Sen. Tammy Duckworth Did Four IVF Shots Every Day for Four Years to Have Her Daughters

Vanessa Etienne
·2 min read
Sen. Tammy Duckworth Did Four IVF Shots Every Day for Four Years to Have Her Daughters

Sen. Tammy Duckworth is getting candid about years of in vitro fertilization shots.

The Illinois senator, 53, appears on a new episode of PEOPLE's podcast Me Becoming Mom, where she opens up about her experience with IVF before welcoming her two daughters Abigail and Maile Pearl.

Duckworth, who made history in 2018 as the first senator to give birth in office, tells host Zoë Ruderman, Head of Digital at PEOPLE, that she went through several cycles of IVF, which included taking about four shots every day for four years.

"I am doing it on the road. I'm campaigning for re-election. I am giving myself shots morning, noon and night," she says, noting that she tried to conceive for six years without intervention before turning to IVF. "And because of my wartime injuries, I had to do blood thinners as well. So I was giving myself probably four shots a day."

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RELATED: Sen. Tammy Duckworth Calls Going Back to Work After Having a Miscarriage 'Inhumane'

Duckworth continues, "I counted out all up between the two daughters and all of the IVF cycles, I probably did four years of shots every day, three or four injections a day for about four years."

The congresswoman says she went through "at least four or five" retrievals before she became pregnant with her first daughter, adding that she was "one of two viable embryos."

Tammy Duckworth
Tammy Duckworth

Somodevilla/Getty Images Sen. Tammy Duckworth with newborn Maile in 2018

Duckworth welcomed Abigail in 2014 when she was a member of the House of Representatives. In 2018, she gave birth to her second daughter, Maile Pearl. The senator shares both children with husband Bryan Bowlsbey.

The 12-episode weekly Me Becoming Mom podcast explores the various roads to motherhood through different interviews with both celebrity guests and experts in the field. Topics on the show include IVF, adoption, surrogacy, single parenthood, same-sex couples, home births, pregnancy loss, unexpected and surprising birth stories, among other subjects.

Guests on the show include Alyssa Milano, Hoda Kotb, Jillian Michaels, Shawn Johnson East and more.

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