Infertile AF: Infertility and Modern Family Building through ART

Today, Ali is talking to Elena Ridley, a proud Donor Egg Mama and one of the OG members of the infertility Instagram community. Elena tells Ali her entire story, starting with meeting her husband in high school, the horrible motorcycle accident that delayed their family building plans, and what went wrong when they did start to try. She also talks about IUIs, why she started posting about infertility back in 2013, when not many people were doing it, her endometriosis, and making the decision to use an egg donor—who she happened to meet through social media. They also discuss relationship issues, what to consider when choosing an egg donor and how she bonded with the one they chose, the birth of her baby girl, Georgia, and what she thinks about epigenetics. 

If you enjoy this podcast, please SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND REVIEW! It helps us get noticed and reach more people around the world. Thank you!

SPONSORS:

FERTILITY RALLY

www.fertilityrally.com and @fertilityrally, offers 24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events for anyone going through infertility and building their modern families. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome.

GO TO FERTILITYRALLY.COM to snag yours!

CIRCLE SURROGACY

With a database of hundreds of bright, generous young women, and an experienced egg donation team, Circle Surrogacy & Egg Donation can partner with you to find the perfect egg donor match so you can have the family of your dreams. With over 25 years of experience and a 99.3% success rate, Circle Surrogacy & Egg Donation is ready to help make parenthood possible for you. Learn more a circlesurrogacy.com and follow them on social media @circlesurrogacy

Today, Ali is talking to a phenomenal woman who you will no doubt recognize from her various TV and movie roles. Her name is Missi Pyle, and she has appeared in such movies as Dodgeball, Galaxy Quest, Big Fish, 50 First Dates, Anchorman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Artist and Gone Girl. Her list of TV credits is absolutely insane too, including roles on Friends, Frasier, Two and a Half Men, My Name is Earl, Grey’s Anatomy, Family Guy, Mom and most recently, Mr. Mayor. Missi shares the extraordinary story about how she ended up as the mother to her now 5 1/2 year old daughter. And she and Ali get into all of it, including how Missi had a bear as the best man in her wedding; her three devastating miscarriages; at one point finding herself $35K in debt, not working much and living in Montana; pregnancy number four at age 42; and the call she got from an adoption agency that changed everything.

If you enjoy this podcast, please SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND REVIEW! It helps us get noticed and reach more people around the world. Thank you!

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Fertility Rally, @fertilityrally, offering 24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome!

Pacific Fertility Center: For more information and to get started today, check out their IG at @pacificfertilitycenter, email them at [email protected], or call (415) 834-3000

PROOV: Go to proovtest.com, enter enter the code ALI25, and you’ll get 25% off their PdG test kits.

Rescripted: Their tech-enabled hub for fertility patients is launching in July 2021. Head to fertility.rescripted.com and sign up for updates today.

On this Season Three Finale, Ali talks to Venus Morris Griffin, mother of seven, six of whom were conceived via artificial insemination. Venus tells Ali all about her extraordinary life, which includes a lifetime of abuse, having to use ART because of her husband's male factor infertility, and how she was ostracized by the Catholic community when they found out her children were conceived via ART. She also talks about her now ex-husband being sentenced to 45 years in prison, how she told the children they were donor conceived, becoming a super successful real estate agent, and the book she's writing that chronicles it all. (For the record, Ali thinks Reese Witherspoon should option the book and star in the mini-series of Venus' life). 

If you enjoy this podcast, please SUBSCRIBE, RATE AND REVIEW! It helps us get noticed and reach more people around the world. Thank you! 

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Fertility Rally, @fertilityrally, offering 24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome!

DM us at @fertilityrally with any questions

VIOS Fertility Institute, @viosfertility

Vios is a different fertility clinic experience built on a foundation of patient-centered care, evidence-based medicine, and innovative technology. With clinic locations throughout Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, the Vios Fertility Institute team understands the challenges of infertility. To learn more about Vios Fertility Institute and schedule your first appointment, visit ViosFertility.com.

