Health

Chrissy Teigen Reveals the Sad Truth About Her Sports Illustrated Photo Shoot

February 18th 2016

Model Chrissy Teigen, who has been open about her fertility struggles in recent months, just revealed that she took fertility shots during her Sports Illustrated shoot, which was her seventh appearance in the publication's legendary swimsuit edition.

Teigen told People magazine on Wednesday that she took her in vitro fertilization kit to Zanzibar in East Africa, where the photo shoot took place. It was challenging to take the injections during the shoot because they can cause bloating and bruises, she said.

“I was doing IVF during the shoot,” she told People. “I was getting my shots and everything in Zanzibar I had a little medical kit. It was hard, because you bloat from it, and you bruise if I hit the wrong area. That’s the kind of things we had to cover with makeup.”

Teigen's revelations about her fertility issues are significant because they highlight the types of struggles other women undergo to have kids. More than 10 percent of women have used fertility services during their lifetime, according to the national infertility association Resolve. But many keep their struggles to themselves because there is a pervasive cultural taboo surrounding discussing fertility issues. Teigen faced that as well.

Teigen is currently expecting a child with her husband, John Legend. They had trouble conceiving for years, and she spent a lot of time keeping the issue out of the public eye. That is, until last fall, when Teigen first opened up about her fertility challenges on her show, "FABLife."

"Any time somebody asks me if I'm going to have kids, I'm like, 'One day, you're going to ask that to the wrong girl who's really struggling, and it's going to be really hurtful to them,'" Teigen said on the program. "And I hate that. So I hate it. Stop asking me!"

Teigen's comments received a lot of praise on social media for highlighting an overlooked hardship for many couples. Following her well-received "FABLife" segment, Teigen told E! News reporter Marc Malkin that she had been meaning to discuss her fertility issues for a while, but that it didn't feel right to mention them casually on social media.

"I just wanted to talk about it for so long," Teigen said. "It didn't feel right to tweet, like, 'Ugh, doing my IVF shots again.'"

RELATED: Things Infertile Couples Are Tired of Hearing

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