What was Amanda Lee Keller's struggle with IVF?

Amanda Keller has said her IVF experience stayed with her for years because of how emotionally intense and physically repetitive the process became.

What seemed to affect her most wasn’t just the medical side. It was the cycle of:

“hope, waiting, disappointment, then starting all over again.”

She’s talked about how infertility slowly takes over your mental space. Even when you’re trying to live normally, IVF sits in the background of everything: appointments, injections, phone calls, test results, timing your entire life around treatment.

One thing that made her story feel very real was that she didn’t frame IVF as a quick success story. She described it more like something that leaves a permanent emotional imprint, even years later.

A lot of people who’ve gone through IVF say the same thing. Even after having children, they still remember specific calls, failed moments, procedures, and anxieties almost perfectly because the stress was so concentrated at the time.

Amanda Keller’s IVF struggle seemed to stay with her because she spent years trying to act “normal” while quietly going through fertility treatment in private.

One thing she said that really captures it was:

“I didn’t want to be defined by IVF.”

So she kept working, kept showing up publicly, and often hid what was happening behind the scenes.

She described doing IVF for years, having procedures under general anesthesia, then returning to work the next day like nothing had happened. That emotional disconnect seems to be a huge reason the experience stayed so raw for her.

“I’m not far from those days where I thought it would never happen.”

Even after eventually having children, she said those infertility years never fully left her mentally.

What makes her story resonate is that it wasn’t just about wanting a baby. It was also about carrying invisible grief while everyone around you assumes your life is fine.