Kayly Loh is expecting her first child and she shared her journey going through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
In an Instagram post yesterday (April 24), 37-year-old local actress, who is married to commercial director Jonathan Chong, said she thought injections would be the hardest part of IVF.
“When I first considered IVF, I was terrified of the injections. As someone who’s afraid of needles, that alone almost stopped me. But after years of trying naturally to nothing, it was our only option,” she shared.
But when she started the process, the jabs weren’t the hardest part – they were “manageable and almost pain-free”.
“I thought maybe IVF isn’t as bad as I imagined. I was wrong,” she recalled.
During the progesterone phase, thicker needles were used for jabs and tubes were inserted into her vagina for eight weeks.
She later developed OHSS (Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome) due to an exaggerated response to excess hormones.
This happened after her embryo transfer despite clearance beforehand.
“I couldn’t walk or stand or sleep. It was difficult to exist. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced,” she said.
“My IVF bloat came before my baby bump.
Even now at five months pregnant, my ovaries still aren’t fully cleared.”
While the physical pains were tough, the emotional part was “even harder”.
She said the process has taught her to be “overly cautious and pessimistic”.
“Even when we tested positive, we couldn’t fully celebrate. The ‘good news’ came with warnings. It didn’t feel like joy. It felt like relief mixed with worry,” she explained.
She revealed that they found out about her pregnancy on their wedding anniversary but didn’t celebrate.
Managing IVF while filming
In her post, Kayly also revealed she had to get jabs in between scene breaks and outfit changes while filming.
“No one on set knew,” she said.
She shared photos of her bloated stomach and how she worried about how to fit into her outfits.
“I could no longer fit in my regular pants,” she said.
“IVF wasn’t the way I expected. It wasn’t just physical. It was cautious hope, quiet endurance, and learning not to celebrate too early. I now know why they say IVF is a lonely journey,” she concluded.
Kayly made her showbiz debut after winning the MediaCorp Channel 5 talent contest The 5 Search in 2015.
In 2021, she married Jonathan, whom she met through the e-commerce app Carousell.
She announced her pregnancy on March 6 this year and told 8days they are “very blessed” to have been successful at their first IVF attempt.
She has recently starred in the 2025 series Perfectly Imperfect and will be in the upcoming dystopian-crime drama The Leftovers. The show has three seasons, with the first set to premiere in October 2026 on Mediacorp and Mewatch.
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syarifahsn@asiaone.com
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