Getting candid.

Bachelor Nation stars Astrid Loch and Kevin Wendt met on Season 5 of “Bachelor in Paradise,” and the two welcomed their first child together in 2021.

Now as the couple is expecting their second baby via IVF, they sat down for an exclusive interview about their IVF journey on the “Day 1 Fertility Podcast.”

Astrid shared the podcast on her Stories and wrote, “We FINALLY did a podcast talking about our fertility journey and our road to conception and couldn’t be more thankful that Day 1 Fertility gave us a platform to share. I hope you all listen.”

During the podcast, Astrid opened up about her decision to announce her first pregnancy with an essay she penned for People.

She discussed feeling lost during her IVF journey and wanted others to feel less alone.

Astrid said, “I think that was my biggest reason for wanting to share. I just remember while we were trying to get pregnant seeing pregnancy announcement after pregnancy announcement, and it seemed like no one else was ever having any issues. I felt like I was the only person in the entire world that was going through this, and I realize now since sharing my story that it’s the total opposite of that.”

She went on, saying, “So many people have similar stories. I remember wanting to make sure no one felt the way I felt when I saw pregnancy announcements. I wanted to take anyone else struggling into consideration while also getting to share my positive news finally.”

Astrid also shared why she thinks there’s such shame around fertility issues, especially for women.

The Bachelor Nation star said, “From such an early age, we’re taught how not to get pregnant, so when all of the sudden you’re trying to get pregnant and not getting pregnant, it feels really shameful. It feels like as a woman we’re meant to reproduce, this is our job, and I feel like that’s been drilled into us. I hope we’re the last of that generation. I feel like there’s been a shift for sure.”

Astrid continued, saying, “I feel like people my age and older feel like women were there to get married at 24 and reproduce and I was on a totally different trajectory. It was definitely a little bit of a coming out and there was some vulnerability in sharing that we needed help. I wasn’t embarrassed of it and I wanted others to not feel embarrassed of it as well.”

She also said that writing that article was also for her as much as it was for other people experiencing something similar.

Astrid said, “Part of writing that article was therapeutic for me too. We held it all so close to our hearts for so long that I felt like if I’m going to share this news, I don’t want to just share that we just got pregnant with IVF.”

She shared her previous misconceptions about IVF treatment, saying, “When I thought of people who got pregnant with IVF, I thought of celebrities who were doing it to stay on a timeline or to gender select. I never thought of people doing IVF because that’s their only option at that point. I wanted to get all of that off of my chest and let people know that there was a much bigger reason for why we had to go that route rather than choosing to.”

We know that Astrid and Kevin sharing their story will continue to help so many others facing similar struggles.