Gabrielle Union’s Journey with Fertility and Wellness

Gabrielle Union has been in the acting scene since the '90s, so she's no rookie in the game. You probably know her best from the BET drama series Being Mary Jane, where she snagged herself an award.

Fun fact: she's married to NBA player Dwyane Wade, and they've got a cute daughter named Kaavia James.

But hold up, Union is not just about the glitz and glam of Hollywood. When she's not owning the screen or being a kick-ass mom, she's also an author. Yep, she's got three books to her name, two of which are memoirs – We’re Going to Need More Wine and You Got Anything Stronger?

In 'We’re Going to Need More Wine,' she dives into some real talk about heavy stuff like rape, racism, and her struggles with infertility. This article will dig into her journey dealing with infertility issues and her mission to champion women's wellness.

In 2018, Gabrielle Union took to Instagram to announce the birth of her daughter Kaavia James, indicating that the date will forever be etched in their hearts as the loveliest of all the lovely days. The couple has been forthright about their struggle to have children for a long time without success. The actor has had about nine miscarriages before opting to try surrogacy, as she revealed in her memoir.

"For three years, my body has been a prisoner of trying to get pregnant—I’ve either been about to go into an IVF cycle, in the middle of an IVF cycle, or coming out of an IVF cycle."

At the moment, Union did not have any children of her own, but she revealed that she remained hopeful and that she and her husband were ready to do anything to meet the child they had both been dreaming of. Even before welcoming her daughter, Gabrielle Union was a stepmom to Dwyane Wade’s, three children from his past relationships. The Breaking In actress told PEOPLE that raising a blended family and being a stepmom changed her perspective about having kids.

It remains a reality that Black women are almost twice as likely as white women to suffer from infertility, according to the National Library of Medicine. Unfortunately, there is a lot of stigma around perimenopause, infertility, and surrogacy. If there is anyone who understands the power of vulnerability, it is Gabrielle Union, partly due to her long experience with infertility.

“It’s brutal, and it's heartbreaking, and it sucks. But no one ever tells the story,” the actor opened up to Trevor Noah on The Daily Show. Now, the actor uses her influence to advocate for women's health and dispel myths of IVF parenting. She has also talked about misdiagnosis and cited how it took 25 years to learn that she had adenomyosis.

Gabrielle and her hubby have been open about their journey, sharing their story to help others going through the same stuff they did. They went the surrogacy route to become parents, and even though it's given Union the awesome title of "mom," Gabrielle revealed to Oprah Winfrey that sometimes she's still wrestling with the whole surrogate thing.

She's honest about it, though. The actor thinks there are tons of people out there dealing with the same kind of struggle but staying quiet about it. That's why she's putting her own experiences out there, speaking up to let others in the same boat know they're not alone. It's like she's giving a voice to the silent struggle.