Support this podcast at https://redcircle.com/infertile-af/donations

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, Ali talks to her friend Heidy Best, a fellow Chicagoan and Fertility Rally member, about her four miscarriages, genetic testing, battling secondary infertility, the shitty sex education they both got as young women, and how Heidy and her husband dealt with loss after loss and loss after loss after loss. She tells Ali about having her amazing son, Oliver, the heartbreak of not being able to give him a sibling (yet), and what's next for her, now that she has two embabies on ice. 

SPONSORS: 

FERTILITY RALLY www.fertilityrally.com and @fertilityrally, offers

24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome.

*BELI for WOMEN* @beli.baby

Beli is formulated with the right nutrients to help boost your fertility, increase egg quality and support IVF to increase your chances of conception and a healthy pregnancy. To get started with Beli, go to belibaby.com and use code ALI15 for 15% off your first month of either Beli Women or Beli Men. Again, that's code ALI15 at belibaby.com.

Dr. Sunita Osborn is a clinical psychologist and the author of two books on miscarriage, "The Miscarriage Map: What To Expect When You're No Longer Expecting," and "The Miscarriage Map Workbook." Today, she tells us about her infertility journey, including two miscarriages, being "such a dick" and aggressively playing baby games at her best friend's baby shower, how to rekindle intimacy after infertility, how the differences in women and men grieving can affect a relationships—and how she came to the ultimate decision to stop trying for a baby after all. 

EPISODE SPONSORS:

FERTILITY RALLY www.fertilityrally.com and @fertilityrally, offers

24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome.

*BELI for WOMEN* @beli.baby ( https://www.instagram.com/beli.baby/ )

Beli is formulated with the right nutrients to help boost your fertility, increase egg quality and support IVF to increase your chances of conception and a healthy pregnancy. To get started with Beli, go to belibaby.com ( https://belibaby.com/ ) and use code ALI15 for 15% off your first month of either Beli Women or Beli Men. Again, that's code ALI15 at belibaby.com ( https://belibaby.com/ ).

VERACITY

https://veracityselfcare.com/en

Demystify your skin; start from within. Skincare based on your unique biofactors. Veracity is offering 20% off your test kit or Veracity merch if you join their waitlist today, and use code InfertileAF20 at check out. 

Visit www.veracityselfcare.com or @veracityselfcare on Instagram to learn more about the brand and begin treating your skin from the inside out.

Amber Bailey is a brilliant environmental scientist, a dear friend of Ali's through Instagram and Fertility Rally, and an #infertilitywarrior. Today, the two talk about her long road to pregnancy, including how infertility really harmed her mental health, the importance of talking to your embryologist, the two PGS tested normal embryos that tragically died during thaw, her three back-to-back retrievals, her three tragic losses, the benefits of finding a therapist that specializes in infertility, the benefits of couples therapy, what happened when she starting taking Prozac, and how she feels now that she's about to have her first son. 

SPONSORS: 

FERTILITY RALLY fertilityrally.com and @fertilityrally, offers

24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome.

EXTEND FERTILITY

Extend Fertility began offering egg freezing at 40% below the national average cost. By 2017, they were the largest egg freezing practice in the nation. Today, they've expanded to offer a full range of infertility services, including IVF, in a small practice environment that is more personal, higher quality and data driven. To make an appt or see more, go to extendfertility.com.

Stephanie Cartin is the badass CEO of Entreprenista, the Co-Founder of Socialfly and an Infertility Warrior who is dedicated to sharing her story to spread awareness, promote self-advocacy and inspire hope. On today's episode, she talks about getting diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, going through IVF, her very complicated high-risk pregnancy, what happened when she found she had a twin-to-twin transfusion, the surgery she had to try and save both babies, and how she got through it all with the help of connecting to others via social media. 

EPISODE SPONSORS:

BELI for WOMEN @beli.baby

Beli is formulated with the right nutrients to help boost your fertility, increase egg quality and support IVF to increase your chances of conception and a healthy pregnancy. To get started with Beli, go to belibaby.com and use code ALI15 for 15% off your first month of either Beli Women or Beli Men. Again, that's code ALI15 at belibaby.com.

