{"id":335128,"date":"2026-03-08T09:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335128\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T09:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:09:08","slug":"when-ivf-fails-youre-back-on-the-treadmill-again-age-is-not-on-your-side-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335128\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018When IVF fails, you\u2019re back on the treadmill again. Age is not on your side\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAuthenticity is the most important thing. If you are authentic, that\u2019s where the connectivity comes.\u201d On a high stool in the old canteen of RT\u00c9\u2019s<\/a> radio centre in Donnybrook<\/a>, Dublin, Tracy Clifford<\/a> is batting back a compliment in typically Irish fashion. I\u2019ve mentioned that her candour has meant a lot to many women<\/a> over the years \u2013 the 2FM broadcaster has spoken about IVF<\/a> and endometriosis<\/a>, and what it feels like to struggle privately while maintaining a public-facing career. Clifford has heard the compliment, but amiably deflected it, to talk about other people on air, and what she loves about hearing stories. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have read interviews or listened to podcasts or radio shows where someone is telling their story that is deeply personal. It might connect you to a person or help you deal with something. In my instance, it could be endometriosis. Or it could have been someone with relationship issues, who got married at 58. Hearing stories makes us all feel together and normal and that nobody is alone. Radio is a great friend in that sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

As chatty, likable and direct in person as she comes across on air, Clifford has fairly blown into the empty canteen today, her long fur-lined coat swinging, giving glamour to the cold day. It\u2019s not long since the 10th anniversary of her radio show on RT\u00c9 2FM, an anniversary that matters deeply in the field she\u2019s in. 2FM has a youth demographic: not many broadcasters become daytime music radio veterans on the station. \u201cI feel very proud of it, for a show that is on a radio station that has had a lot of ups and downs over the past while<\/a>,\u201d Clifford says. \u201cI feel proud as a female broadcaster, for a show that is on in the afternoons. It\u2019s kind of unheard of in a very precarious market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up in a housing estate in Finglas, on a \u201cstarting off road\u201d with lots of young families, radio was a constant for Clifford \u2013 pop mattered to her and to everyone in the clan. She was \u201cobsessed with the radio, obsessed with Top of the Pops\u201d. Her U2 and Sade-loving parents were 20 when they had her. \u201cWe always say to each other that we might be in the same nursing home,\u201d she says. \u201cThey could be 90 and I could be 70. I was surrounded by youth growing up. I had so many young aunties and uncles. My mam had 11 brothers and sisters. My dad has five. We all raised each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her father worked as a furniture dealer in antiques. When he\u2019d drive her to school, they\u2019d listen to 2FM and Ian Dempsey<\/a> and Simon Young. \u201cI fell in love with radio on the drives,\u201d she says. At 11, she discovered the hits-repeating Atlantic 252, with its American-sounding DJs who were anything but; she wound up doing work experience there. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was in Trim. They\u2019re up the road in Trim in a dilapidated house,\u201d she laughs. \u201cDusty Rhodes and Rick O\u2019Shea<\/a>. In Trim!\u201d Then came the 1990s; electronica was breaking through. \u201cIt was Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers. Take That was our crush era. And Blur. And Bjork. We went to the first Point Oasis<\/a> gig in 1996.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clifford was supposed to go to Maynooth University to study anthropology, English and geography. It didn\u2019t work out that way. \u201cI dropped out of college, didn\u2019t tell my mam.\u201d When her mother would walk into Blanchardstown Shopping Centre on a Friday, where Clifford was working part-time, \u201cI\u2019d hear the jingle of her keys and have to hide, like, \u2018Sh*t, my mam\u2019s here\u2019\u201d. Her friend, Newstalk producer Claire Darmody, told her about the media degree in Ballyfermot College. \u201cClaire was like, \u2018You\u2019re a television presenter, a radio presenter\u2019\u201d. After six weeks, when Clifford broke the news, her mother was like, \u2018Oh I knew\u2019. Clifford soaked up the course in Ballyfermot College, then worked in East Coast FM, before skipping to Dublin\u2019s Spin 1038, and then on to 2FM, where she has made the afternoon show her home. Her tones were distinctive, there was a clarity there, an authority and a kind of straightforwardness that made her relatable. <\/p>\n

