Gold Medalist Tara Lipinski 'Regrets' Not Using a Surrogate 'Sooner' in Her Fertility Journey

Tara Lipinski is an open book when it comes to her fertility journey.

The gold medalist, 42, revealed how difficult her road to becoming a mother was after going through eight egg retrievals, six failed in-vitro fertilization transfers and four miscarriages before welcoming her daughter, Georgie, via surrogate.

"I went on a five-year fertility journey that was long and winding to say the least, and really changed who I am as a person," Lipinski admitted in a recent interview. "It was one of the hardest things I've ever encountered."

The former athlete and her husband, Todd Kapostasy, finally decided to try other options. "It was after our fourth miscarriage we pursued surrogacy. I think I had to hit rock bottom, and I kind of knew at that point that my ending was going to be different than what I imagined in the beginning," she explained.

"Probably my biggest regret during my journey was that I didn't do surrogacy sooner. In the beginning, I had this idea of how I wanted a baby to come into this world, and it was me being pregnant," Lipinski noted. "At the end of that fourth miscarriage, I was almost desperate for surrogacy, so my entire view on things changed. I wish I could have told the girl that started this, 'you're going to feel one day that it's not so scary to choose surrogacy.' At this point, there was almost relief and healing in my journey."

While Lipinski was navigating the trials and tribulations of trying to become a parent, self-care was harder to practice than normal. "There were so many days where I didn't feel like myself, where I was too tired to care, to put on makeup, to feel good. I just was really struggling from day to day of getting through this journey," she noted.

"With IVF, you're just giving so much — you're giving your eggs away, you're the only one doing the shots. In those moments, I felt so much better after I spent a little time giving energy back to me," the blonde beauty added.

For the Olympic champ, letting people in on how hard the situation was for her a positive aspect of the experience. "When I shared my story and my thoughts and my feelings so openly, it opened up this beautiful community of other women reaching out and sharing their stories. They're not my friends, they're not my family — I don't know them — but I feel this deep bond with them because of our shared experience. Having that connection is so powerful. You feel validated, seen, and less alone," she explained.

Bustle conducted the interview with Lipinski.