On Monday, August 17, I found out I am pregnant.  I’m 41, with a uterine abnormality, I have a 43-year-old husband, and my pregnancy is the result of our second attempt at in vitro fertilization (IVF).

My IVF egg retrieval took place August 1, followed by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) of my eggs and my husband’s and my embryos, followed by a Day-5 embryo transfer on August 6.  My due date is April 23.

On August 18, the day after my positive pregnancy test, Celine Dion, also age 41, and her husband, Rene Angelil, age 67, announced that Celine was pregnant with their second child via IVF, with a due date of early May.   

I remember thinking that Celine and Rene were making their announcement prematurely, considering my embryos had only been in my body for 12 days, and my due date was at least a week earlier than theirs.  But, I assumed that, because of Rene’s “advanced paternal age,” they’d also done PGD and therefore were comfortable with the viability of the pregnancy, because chromosomal abnormalities are the top reason that either embryos don’t implant at all or, if implanted successfully, die within the first trimester of pregnancy.

Today the Associated Press (AP) released another story, which explains Celine’s and Rene’s super-early pregnancy announcement in August.  The fact that Celine had a positive pregnancy test, confirmed by her IVF doctor, was being leaked to the media, so Celine and Rene felt obligated to respond.

However, according to her U.S.-based publicist, Kim Jakwerth, Celine and Rene found out the very next day, August 19, that embryo implantation hadn’t been successful after all.

Can you imagine being forced to announce your happy news within days of becoming pregnant, then finding out you’d lost your baby the very day after the media explosion?

In the AP story, it states, “[Publicist] Jakwerth said Dion did not immediately announce that she wasn’t pregnant because she was hopeful another implantation would work and had wanted to keep the matter private.”

I’m sure Celine, Rene and their son Rene-Charles also wanted to mourn without the world watching.

Celine’s and Rene’s story demonstrates that, even for the rich and famous, even for those with access to the ultimate in assisted reproductive technologies (ART), success is not guaranteed.  Age does not discriminate when it comes to human reproduction.

Celine and Rene admitted that they had gotten pregnant with an embryo that had been cryopreserved when they were undergoing IVF to conceive Rene-Charles, now 8.  So, Celine was about 33, and Rene was around 59, depending on when they did IVF in relation to their birthdays.

Even at 33, Celine could have had problems with some of her embryos.  Last week, I heard from a 31-year-old who had just completed her first IVF cycle, only to find that none of her eggs are viable. 

And, at 59, Rene’s sperm likely would have created numerous chromosomal abnormalities in his and Celine’s embryos. 

For example, in our first IVF cycle, my husband, once again, age 43, and I, at the tail-end of 40 at that time, had 10 embryos.  Three were chromosomally abnormal because of my eggs, and three were chromosomally abnormal because of my husband’s sperm, so 60% weren’t viable because they either wouldn’t have implanted or would have died in the first trimester. 

Out of our four normal embryos, two simply stopped developing, leaving us with two.  We transferred one girl embryo, who simply didn’t implant.  So, we did PGD and transferred a healthy embryo, but she just didn’t take.  No explanation.  In fact, at our post-IVF consultation, my doctor asked, “Why are you not pregnant?”

During our second IVF cycle, I turned 41, and we created only six embryos, with four deemed chromosomally abnormal—one due to my egg, and three due to my husband’s sperm.  We transferred two healthy boy embryos, they both implanted, but one died in my 8^th week of pregnancy—with no explanation.

My husband and I, not wealthy, were able to afford two cycles of IVF because we are blessed to live in Illinois, one of only 15 U.S. states to have mandatory infertility coverage; we weren’t precluded in any way from receiving coverage, because Illinois doesn’t have the same age and time-trying restrictions imposed by other states; and I cashed out part of my retirement fund to pay for our 20% out-of-pocket for IVF, plus 100% of our uninsured PGD (at $4,000 a try) and 100% of our uninsured cryopreservation of our unused embryo from our first cycle (at $800).

I assume the fact that Celine was hoping to become pregnant again before announcing her prior loss means that she and Rene have had at least one unsuccessful IVF cycle since their mid-August confirmation of her leaked pregnancy test results.

Even if they’ve been able to use embryos cryopreserved more than eight years ago—and even if these embryos  were determined to be chromosomally normal via PGD—not all frozen embryos are viable after they are thawed; even “perfect” embryos sometimes don’t implant; and even chromosomally normal embryos can die in the womb.  Nature has its own rules.

If Celine and Rene have had to create embryos from scratch, they will likely face obstacle upon obstacle trying to conceive with her 41-year-old eggs and his 67-year-old sperm.

The AP article states that the couple is “disappointed but determined.”  I wish them luck. 

I respect how open they’ve been about having to turn to infertility treatments to conceive their son—and to attempt to have a second child.  And, I know how difficult it is to undergo IVF.  Having money doesn’t change the physical and emotional toll of the IVF experience, successful or not, and the devastation of each cycle that ends without a much-wanted baby.

The fact that I am now 16-weeks’ pregnant, and Celine is not pregnant at all, makes me sad.  And, as with anyone who has faced infertility and successfully conceived, I feel guilty when others are unable to get pregnant—or do conceive, then lose their babies.

But, because of Celine’s and Rene’s openness, their loss will teach aspiring parents a valuable lesson.  Even for multi-millionaire songstress Celine Dion, having a child isn’t guaranteed.  Having money and power and fame doesn’t guarantee a miracle.

And, we never hear that story from celebrities:  We never hear, “I tried and failed.”  And, it can happen to any of us.