VIOS Fertility Institute @viosfertility

Vios is a different fertility clinic experience built on a foundation of patient-centered care, evidence-based medicine, and innovative technology. With clinic locations throughout Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, the Vios Fertility Institute team understands the challenges of infertility. To learn more about Vios Fertility Institute and schedule your first appointment, visit ViosFertility.com.

Fertility Rally @fertilityrally www.fertilityrally.com

Fertility Rally offers 24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events for anyone navigating infertility, ART or building their modern families. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome!

On this episode, Ali is talking to Allie Egan, the founder and CEO of skincare line Veracity and former CEO of women's fashion brand Cynthia Rowley. Allie is not only a badass entrepreneur and businesswoman, she's a fertility warrior, and today, they're discussing everything she went through to have her son, including a diagnosis of the autoimmune disease Hashimoto's, how Allie and her husband did not tell a soul they were doing IVF, her pregnancy of "unknown location," how to grieve after loss, the anxiety of pregnancy after infertility, and so much more.  

EPISODE SPONSORS: 

FERTILITY RALLY www.fertilityrally.com and @fertilityrally, offers 24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome.

TICKETS FOR FERTILITY RALLY LIVE ARE ON SALE NOW!

GO TO FERTILITYRALLY.COM to snag yours!

BELI for WOMEN

Beli is formulated with the right nutrients to help boost your fertility, increase egg quality and support IVF to increase your chances of conception and a healthy pregnancy.

To get started with Beli, go to belibaby.com and use code ALI15 for 15% off your first month of either Beli Women or Beli Men. Again, that's code ALI15 at belibaby.com.

Kellee Stewart is a powerhouse in so many ways—she's an an actor, a writer, a producer and an advocate for proactive fertility health and knowledge, On Wednesdays, Kellee hosts "Warrior Wednesday" IG Lives, featuring the truthful and empowering stories of infertility told from a Black women’s experience—and featuring some guys, too. Today, Ali and Kellee are talking about how Kellee froze her eggs after a long term relationship ended, the misconception that black women are fertile, finding doctors that don't brush you off, the movie Kellee wrote about infertility—which she wrote and is starring in and films this summer—and so much more. Make sure to give Kellee a follow at @kstew222 and check out her site, https://www.warrior-wednesdays.com/

SPONSORS: 

FERTILITY RALLY www.fertilityrally.com and @fertilityrally, offers 24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome.

TICKETS FOR FERTILITY RALLY LIVE ARE ON SALE NOW!

GO TO FERTILITYRALLY.COM to snag yours!

CIRCLE SURROGACY:

Learn more at circlesurrogacy.com, and follow them on social media @circlesurrogacy

Today, Ali talks to Sarah Kuhn, the badass founder of Juna, an app that provides nutrition and workouts for women in TTC, pregnancy and motherhood. Sarah's path to her three kids has not been easy, including not one but two ectopic pregnancies, having one of her tubes removed, another crushing miscarriage, "unsexy" sex, a roller coaster of emotions, the intense anxiety that comes with pregnancy after infertility, and so much more. 

EPISODE SPONSORS: 

FERTILITY RALLY www.fertilityrally.com and @fertilityrally, offers 24/7 Community, Content and Curated Events. Give yourself or a fellow infertility warrior the gift of support while navigating your journey. EVERYONE is welcome.

TICKETS FOR FERTILITY RALLY LIVE ARE ON SALE NOW!

GO TO FERTILITYRALLY.COM to snag yours!

BELI for WOMEN

Beli is formulated with the right nutrients to help boost your fertility, increase egg quality and support IVF to increase your chances of conception and a healthy pregnancy.

To get started with Beli, go to belibaby.com and use code ALI15 for 15% off your first month of either Beli Women or Beli Men. Again, that's code ALI15 at belibaby.com.