just as much time trying to get pregnant later. I was 36 and 38 when I had my kids. Because we were starting later than most our friends/colleagues, we were surrounded by stories of fertility treatments and struggles. It’s smart to reach an agreement about the amount of time and resources you both are willing to devote to conceive a child. I understand Roselyn’s perspective that she was healthy and should still be fertile. You can be told something your whole life and still not understand that it applies to you. On the other hand, it just sucks that our fertility takes a nose dive after a certain age. Like, I get we need to physically be able to raise kids, but mentally some of us need the deferment, you know?
Roselyn and Eric have written a children’s book that features their daughter, whom they call Sebi (cute), as the main character. It’s called Sebi and the Land of the Cha Cha Cha and it came out just last Tuesday. The couple is active in many charities both in the US and om Roselyn’s native Puerto Rico. So when the book came out, Eric a href=”http://people.com/babies/eric-winter-daughter-sebella-inspired-new-book/”>took the real life Sebi to the NICU at White Memorial Medical Center to teach Sebi to give back. I thought that was lovely.
Photo credit: WENN Photos
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