Natalie Imbruglia explains why she had a baby with a sperm donor
Pop star Natalie Imbruglia has opened up about her "brutal" experience of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment as she struggled to become a mother and insisting choosing to have baby while she was single using a sperm donor.
Natalie Imbruglia has explained why she became a single mother using a sperm donor.
The Torn singer, 51, became a first-time mom in 2019 when she welcomed her son Max after undergoing several rounds of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment and she's now opened up about why she decided to start a family while she was single - insisting she didn't choose the process "over being with a man" and was just battling her "biological clock".
During an appearance on the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day podcast, Natalie explained: "I think it's really interesting that people frame it or they did with me that somehow I'd chosen this over being with a man.
"And for all the men out there, that's absolute rubbish. Like it wasn't some kind of: 'I don't need a man or you know women can do this and not have a man in their life'.
"It really upset me ... because that was not the case. We just find ourselves in a situation where there's a biological clock and you know a decision needs to be made.
"Thank God for medicine that we're able to have that option because women before us didn't have that option.
"So yeah, just wanted to say that for the men because it makes me really sad that that's just really not fair on men to say that that it was a choice like that."
During the podcast, Natalie also described her "brutal" experience of IVF and urged other women to do as much research as possible before they take the plunge.
Natalie said: "It's pretty brutal. What I will say is that it's really important to educate yourself and to ask a lot of questions and for women to share.
"There's a lot that I didn't know or understand about that process and there's a lot of trauma involved along the process of learning things that someone could have told me."
The singer also insisted the hormones taken during the process can make life difficult, saying: "It's also the in between is the hard bit.
"It's the freefall that they don't prepare you for. They don't kind of wean you off of it. It's just like sorry, it didn't work and then stop.
"And you've got this whole period of time that you have to pull yourself together. And they don't really speak about that. I don't think you're mentally prepared for that."
She added: "I think I would just say make sure you are really well informed and that you talk to women who've been through it because there is a lot that the doctors won't tell you and don't go through it on your own.
"Have some really good friends that you can call and who can help you through it because it can be quite lonely, can't it?"
