Tulsi Gabbard Reveals ‘Heartbreak’ of ‘Unexplained Infertility’ Diagnosis and Failed IVF Procedures

The former Hawaii lawmaker was told she's “one of the women” whose fertility challenges could not be explained

Tulsi Gabbard is opening up about her fertility challenges.

The former Hawaii congresswoman, 43, discussed her struggles over the years to conceive a child with husband Abraham Williams on Meghan McCain’s Citizen McCain podcast, and shared that she had even undergone several in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures.

“[IVF is] a very difficult experience no matter what happens,” Gabbard said, before detailing the process which begins with hormone shots that help stimulate the ovaries to produce more eggs for egg retrieval and then transferring the embryo into her body.

“You go through all of this and then you schedule the first transfer. And then you have the waiting until you can take that first pregnancy test, and feeling hopeful and, like, ‘Oh, I got this gut feeling, like, I can't wait to be a mom and all of it,’ “ she said before breaking down in tears.

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The politician said her first pregnancy test came back negative, so she opted to go through the procedure again and again. Each time, she would get the same results, which took a toll on her mentally.

“You go through this and then and it's like, ‘Okay, hopefully, this is the day we get going for the test.’ And then it comes back negative and trying to remain hopeful,” she recalled.

Gabbard said her doctor eventually told her that she is “one of the women” whose official diagnosis is “unexplained infertility.” She added that the news was a tough one to swallow “because, you know, if at least something is diagnosed, [you’re like], 'Okay, maybe I can do something about this.' But the whole unexplained infertility thing was difficult.”

"As hard as this was for me, it was extremely hard for Abraham to just watch this, heartbreak over and over again," she added.

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She said she and her husband decided to halt IVF procedures in order for her to run for president in 2020, which came “at a cost.”

She was unable to restart the IVF process again for some time because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her deployment to East Africa as part of a joint special operations task force. She said when she came back at the end of 2021, she went through “a few rounds” of the IVF process, until they got to the “final two procedures.”

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“Abraham and I had a long conversation, and we agreed beforehand that, you know, if this didn't work, then I wasn't, we weren't going to go through this again,” Gabbard recalled, telling listeners that she stayed with McCain and her husband Ben Domenech at the time to go to doctor's appointments in Washington, D.C.

"When that last transfer took place, we had no more frozen embryos," she said. "I went for the blood test and got the results back and, and got the call from the doctor here in D.C. saying, you know, 'I'm sorry. The results are negative.' "

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The former presidential candidate said she and her husband have since accepted their circumstances and are putting their focus into helping other families.

“While that is not in the cards for me and for us, I'm in this unique position where I can actually do something to help other women and children and families, and that is incredibly fulfilling,” she said.

She continued, “And, you know, through this process, actually found — because every time we went through each procedure — I was just like, ‘You know what? Yep. I've got faith.’ ”

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