Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd are opening up about their experience with fertility struggles.
In a new interview with People, Murgatroyd revealed she has suffered three miscarriages in the last few years, including one in October 2021 when Chmerkovskiy was in Ukraine working as a judge on the country’s version of Dancing with the Stars.
The pro dancer and her husband are parents to five-year-old son Shai and said they have wanted to give their son a sibling for years.
Murgatroyd said she suffered her first miscarriage in 2020 in a Whole Foods bathroom. She said she felt “completely embarrassed” and “ultimately ashamed” at the time.
“I definitely wanted to keep my miscarriages a deep dark secret for the rest of my life,” Murgatroyd said.
“I’m somebody who prides herself on health wellness,” she said. “I exercise every single day. But as I came to realize, that doesn’t really go hand-in-hand with the reproductive system.”
Despite the stigma surrounding pregnancy loss and the shame many say they feel after experiencing one, miscarriages are not uncommon. A 2021 study in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet found that an estimated 23 million miscarriages occur every year worldwide. “Psychological consequences” of pregnancy loss can include “increases in the risk of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide,” according to the study.
Murgatroyd told People that she has since been diagnosed with Polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS — a common hormone abnormality that affects 6% to 12% of women of reproductive age in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The couple is now starting IVF, and Murgatroyd says she is in “a much happier place” because she finally “got answers.”
“For the first time in nearly two years, I feel excited,” she said.
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