Katie Thurston believes surrogacy will be 'best option' amid cancer battle

Yahoo

31-03-2025

Katie Thurston has admitted surrogacy is now the "best option" for her to have a child. The 'Bachelorette' star recently revealed her breast cancer - which was diagnosed last month - had spread to her liver and is now classed as stage 4, and she and new husband Jeff Arcuri have been discussing the best way to move forward with their plans to start a family amid her health struggles. Responding to a fan on Instagram who asked if she'd now have to use a surrogate, she replied: 'I never like the word 'have to' with anything medical related. 'Kind of like 'never say never.' However, yes, Jeff and I discussed the importance of my health and that when the time comes, surrogacy will likely be the best option for us." The 35-year-old beauty urged people not to judge those who opt for surrogacy as a way to have a child. She added: 'A friendly reminder to stop judging celebrities who pursue surrogacy because you don't know what they have going on in their personal lives." Katie also explained medication Zoladex would 'play a role in fertility preservation during treatment.' She explained: 'I'm basically putting my ovaries into a temporary menopausal state (I like to say hibernation), to protect them from chemo. 'It will also reduce estrogen production, which is particularly important in hormone receptor ER+/PR+ breast cancer, as estrogen can fuel cancer growth. I iced my stomach for three minutes before they did the injection. Painless all things considered. No symptoms that I noticed either.(sic)" Earlier this month, Katie explained she had undergone IVF treatment ahead of starting her chemotherapy. She told Us Weekly magazine: "Chemo does impact your reproductive health. It does raise the risk of you not being able to conceive. " Knowing that we wanted kids in the future, we thought, 'OK, let's do IVF just to have that option.' We dedicated two weeks before doing anything else breast cancer-wise to doing IVF... "[Some] doctors almost frown upon it or they want to put fear in you and say, 'No, you need to take care of this cancer.' So a lot of women don't even realise that you can take 10 days to dedicate time to your reproductive health and your future family plans. We were able to retrieve 17 eggs and of those 17, six became embryos.' Thurston praised her partner for supporting her throughout the process. 'He's been to every single appointment with me so far. He's done every single shot that's involved with IVF,' she added.