Just know that I wasn’t going to cover this if it was just idle speculation about the state of Julianne Hough’s womb. I only decided to cover it because these are real quotes from Julianne’s husband Brooks Laich, about how they’re going through IVF to conceive their first child. Julianne and Brooks got married in the summer of 2017 after a few years of dating and living together. Julianne is young too – she’s only 30 years old right now. She probably thought she would have an easy time getting pregnant naturally given her age, or maybe she was expecting some difficulties because of her long-standing struggles with endometriosis. Whatever it was, Brooks says that they’re now doing IVF and he wants people to know about it and talk about it.
Ready to start a family! Julianne Hough and her husband, Brooks Laich, have plans to conceive their first child with the help of in vitro fertilization.
“My wife and I want to have children in our future, and going through IVF was a decision we made to increase the [odds] of that happening,” the professional hockey player, 35, told Us Weekly exclusively in the new issue. “I wish people would perceive it [that way instead of with] shame or guilt.”
The athlete is hoping to shift that mindset with his podcast, iHeartRadio’s “How Men Think,” cohosted by Gavin DeGraw and featuring a panel of experts. “We want to … attack things that are stereotyped or deemed sensitive or hush-hush,” he told Us.
Laich went on to rave about his wife, 30. “Julianne has the best heart in the world — that’s her,” he said of the Dancing With the Stars judge. “I view her as such a better person than I am because of the amount of love she has for every living thing in the world.”
He… sounds like a good guy? I mean, yes, I’m prepared to give him a cookie for being an adult and supporting his partner and talking about tricky subjects openly (while shilling his podcast). A lot of men wouldn’t be so upfront about it, and I respect Brooks for what he’s doing, and helping to de-stigmatize the conversations men can have about the struggle to conceive or making reproductive choices with their partner. Who knew that a handsome hockey player would be so…NOT toxic? Is he Canadian or something? Let me look it up. YES HE IS CANADIAN THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.
I knew she got married but I couldn’t have told you who she married. Seems like she chose a good guy.
Love Julianne. I watch some of the dancing on YouTube since I never watched the show. She was awesome. I read about what her brother and she went through growing up. I wish her the best and much happiness.
Not all Canadians are like him
The majority have to be, i am yet to meet an unsavory Canadian. When American men are the baseline it might skew perception.
He’s apparently a super nice guy. He played hockey here for years and I never heard a bad thing.
He literally stopped on the side of the road and helped folks change a flat tire on their SUV in his suit after a rough loss to the Pens several years ago. Human decency, but exceedingly rare these days. He’s always seemed like a slightly awkward good egg. Plus, his old bromance with Mike Green was pure hilarity. I miss those boys.
On a hockey-based side note…the Caps post-Stanley Cup celebrations are still a thing of beauty a year later. I will never not love the videos of them swimming in that huge fountain in Georgetown together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVuUchu7o14
She’s a judge on AGT this season and I thought she was going to annoy me but she’s actually really sweet and funny. I’m glad to see her husband is also really nice! Good luck to them with the IVF, I know it isn’t an easy process and I hope it works out for them!
Brooks Laich is a supremely nice guy – he even changed a woman’s flat tire by the side of the road after his hockey team lost a playoff game. See this link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2010/04/brooks_laich_changes_a_tire_af.html
Wow nice story. I like seeing a man talk about this, frankly. It’s always seen at the woman’s thing to share/explain. Wish them the best of luck.
i like her. she seems very sweet and he is gorgeous and seems like a nice enough guy. i believe she has really bad endometriosis. she has written about it before. i think she just knows the score with her own body and has the $$ to try science’s best solution to her already known problem. i wish them the very best.
This may sounds dum, but does she struggle with infertility or are they just going straight to IVF? Just curious. They are a ridiculously good looking couple. The baby is going to be gorgeous.
It’s likely her endometriosis has impacted her family planning. Depending on where it is, it can make conception incredible difficult. Many women with endo do eventually get pregnant the typical way but it can take years for some, if it happens at all. She was likely advised to try the “old fashioned” way for some time and then do IVF and that’s where they are now. Removing endo can help but my RE once told me that for every 50 endo surgeries she performs to improve conception odds, she gets one “natural” pregnancy. So, IVF is the smarter, faster way.
Yes, I have endo and did IVF with my first two. Got naturally pregnant, i believe with the help of supplements and stuff, with our third which turned out to be our third and fourth. That took months of active trying, being on a schedule from my doctor and being diligent with my diet and life style.
He works with Gavin Degraw? That’s kewl.
I’ve followed Julianne a bit only because we have similar stories…i also have severe endometriosis and it impacted my ability to conceive naturally. Was told I have less than a 3% chance of conceiving on my own. It’s a very difficult process to go through, even with the most supportive of partners (which I have). It’s also a long process. Doctors told me for years that I just had bad periods and it wasn’t until I really began advocating for myself to get tested, to see specialists etc. that things started to move in a positive direction. Overall, the process (from advocating for a diagnosis to conceiving via IVf) took 10 years. I have such empathy for women who try to conceive without knowing there might be an issue. It’s a devastating, heartbreaking, lonely and lengthy process to go through. It also highlighted, for me, how little the medical field cares about women’s health. I wish her the absolute best on this journey.
Holy crap, as an almost doctor this ASTOUNDS me. I’m SO sorry you had to go through that. I’m not sure if medical education has changed a lot (well probably, because with respect to women’s health an inch is basically a mile, ho hum), but we got taught a LOT about endometriosis. I hope that means future generations won’t have to go through what you did. I also hope you have a kick-ass obgyn now. It makes all the difference in the world.
PS. Side note, when you’re doing laproscopic surgery, one of the craaaaziest things is how tiny the spots of endometriosis can be. Like, they look like a little smudge, or a freckle. And yet they cause SO MUCH pain and loss of productivity and depression and emotional/physical suffering. Our bodies are wild.
It’s hard to open up and talk opening about IVF, IUI, or whatever route you take to attempt to become and stay pregnant. I made the mistake of talking about my IVF journey twice to a group of relative strangers and was shamed for it in one setting and told in the other that IVF isn’t in God’s will. But maybe more people talking openly about it will help change the stigma some folks have held on to of the process.
Brooks Laich is a good egg from all accounts. He’s from a small town down the highway from me. Julianne landed a nice guy and a huge step up from SEACREST (barf).
Given that Julianne has been open about her struggle with endometriosis, it’s probably not unreasonable to conclude that this led her and Brooks to choose IVF. However, I think it’s good practice in general to avoid making assumptions/statements about why one might be going through fertility treatments unless it’s actually known. Both of the statements Kaiser made “She probably thought she would have an easy time getting pregnant naturally given her age, or maybe she was expecting some difficulties because of her long-standing struggles with endometriosis” put the ‘blame’ on Julianne when it’s also possible they’re dealing with a male factor infertility issue. In fact, male factor accounts for 40-50% of infertility cases!
Brooks is a stand up, down to earth, good, kind human.