Kourtney Kardashian Shares She Experienced 5 Failed IVF Cycles and 3 Retrievals Before Having Son Rocky

Kourtney Kardashian has a message for anyone currently on their own fertility journey: You're doing amazing, sweetie.

The Kardashians star shared in an Instagram Q&A her experience with in vitro fertilization (IVF) and how she and husband Travis Barker conceived now 6-month-old son Rocky Thirteen Barker.

When a follower asked, "Had 6 failed IVFs – how did u find the strength to keep going? It's debilitating," Kourtney could relate to the fertility struggles. 

"I stopped after a year of trying (5 failed IVF cycles, 3 retrievals) my body relaxed and I believed in God's plan for my life," she wrote in a May 27 Instagram Stories post. "Lots of prayers for whatever was meant to be for us. Also lots of optimizing my health. I know how hard it is to feel like you're not trying, but believing in God's plan and saying your prayers is so powerful. All the best." 

Later on, the Lemme mogul clarified her response as she felt like her "answer to the IVF question may have been confusing."

"I got pregnant 100% naturally, NOT through IVF…one year after stopping IVF actually," she continued in a separate post. "Through God's blessing on Valentine's Day."

Fans watched Kourtney navigate her path to pregnancy over the years, and she's expressed how, for her personally, IVF just wasn't the right fit.

"The decision to try assisted fertilization was almost a non-choice, in the sense that I was pushed towards it as if it were the only option," the 45-year-old told Vanity Fair Italia in an October cover story. "The truth is, I felt like I was doing something that wasn't right for me. My intuition was telling me that it wasn't suitable for me—I don't even take medicine, imagine—that it was working against my body rather than for it."

She added, "I kept telling Travis: 'If we're meant to have a baby, then it's just going to happen.' And that's how it was. When we stopped forcing the process, then it happened."

Kourtney, who's also detailed having to rush into emergency fetal surgery in September, gave birth to Rocky in November—with him joining Kourtney's kids from her previous relationship with Scott Disick (Mason Disick, 14, Penelope Disick, 11, and Reign Disick, 9) as well as Travis' children from his former marriage to Shanna Moakler (son Landon Barker, 20, daughter Alabama Barker, 18, and stepdaughter Atiana De La Hoya, 25).

To read more of what Kourtney has shared about her road to baby No. 4, scroll on.

Months before she began dating Travis Barker, Kourtney Kardashian shared that she wanted to be pregnant again. When a follower asked if she was expecting, she responded, "No I wish." A few months later, she asked another fan on social media to "put the blessing out there."

The pair made their romance public soon after Valentine's Day.

Soon after getting engaged in October, they expressed interest in having a baby together and were hoping to be expecting by 2022, a source told E! News.

"They would love nothing more than to have a baby together," the source shared at the time. "Kourtney has always wanted another baby and never felt like she was done. Now that she's with Travis, she wants it even more." 

Travis had baby on the brain after they celebrated Halloween together—with Kourt dressing as Patricia Arquette's character, Alabama Whitman, from True Romance. He commented on a photo of her, "Our sons name would be Elvis."

The Poosh founder confirmed she and Travis were truly trying to get pregnant in a March 2022 teaser for The Kardashians' first season. "Travis and I want to have a baby," she said, as cameras captured them consulting medical professionals to start the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process.

Kourtney told Access Hollywood just how many little rockers she wants with Travis, gushing, "I would love two, in a dream world."

Kim Kardashian reflected on Kravis' hope to grow their family, telling Ellen DeGeneres, "I think when you find love that you can't live without and there's still a chance—she's in her early 40s—I think they definitely want to see what life would be like with a baby."

In an April episode of The Kardashians, Kourtney said IVF has been "awful" for her. "It hasn't been the most amazing experience," she said. "The medication that they've been giving me, they put me into menopause."

She told mom Kris Jenner that online comments speculating about her pregnancy really affect her. "Every single person on social media is always like, 'Kourtney's pregnant,'" she said. "'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."

It's amore! Their families traveled from their home in Calabasas, Calif. to watch the couple get married in Italy.

The rocker duo shared that they were no longer going through the IVF process.

"We started an IVF journey, but I stopped," Kourtney told WSJ. Magazine at the time. "It was a lot. I took a break to just focus on our wedding and getting married."

Kourtney explained why parenting with the Blink-182 drummer just works so well, as she shares Mason, Penelope and Reign Disick with ex Scott Disick, while Travis shares Landon and Alabama Barker with ex Shanna Moakler and is also stepdad to Atiana De La Hoya.

"We have known each other and I have had my own relationship with his kids for, like, ten years," she told Today. "It does make it really easy. We all just know each other and each other's intentions."

She added, "I came from a blended family... We have experience."

When one fan commented, "Wait a minute, did I miss that she's pregnant?" on Kourtney's lingerie photo, the reality star replied, "Nope, but you're missing a woman's body."

Kourtney got candid on the negative effects of the fertility process, saying on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, "It really took a toll on my health and mentally...The hormones. The medication. You have to get put to sleep every time. I know it's for so many people but it's just not for me."

As for why they tried it to begin with? "I felt like we kind of got pushed into doing IVF," she confessed. "If you look online, it says if you're over 40 go right away to an IVF doctor. So I felt a little bit pushed." 

Kourtney's new philosophy is that the "timing" will work out on its own: "I feel like if it's truly meant to be it will happen."

When a social media user asked if she was expecting, Kourtney responded that her appearance has changed due to "the after affects of IVF [sic]." She clapped back by saying, "I only acknowledge this comment because I do think it's important to know how IVF affects women's bodies and it's not spoken about much. Also are we still asking women if they're pregnant?"

On a May episode of The Kardashians, Kourtney shared that the spouses were "officially done" with IVF, noting that her eggs "didn't survive the thaw" and that none of them "made it" to an embryo. "People do it thinking that it's like a safety net and it's not."

"We would love a baby more than anything, but I just really believe in what God has in store for us," she said in a confessional. "If that's a baby, then I believe that it will happen. Being happy is most important, and being a good parent to my kids."

They were still determined to grow their family and were trying on their own, she revealed in a May 2023 Hulu episode.

In fact, she told Khloe Kardashian that they were tracking her cycle. "I know that I'm already late for you, but I am ovulating," she shared. "If you give us five minutes to go do something really fast...we'll be back."

Fifteen minutes later, she was back and saying it was a "record."

The couple shared that they're expecting! Kourtney pulled off a romantic stunt at a Blink-182 concert in June 2023, holding up a sign saying, "Travis I'm Pregnant" like in their 1999 music video "All The Small Things."

The pregnant star shared she underwent urgent fetal surgery to save their son. "I will be forever grateful to my incredible doctors for saving our baby's life," Kourtney wrote on Instagram Sept. 6. "I am eternally grateful to my husband who rushed to my side from tour to be with me in the hospital and take care of me afterwards, my rock."

Travis confirmed their son will be named Rocky Thirteen.

Multiple outlets reported Nov. 4 that Kourtney had given birth.

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