Kaitlyn Bristowe Talks Freezing Her Eggs and Fiancé Shawn Booth Says They Want 5 Kids

The two got engaged on The Bachelorette season 11

By Corinne Heller Mar 22, 2017 2:53 PMTags

Kaitlyn Bristowe will not be pressured to start a family, but she and fiancé Shawn Booth are keen on having one someday—and a big one!

The 31-year-old former star of The Bachelorette announced on Twitter earlier this month that she was "taking control" of her future by freezing her eggs, adding, "This puts my mind at ease for when I'M ready." Women's fertility begins to decline after age 30 and as they grows older from then, they begin to produce more abnormal eggs that would likely not lead to a live birth.

"I think a lot of women feel pressure to have kids, especially when you get engaged—"When's the wedding?" and "When are you gonna have babies?" Bristowe told Good Morning America Wednesday. "And for me, I'm like, I don't want that pressure on myself." 

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"This is kind of a backup plan for us, and for us to feel comfortable," Bristowe said on Good Morning America, sitting next to Booth, her fiancé of two years and The Bachelorette season 11 winner. "It's kind of like insurance."

The two hope to have many children together one day.

"We always say we want to have probably five, but we'll talk about we have one," Booth said. 

Bristowe underwent the first stage of IVF to freeze her eggs—she took hormone injections to make it so her ovaries produced more than usual and then underwent surgery under general anesthesia to have them harvested.

When she is ready to become pregnant, if she struggles to do so naturally, she can undergo the rest of the IVF process by taking more hormone medications and having any of her frozen eggs thawed, fertilized to become embryos and implanted. Whenever she chooses to do this, she would then have almost the same chance at conceiving as she does today, at age 31.

Booth supported her throughout the process and accompanied her to the clinic on the day of her egg retrieval.

"I think Shawn's role in this was, I mean, it was crucial for me," Bristowe said on Good Morning America. "I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Thanks babe," he said.