Earlier this summer, Dominique Nugent shared to social media that she and her husband, Paddy were beginning IVF treatment.
VIP Magazine sat down with her at this year’s Hayu STELLAR InstaStar Awards launch where Dominique is nominated in the InstaStar of the Year category.
Read our exclusive interview below…
Hi, Dominique. You’ve just started your IVF journey. What made you decide to share this time in your life publicly?
I’ve shared a lot of my personal life online over the last couple of years. I thought about it for a long time. Me and Paddy spoke about it a lot. We both felt that it was right to talk about. We’re both super open as people. If he had have said, “No I don’t want you to talk about this,” it never would have happened. It really helps us going through the stages of this, we’re able to talk to our family and friends. And even my community online, there are people who have gone through it. It can be a very isolating and lonely experience when you don’t know anybody who has gone through it. I felt like being open about it online and being a person who shared it was a good thing to do.
When this journey began, did you have anyone online to look to for advice?
I looked to a lot of influencers online in America that were sharing their journeys and those were the pages I was gravitating towards. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of chat about it in Ireland. I don’t know if we’re a little but more closed off. The pages I was following of the girls in America gave me a lot of hope when they were sharing success stories. But I am quite aware that it might not have the outcome that I want. It’s all about sharing the ups and downs of the process. It’s really common; one in six people have fertility struggles.
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You must be receiving lots of beautiful messages from people on a similar journey…
I knew when I started sharing a topic like this, that not a lot of people talk about, I’d get a lot of responses. If you’re going through the process yourself and you see someone publicly talk about it you do feel like you want to talk to somebody about it. I got a lot of messages from people saying that they hadn’t told their own family and friends about it. It is a release for people to talk to somebody who doesn’t know them. I had lots of really nice conversations with people. It’s always really nice to find that comfort from other people.
Apart from IVF, how is life?
I’m just back from holidays. I just had a family holiday. We have one more holiday planned for September. So I’m still clinging to Summer! There’s not much going on. The IVF journey is a really big aspect of my life right now. It’s a bit all-consuming. The holiday we just had was really nice. I was able to switch off a bit there.
Cast your votes in this year’s Hayu STELLAR InstaStar Awards here.
