Struggling to have a second baby, astronaut Kellie Gerardi makes use of her social media presence to let others know they are not alone. She’s pictured above in 2021 in New York Metropolis.
Roy Rochlin/Getty Pictures for NYFW: The Exhibits
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Roy Rochlin/Getty Pictures for NYFW: The Exhibits
Six white roses sit in a glass vase on Kellie Gerardi’s kitchen counter. On digital camera, for thousands and thousands of followers throughout her social media platforms, Gerardi slowly picks out stems till solely three stay. Every of the ultimate three light white roses represents a viable embryo, a bundle of hope in her battle in opposition to secondary infertility.
Gerardi was the ninetieth girl in historical past to fly to area. She’s additionally a kids’s writer, a researcher, a Swiftie and a mom. Her newest mission is one she’s been engaged on for years: to present start to a second baby.
“To this point, I have been pregnant 5 occasions with solely Delta as my baby,” she mentioned. “It has been a tough journey and it is this combine in secondary infertility of each realizing that it is attainable for me to conceive and carry a being pregnant to time period, clearly, however having lengthy intervals of time not having the ability to get pregnant [or] once I do, having a loss that’s simply devastating every time.”
From astronaut life to motherhood, Gerardi shares her life on-line. Her movies doc every part from her area analysis on biomedical and thermodynamic fluids to journeys along with her mother and daughter — often rocking her chunky star necklace and a few kind of space-themed sweater with multicolored stars, moons or aliens.
With over 2 million followers on her Instagram and TikTok accounts, Gerardi’s social media presence has been an area to have fun girls, science and girlhood. As of late, with Gerardi brazenly sharing her fertility journey and experiences with in vitro fertilization — a remedy that extracts eggs and fertilizes them with sperm outdoors of the physique — her socials have grow to be a communal area for others going by way of comparable struggles.
“There have been so many highs and lows simply throughout the course of [of IVF],” she mentioned. “The egg retrieval, that was my first time going by way of it. And I believe I used to be just a bit bit emotionally unprepared.”
Gerardi started IVF within the fall of 2024. Just one viable embryo got here out of that first spherical. It transferred efficiently, and he or she shared the thrill of being pregnant proudly and broadly on-line. In February, the day earlier than her thirty sixth birthday, Gerardi attended one closing ultrasound.
Gerardi recalled, “I went into my commencement appointment, or what was speculated to be my commencement appointment from my IVF clinic at that nine-week test up … and in that appointment was simply shattered to listen to my physician and the nurses within the room inform me that there was no heartbeat.”
She left the clinic by way of a discreet exit she hadn’t seen earlier than and shared the information in a real-time update to her social media group. Gerardi is dedicated to being clear along with her group, and which means sharing each the nice and the unhealthy.
After taking time to heal, Gerardi and her household determined to attempt once more. And he or she was simply as dedicated to sharing each step of the IVF course of this time round — particularly her pleasure and hope.
“Nothing is ever assured in IVF,” Gerardi mentioned. “I am not unaware that it’s a distinct risk that both the identical factor occurs once more, which might be equally devastating, or you understand transfers do not work … no matter it might be. I do know the dangers, and I do know that nothing is a given. And but, I am nonetheless permitting myself [to] exist on this stage of hope and enthusiasm and optimism.”
Gerardi has a second area mission scheduled for 2026. Whereas she’s nonetheless determining one of the best timeline for herself and her household, these three embryos are set to be frozen and he or she has excessive hopes for a switch sooner or later.
