Reports: Kim Kardashian, Kanye West expecting their fourth child, via surrogacy

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are expecting their fourth child, their second via surrogacy, according to multiple reports.

Us Weekly on Wednesday said "multiple" anonymous sources have said that reality-TV star Kardashian, 38, and rapper West, 41, had arranged a pregnancy with a surrogate, using what the magazine had said in August was a remaining male embryo. The couple is expecting a baby boy in early May, Us said, but E! News was unable to independently confirm the child's sex. People magazine also confirmed the report.

Kardashian has not commented publicly on the claim, nor has West on Twitter, his sole remaining social-media platform. 

Kardashian and her husband have three children: Daughters North, 5, and Chicago, nicknamed Chi, who will turn 1 on Jan. 15, and son Saint, who recently turned 3.

The couple, who married in May 2014 in Florence, Italy, turned to surrogacy after their second child was born. Kardashian experienced pre-eclampsia during her first pregnancy and needed a procedure to reverse second child Saint's breech position.

Pre-eclampsia is a common but potentially severe condition in which a woman in late pregnancy develops high blood pressure and protein in the urine. Possible complications including bleeding, premature separation of the placenta from the uterus, rupture of the liver, stroke and, though rare, death. The only treatment is delivery of the baby.

Kardashian has also faced fertility issues. In an April 2017 episode of her show, she spoke about uterine damage and having "to have a surgery on my uterus to kind of repair this hole, so they need to, like, clean that out and then there's, like, scar tissue. It'll still be, like, a really high-risk pregnancy, just that you'd be able to get pregnant." She and West eventually chose surrogacy rather than attempt another pregnancy.