Infertility And Me: Stories of Infertility Survivors, IVF, & TTC

Diagnosed with a rare abdominal disease that caused large masses in her abdomen, Lauren was told she may never have biological children. After exploring all of her options, she embarked on the path to motherhood with her husband. While on maternity leave, Lauren Makler, CEO, Co-Fertility Founder decided and felt a new passion for reproductive health care, which led to the creation of CoFertility. 

*Lauren states: "At its core, egg donation is someone doing something good and providing a life-altering opportunity for a family." "This stigma is a problem on multiple fronts. It discourages women from helping a family grow when that might be something they want to do. It leaves intended parents without options, and it especially hurts the LGBTQ community that needs to rely on egg donation for family planning."-Lauren Mackler on fastcompany.com

We'll be discussing: 

• The stigma of donor conceived persons and donors.
• How CoFertility is A more thoughtful, human-centered matching, education, and communication platform for families in need of egg donation.
• How Freeze by Co Empowers women to take control of their fertility timelines by making egg freezing more accessible. Our Split program enables them to freeze for free when they donate half of the eggs retrieved to a family who can't conceive. 
• Family by Co: A more thoughtful, human-centered matching, education, and communication platform for families in need of egg donation.
• Laurens's Fertility Struggles.
• What inspired parent company CoFertility?
• A more human approach leads to better egg donor and intended family match success, was this discovered during your research to build the new initiatives?
• 00:25:00- Article written By Amber Ferguson, reporter/video editor of The Washington Post: Shortage of Black sperm donors in America.

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a 5 star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify. Ratings & Reviews help increase the show's visibility so that we can reach more friends who may be silently suffering too!

Have you considered being a single parent by choice or know someone who has? Whether man, woman, or non-binary, the decision to pursue parenthood without a mate is tough.

Will family support you, can you handle the judgement of outsiders, are you emotionally, and financially prepared? Monique chats with Julia Karol about how she realized her dreams of motherhood & took matters into her own hands. Julia shares with us her unique and unconventional social-infertility story to motherhood.

Julia started her podcast Stork'd during her family-building journey. She started asking questions to anyone and everyone as she was exploring her options and gaining comfort in her decision to become a solo parent she's now the mother to a beautiful 10-month-old boy conceived by a sperm donor. 

Key Moments:

00:01:44- Meet Julia

00:05-23- Social infertility

00:08:18- My Eat, Pray, Love

00:12:18- Support.

00:16:32- I felt empowered by fertility preservation.

00:18:54- Embryo freezing.

00:20:40- COVID & at home Insemination with my obGYN bestie.

00:26:17- Success in modern family building looks different for everyone.

00:27:33- Supporting others when I needed support too.

00:30:55- Do what feels right to you. 

  Tap here to take our yearly podcast and community survey!

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a 5 star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify. Ratings & Reviews help increase the show's visibility so that we can reach more friends who may be silently suffering too!

Jade Barrett spent two years TTC before getting the diagnosis of endometriosis, despite Doctors telling her she didn't have it. In this episode, Jade shares her uncensored opinions and the leaps and bounds she had to get through to be properly diagnosed. Her spouse had male factor issues as well. Connect with Jade on IG!

Key Moments:

00:02:24- Meet Jade.

00:07:56- Disastrous fertilty clinic consult.

00:14:58- Fighting for medical care.

00:17:46- All of it is crazy and a bitch.

00:20:14- The Doctor offered us fertility meds from Mexico.

00:25:06- The TWW (two week wait)

00:26:39- Good news is, it's not endometriosis.

*Tap here to submit your Fertility Friend Check-In, your story for a chance to record with Monique, or say hey & introduce yourself;)

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a 5 star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify. Ratings & Reviews help increase the show's visibility so that we can reach more friends who may be silently suffering too!

Monique chats with Rianna Hijlkema, who like most of us spent years TTC. Rianna has low AMH (Anti-Mullerian Hormone) and has been a nomad for 12 years while dealing with infertility for 6 years. She has completed 6 IUI's and 3 IVF cycles in 3 different countries: Indonesia, Nepal, Bulgaria, and Belgium. At the time of this recording in May 2022, she was told by her clinic in Colombia that they could not move forward with IVF because her AMH was too low. 

