Anyone who goes through IVF 'should be so proud', says Sara Pascoe

Sara Pascoe has said anyone who tries to conceive through IVF "should be so proud of themselves", explaining that it is "such a big thing to put your body through".

The 44-year-old comedian, who has previously spoken about her fertility issues, conceived both her sons - born in 2022 and 2023 - through IVF.

She told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that talking about IVF treatment in her stand-up routines "feels like a positive way to talk about something that people feel very isolated in".

Pascoe is known for being open about her personal life in her work, having also written in her autobiography about having an abortion when she was 17.

She said of IVF treatment: "It's such a big thing to put your body through. Anyone who does it should be so proud of themselves – and that's what I tried to do when I was talking about it more on stage."

But she added that when she and her husband, the comedian Steen Raskopoulos, first began trying for children through IVF she "couldn't do stand-up about it because it was far too raw".

Pascoe continued: "I only really spoke about infertility once I had children and it was reflexing. I also think that's because I couldn't be funny about it until I knew the ending."

She added that it took her until her eldest son, Theo, was eight months old to feel ready to talk about the topic in her stand-up routines.

"It was really like: 'I definitely have a son. He survived. He's alive, he's here.'

"And I then felt I wanted to share things with people who I knew would be at different stages of it.

"The other thing with comedy is that people won't laugh unless they know you're OK. You can't tell them the stuff you're not OK about."

Pascoe also told Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne that her agent had advised her against including an anecdote about her abortion in her 2016 book Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body.

"I think the thing about me in the oversharing is that the sharing always feels like so much more important than any privacy," she said.

"And actually, I'm not embarrassed. I've never really felt uncomfortable talking about a biographical detail."

Pascoe began performing stand-up comedy in 2007 and has appeared on TV panel shows including Have I Got News For You, QI and Would I Lie to You.

She has written three books, including the novel Weirdo, which won the Jilly Cooper Prize for fiction last year.

The full episode of Desert Islands Discs airs on BBC Radio 4, and will be available on BBC Sounds, from Sunday at 10:00 GMT