In recent years, that straightforwardness has changed how the public perceives her. Clifford has spoken publicly about aspects of her life that have been very hard. She and her fiance Mark met in 2017, when Clifford was 37. They went through the rollercoaster of IVF for several years, trying in Ireland and abroad. After a change of fertility doctors and new holistic therapies, Clifford was diagnosed with stage 3 silent endometriosis, which often affects fertility. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Anton Savage: \u2018I was Tubridy\u2019s stand-in. My father got appointed chairman of RT\u00c9, and that ended\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIVF is hard on your relationship, it\u2019s hard on your body, it\u2019s hard on your job, it\u2019s hard on your friendships,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen it fails, you\u2019re back on the treadmill again. Age is not on your side. It\u2019s a lot of pressure. You have to consider your partner. It can bring you closer together, or you become so stressed with each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might try again, I\u2019m not sure, but the most important thing is \u2013 before you set off on this journey \u2013 is your relationship strong enough to survive a rollercoaster of emotions? And if it turns out that it\u2019s not going to work out the way you envisage, are you happy together just on your own? We had to do a lot of work on that and we are. But we had to get there. Some couples aren\u2019t \u2013 it\u2019s so tough on a couple. I think I was lucky with that with Mark. Because I think I was pushing the family thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2fm’s2fm\u2019s Tracy Clifford: Recruited from Spin 1038 in 2015, she is now a stalwart of the weekday schedule <\/p>\n

The couple undertook fertility counselling and found it helpful. \u201cWe did it because I had to mourn a lot of things. I\u2019ve done my mourning and we have a lovely life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clifford didn\u2019t tell people at the time she was doing IVF. \u201cI told my mam after Prague. But I\u2019m not very good with pity, where the head tilts. I\u2019m like, \u2018Don\u2019t. I don\u2019t have time for this\u2019.\u201d She did take some video footage of herself during that time. She hasn\u2019t found herself able to look back on it yet. She\u2019s not sure she will. The months where she was on medication were a blur. \u201cMark did the admin and injections. And he was really good like that. I mean, I\u2019d be DJing the 3Arena opening up for JLS, something fun, and Mark would be there with the injection shot. Or Electric Picnic.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Motherhood after 40: Why are women having children at an older age, and why does it matter?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The language around IVF was also hard to bear. \u201cIt\u2019s a manipulating language,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a service. Even the \u2018Hey would you like some EmbryoGlue?\u2019 The add-ons for IVF, the upselling: even the language of \u2018EmbryoGlue\u2019 means it\u2019s going to stick. Yeah, I\u2019ll pay for that. It\u2019s manipulating language that\u2019s selling you a dream. And then, when it doesn\u2019t work, it\u2019s, \u2018Go again\u2019. You\u2019re like, \u2018I don\u2019t have the money\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

What helped throughout the process was the red light of radio, signalling the mic is live, and the skills Clifford had acquired to force her mind elsewhere. \u201cNo matter what is happening in your life, that red light has to go on. It\u2019s like a meditation. By three o\u2019clock, when my show is over, whatever way I was feeling at 12 is gone. So you\u2019re not spiralling, you\u2019re not ruminating. The minute the red light goes on, you have to be in the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Share your experience of unsuccessful fertility treatment<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Clifford presented The Choice Music Prize at Vicar Street for album of the year, which was won by CMAT. She thinks \u201cthere\u2019s a real cultural nationalism\u201d happening in Irish music. \u201cIt\u2019s happening on a scale that I\u2019ve never seen before,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have your Fontaines, you have your CMAT, you have your Kneecap. At Glastonbury or Electric Picnic, a lot of people were there to see Kneecap as a moment of solidarity with Palestine, going with their flags, to pledge support. It was an opportunity to have their voices heard in a crowd. I think that\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women who have worked in a career for 20 years carry such intellectual weight. I\u2019m 45. There\u2019s lots more I want to do<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Tracy Clifford<\/p>\n

Those collective moments have become more important, she says, at a time when a younger demographic are \u201cin the gym, having their matchas and not going clubbing\u201d. \u201cI think we\u2019re crying out for that collective experience again, like at the Oasis gig where everybody was cheering for the same team at Croke Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s coming next for Clifford? She doesn\u2019t know and she\u2019s okay with that. She has a healthy social life outside work \u2013 she has renovated her home in Crumlin with Mark. They travel, entertain, and appreciate the friends and family they have. \u201cWorking in a job like this isn\u2019t my everything. My job doesn\u2019t define me as a person. While having the job that I love is a gift, if it was to end tomorrow, you would regroup, have a think and move on, to the next thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen in their 40s are only beginning,\u201d she concludes. \u201cWhen my mam reached 40, was 40 old? With my peer group and women who I look up to in this media industry, I don\u2019t feel like anybody in their 40s is past it. Women who have worked in a career for 20 years carry such intellectual weight. I\u2019m 45. There\u2019s lots more I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracy Clifford presents the afternoon show on RT\u00c9 2FM from noon to 3pm. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAuthenticity is the most important thing. If you are authentic, that\u2019s where the connectivity comes.\u201d On a high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2121,8786,41618,54988,93,631,110236,61,96391,60,709,655,124478,6085,154115],"class_list":{"0":"post-335128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-womens-health","9":"tag-donnybrook","10":"tag-dublin-11","11":"tag-endometriosis","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-for-you","14":"tag-ian-dempsey","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-in-vitro-fertilisation-ivf","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-magazine","19":"tag-oasis","20":"tag-rick-o-shea","21":"tag-rte","22":"tag-tracy-clifford"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}