Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola is getting real about her journey to motherhood.
The “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” star, 37, tells ’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast that her experience with in vitro fertilization (IVF) — and making the choice to give viewers a glimpse at the “very scary process” — has been emotionally taxing.
“I’m nervous, I am so nervous,” she says of sharing such an intimate part of her life with fans. “I go through it on the show, but I was so nervous about the whole thing … I wasn’t sure what to film. It was just a scary process in general because it’s so personal.”
In Thursday’s Season 7B premiere, Giancola — who froze her eggs at 35 — revealed her plan to have a child with fiancé Justin May using the help of IVF.
“I feel like I’m still nervous to watch it and I’m still nervous to see what people say,” she continues, anticipating that a portion of watchers may not agree with her path to potential pregnancy.
“It’s a very vulnerable stage in my life. It still is and I’m still going through it, so I don’t know how I’m going to be watching it. And I think that’s why I was so nervous in the first place because I didn’t know if I would be able to handle it.”
Giancola didn’t allow MTV cameras inside doctor appointments. However, she did allow them to film her self-administering hormone injections and telling castmates about her approach to becoming a parent.
“Towards the end [of filming], I started to open up a little bit more and it was nice to get the girls’ support,” she says of co-stars Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Deena Cortese and Angelina Pivarnick.
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“You kind of see how it all plays out,” the TV personality adds. “I’m still on this journey and I’m still going through it, and it’s a difficult journey but it’s nice to hear other’s people’s stories and … having the support there is just really, really nice.”
Before Giancola felt comfortable confiding in her “Jersey Shore” cohorts, she turned to social media for solace amid the ups and downs of trying for a baby.
“Some people don’t believe in IVF and stuff, so I was nervous to tell anybody,” she explains. “I was leaning on other platforms like Instagram or TikTok and seeing what other people were going through.”
The Sweetheart Coast boutique owner eventually realized that taking her own story public could provide comfort for others, too.
“By watching and learning from [social media users], I was starting to realize maybe I should talk about this,” she tells “Virtual Reali-Tea.”
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“Or maybe I should come out and talk about this because maybe someone else can relate to me, or maybe I can help somebody else or maybe somebody else can just share their story or their journey and just help me in some other way.”
Throughout it all, Giancola says that May — to whom she got engaged in March after two years of dating — has been her “rock and backbone.”
“We’re going through it together,” she says. “So we’ve had each other.”
“Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
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