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The two tried to adopt in California in a semi-open basis, found two mothers who agreed to give their child to Fernandez and Geddes, but both mothers backed out late in their pregnancies. Fernandez filled out a lengthy adoption form in Florida and hesitated when she got to the last question: “What is your sexual preference?” At the time, Florida would not allow gay couples to adopt. Still determined to have a family, Fernandez and Geddes pursued adoption. It was the first time her body had betrayed her.

“Every time it didn’t take it was like someone died,” Fernandez says. Seven failed fertility treatments over the next few years followed - five attempts at intrauterine insemination and two in vitro attempts.

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“I just couldn’t figure out how to have a fruitful life.” “I turned 38 and it was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do with the rest of my life if I’m not a mom?’” she says. The two fell in love.įernandez spent the next several years floundering, bouncing from coaching to business endeavors and not landing on anything she was truly passionate about. That year, Fernandez met Jane Geddes, an 11-time winner on the LPGA tour. She won 17 Grand Slam titles until she retired at age 33 in 1997. “There was really no time to think of anything other than taking care of my body and myself,” Fernandez says of her own decision. Even if it had, the now-54-year-old doesn’t think she would have done so - though she now strongly encourages all women in sports to give themselves that insurance policy. Science hadn’t developed to the point where freezing eggs was a viable procedure. Doctors say fertility declines precipitously in women after age 35. She was 27 years old when she won her first Grand Slam doubles title in the French Open in 1991. Those were also her prime childbearing years. She won two gold medals in doubles tennis, teaming with Mary Joe Fernandez in Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. In the 1990s, Gigi Fernandez was at the top of her career. The fear that I can’t be both the best mother and the best tennis player in the world.”

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Williams said she expects to play in Wimbledon, though in her HBO series “Being Serena,” she said “There’s no escaping the fear, the fear that I might not come back as strong as I was. She had to withdraw from this year’s French Open, her first Grand Slam event since winning the Australian Open in January 2017, because of injury. Triathlete-turned-marathoner Gwen Jorgensen had her son, Stanley, in August 2017 at age 31 - about a year after she won the triathlon gold medal at the Rio Olympics.Īnd the greatest test case for women in athletics who attempt to have it all is ongoing: Serena Williams had her daughter Sept. Candace Parker had her daughter, Lailaa, when she was just 23 years old and in her second season with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

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As more professional athletic opportunities have opened for women since the implementation of Title IX, more female athletes have had to grapple with balancing motherhood and a career that relies on the performance of the body. That desire to succeed in professional sports can be at odds with one factor that no woman can change or control: her biological clock. “I just did that because I felt like there was nothing coming in the near future that I could see,” Patrick says. The eggs she froze were 33 years old - still below the threshold for that designation (which is 35). By medical standards, she is also of an “advanced maternal age.” Yet, she technically wouldn’t have that label if she is able to use her storage of eggs to conceive a child. She is officially in the post-racing phase of her life. She retired after two final races this year - the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 in a farewell she deemed the “Danica Double” - and has immersed herself in promoting her fitness clothing line, Warrior her winery, Somnium and her workout and nutrition book, “Pretty Intense.” She began dating Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers earlier this year. “It doesn’t mean I can’t try a different way if I want to. “This is an insurance policy,” Patrick says. Her doctor told her she needed 20 eggs to all-but guarantee that one could someday become a healthy baby. After two weeks of self-administered hormone injections, her doctor removed 24 eggs - 19 of which were mature. During one offseason, Patrick went through rigorous hormone treatment to produce, retrieve and freeze her then 33-year-old eggs.