Michelle Obama Effect: Ex-FLOTUS’ Miscarriage Revelation ‘Empowering,’ More Black Women Seeking Fertility Treatments

Michelle Obama opened up about her miscarriage in her memoir, “Becoming.”

The ex-FLOTUS’ earth-shattering revelation was such a big deal for a lot of women that it launched the so-called Michelle Obama Effect.

After readers learned about the former first lady’s infertility, they also explored fertility treatments just like what Barack Obama’s wife did.

While speaking with Yahoo, Barbara Collura, the CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association, said that a lot of celebrities have also opened up about their struggles to conceive but it was different when Michelle revealed that she experienced the same thing.

Dr. Desiree McCarthy-Keith, the medical director for Shady Grove Fertility’s Atlanta region, said that Barack’s wife made women realize that infertility may happen to anyone.

"Women brave enough to speak on their own situations, it’s empowering for all of us to hear that,” she said.

McCarthy-Keith’s clinic saw an 18 percent increase in black women undergoing fertility treatment since last year.

In her book, the ex-FLOTUS revealed that she and Barack were so happy to learn that she got pregnant shortly after they tied the knot. But their happiness quickly turned into sadness when Michelle suffered a miscarriage.

“A miscarriage is lonely, painful, and demoralizing almost on a cellular level. When you have one, you will likely mistake it for a personal failure, which it is not. Or a tragedy, which, regardless of how utterly devastating it feels in the moment, it also is not. What nobody tells you is that miscarriage happens all the time, to more women than you’d ever guess, given the relative silence around it,” she said.

Barack and Michelle’s daughters, Malia, 21, and Sasha, 18, were both conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF). Malia is currently studying at Harvard, and her younger sister is enrolled at Michigan University.

During her interview with “Today,” the ex-first lady admitted to being emotional after Sasha drove herself off to college. She also said that she, her husband, and eldest daughter were together at that time.