Guiliana Rancic Is Expecting After Years of IVF, a Miscarriage and Breast Cancer

Guiliana Rancic, E! News anchor and Fashion Police co-host, has just announced that she and her husband Bill are expecting their first baby at the end of the summer.

Rancic’s fertility has been highly publicized over the last several years. She has been very open about her hopes, fears, IVF treatments, miscarriage, breast cancer, double mastectomy and the possibility that she’s too thin to conceive. This last topic brought considerable controversy. On The View Whoopi Goldberg was blunt in her comments, implying that if Rancic really wants a baby she should work harder to follow her doctor’s orders and put on 5-10 pounds.

Women struggling with fertility came out in defense of Rancic for being open about her struggles and some chaffed at Goldberg’s comment, insisting that fertility problems can’t just be resolved simply by gaining five pounds. Others chided Rancic for being far too thin. Pictures of ribs and collar bones poking out of designer gowns went into media rotation.

Research indicates that, although woman of all sizes and weights conceive without problems all the time, being very under or over weight may impact ovulation. A study just came out suggesting that moderate exercise is great for conception but excessive exercise is not. Rancic has said that she works out daily (and loves it and feels good about working out) and needs to be a sample size for her work on the red carpet. She also, at one point, told reporters that she gained 5 pounds and still… didn’t get pregnant.

But now she’s on the path-to-parenthood– via gestational surrogacy*– and I congratulate the expecting parents.

Rancic’s story definitely touches on some hot button issues about what it means to be a mom. It seems sacrifice and curves and are inextricably linked culturally– if not biologically– to our ideas about motherhood.

(I accidentally left this out of my first post. I apologize and thank those who commented for pointing this out.)