A 'BUMP' IN THE POLLS: Councilwoman Melinda Katz, 42, a candidate for city comptroller, conceived with a donor egg and donor sperm.
A leading candidate for city comptroller has carried some personal business onto the campaign trail - she's nearly eight-months pregnant and preparing to be a single mom, The Post has learned.
City Councilwoman Melinda Katz, who conceived through in-vitro fertilization using a donated egg and sperm, is due to give birth to a boy in early June, just weeks before she turns 43, she told The Post.
The unmarried Queens Democrat said her doctor has told her that the pregnancy has gone well and that the baby measured a healthy 2.9 pounds at her last sonogram.
The petite Katz, who has gained only about 10 pounds and is showing just a hint of a baby bump under her suit blazer, has told few people about her pregnancy.
"This is a decision that I felt if I didn't do, I would regret for the rest of my life," said Katz, who acknowledged her situation is unusual in politics.
"I did this purely through modern technology. It was done in a doctor's office. It was done at my wish and my desire."
Katz has kept her pregnancy a secret, confiding only in such people as her rabbi.
"Quite honestly, at my age, I almost lost the child three times . . . and so I really wanted to make sure after so many years of trying and after so many years of wanting this" that the pregnancy would last, she said.
The physically fit Katz said she hasn't "skipped a beat" in either her council duties or her planning and fund-raising for next year's race because of her pregnancy.
"If I'm not mistaken, most of my opponents have children. Now, hopefully, I'll have one," she said. "This is a very personal decision that I made, and it's a life decision, not a political decision."
She wouldn't discuss some aspects, such as whether she knew the donors or exactly how the process was done. It's a "private issue," she said.
Katz said that after years of trying, she realized "that I needed help" and used a donor egg, which she said was the biggest expense.
She said she hoped her experience would be a help to others with fertility struggles. And while she has no significant other and will be raising the child on her own, Katz said she has a strong support system of friends and family - and notes that men and women around the globe have been successful single parents.
Katz began fertility treatments after she turned 40.
"Timing is everything in life, and my doctor said it was now or never," said Katz, who added that her major inspiration was her dad, who raised four kids after her mom died when she was just 3.
"And though I hadn't found the man I wanted to marry, I knew that I wanted to be a mother. I have no doubt that my decision was the right one for me."
Katz suffered health issues, including having an ovary removed in 1998 while she was a sitting assemblywoman and running for Congress. But after at least three failed IVF treatments, one finally worked.
"It's a very emotional process to go through," she said. "So when they finally said, 'You're going to be a mother,' I was, like, 'Really? Let's do another test.' "
She realizes how lucky she is to have been able to save to pay for the "prohibitively" expensive treatments her insurance didn't cover - and she hopes everyone will have a happy reaction to her story.
"The people I've told, the reactions were amazing," she said. "Nobody even considered the fact that I had to do IVF."
