It's been a big week for the Kardashian-Jenner family. Just days after reports of Kylie Jenner's pregnancy took the Internet by storm, People reported on Tuesday that Khloé Kardashian and her boyfriend, Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Tristan Thompson are also expecting a child. (Neither pregnancy has been officially been confirmed by the family.)
Kardashian, 33, has been outspoken about fertility issues for several years. In 2013, the reality star addressed rumours that she was "desperate" for a baby and jealous of her sisters' ability to easily get pregnant.
Kardashian, who was married to NBA star Lamar Odom at the time, said that she was fine without kids. "Do I wish people would quit asking me about it 24-7? Yes, but I don’t regret it," she told Redbook.
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"I was 26 when that started, and I admit, I didn't know a lot about my body," Kardashian continued. "It was hard for me to understand what was happening because my mum had six kids and Kourtney got pregnant quickly. People assume I’m desperate for a baby. And yes, I would love to have a baby. But I’m 28, and I’ve been married three and a half years. I love my life, but it doesn’t feel incomplete right now."
In the same interview, she addressed the cause of her fertility issues: "It’s more about my hormones being off," Kardashian explained. Although she was addressing the issue at the time, she said that her life didn't revolve around it.
"I was taking hormone shots to stabilise them, and you have to take those shots consistently and they have to be done by a doctor. You can do them yourself, but I couldn’t," Kardashian said. "And then after your cycle, you have to go to the doctor for ultrasounds and more testing. And if I’m in Miami and miss a treatment, I have to start all over again. It’s a commitment, and I don’t mind doing it, but the timing was just off."
Fast forward to a March 2016 episode of Kocktails With Khloé and Kardashian spoke out about how she believed that having kids would fix her rocky marriage to Odom. (Don't try this tactic at home: It never works.)
"At the time, I was like, 'Oh, I have to have a baby!'" Kardashian told her guests. "That’s all I wanted at the time, and I thought it would maybe fix the situation [with Odom], so I’m also happy it didn’t happen because I was young. I was 27, and I thought, 'A baby will fix this,' and it’s not going to fix that."
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In the same episode, she shared that she had tried In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in an attempt to get pregnant.
But the plot seriously thickened in June during the season finale of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. During a visit to Dr. Andy Huang for a reproductive evaluation, Kardashian said that her past attempts to get pregnant were fake.
"I fake tried. I was married so I knew the circumstances weren’t the healthiest so I kept pretending I was doing it," she told Huang, adding that "I had to stop because there was much deeper stuff going on in our marriage… I knew it wasn’t the right situation to bring a child into… I’ve done a lot of covering up for him."
But during the finale, Kardashian also stated that she was serious about having a child with Thompson and panicked when Huang told her that she had "fewer follicles than I anticipate for a normal 32-year-old." As it turned out, it was a false alarm and her follicle count returned to normal once she went off birth control.
When Kim asked Khloé how Thompson felt about her going off the pill, she said that he "wants to have kids now." In a testimonial, she elaborated: "He wants to have like five or six kids with me... Knowing I’m not on birth control, it’s scary. It’s like a really big step. I am really excited about my future. Me and Tristan, we’re doing so well."
Kardashian's history with pregnancy has certainly been complicated, but it seems like she and Thompson are ready for this exciting next step.
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