Rianna and her husband are currently in limbo with how they will move forward in their path to parenthood. For now, they are living life childless. You can find Rianna on IG and through her coaching services supporting others in the throes of infertility.

Childless after Infertility accounts mentioned in this episode: @chasing.creation @tanyahubbardcounselling @bloomingwithcare @childlessnessintheroom @livechildfree @mindbodyrevival_coach

00:01:34- Meet Rianna.

00:02:30- Finding Love.

00:08:45- TTC

00:13:22- Childless after fertility treatments.

00:20:12- The disappointment of unsuccessful IVF cycles. 

00:22:56- How do I take my power back.

24:34- Childless after infertility accounts.

25:48- A last word.

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a 5 star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify. Ratings & Reviews help increase the show's visibility so that we can reach more friends who may be silently suffering too!

We work tirelessly to create embryos in hopes that they will “stick” around. When that doesn’t happen, it’s completely devastating. 

In this episode, Meg of @for_the_barreness shares her diagnosis of adenomyosis and endometriosis. Meg also shares why she did not waste time digging deeper and getting to the root cause of her recurrent miscarriages. It's been years now since Meg and her husband began TTC- during this time she has created an online support group for women who've suffered miscarriage and loss.

​00:03:08- Meet Meg.

00:06:42- Painful periods with no diagnosis.

00:10:44- The first miscarriage.

00:17:00- Grief turned into anger

0018:00- Time is a thief when TTC.

00:21:59- Finding balance and calm. 

00:24:54- Healing through community.

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

Tap here to take our yearly podcast and community survey!

Have you been struggling with the grief of infertility and or loss? Licensed psychotherapist, Karen Balumbu-Bennett, joins us. She'll be answering community questions regarding infertility and grief. Grief rears its ugly throughout many phases of family-building, especially if you've suffered miscarriage or pregnancy loss. Healing from grief is not linear. It requires us to consistently work through it and it evolves over time. 

*This episode is not meant to derail or serve as a substitution for the help of your therapist or counselor.*

We'll be discussing:

 When Karen was diagnosed with infertility & what was the diagnosis?

• How to handle fertility monitoring/scan anxiety?
• How to make peace with possibly not having genetic ties to your future child/children, when an egg donor etc. is needed?
• Healing from the envy of fertile people? 
• Women of Color and infertility.
• How to move forward after giving birth/getting the BFP and working through conflicting feelings of parenthood?

Karen recently created a memoir meets guided journal to support those struggling with fertility challenges. Connect with Karen here!

Karen specializes in women's mental health, maternal health, and infertility. She and her husband also suffered from fertility challenges-eventually they conceived through IVF. 

If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a 5 star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify. Ratings & Reviews help increase the show's visibility so that we can reach more friends who may be silently suffering too!

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a 5 star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify. Ratings & Reviews help increase the show's visibility so that we can reach more friends who may be silently suffering too!

Are you considering, in the midst of, or have completed embryo adoption? Like most of us, our guest April thought that TTC and having kids would be easier, but six years of infertility struggles said otherwise. After April's infertility diagnosis, she and her husband adopted embryos to become parents. They now have a four-year-old son and are so thankful for embryo adoption as an option.

April Ebeling states: I was adopted into my current family almost two decades ago, so it would be natural to think that when it came to building my own family, I would not be as rigid about how it happened. Instead, I saw this as my chance to finally be "normal." I just wanted to be a regular person having a family the regular way.

April Ebeling, is an adoptive mom, award-winning musician, and military veteran who is passionate about creating musical experiences that make a difference in our daily life! She created Singalong Switch to rescue her mindfulness practice as a new mom and has now helped thousands of people around the world (23 countries and counting)! Fun, fulfilling, and most importantly FAST-ACTING, this technique is a wonderful addition to your mental health toolbox! www.aprilsingsalot.com

0002:44- Meet April

00:05:54- We're the late bloomers of our friend group.

00:08:18- We really wanted to be parents.

00:10:36- Healing emotionally as a couple.

00:13:21- Embarking on the embryo adoption journey.

00:17:38- We found our adoption family.

00:21:12- Should we try for a sibling?

00:24:05- Sing Along Switch: a shortcut to calming the mind and spirit.

00:27:25- A last word.

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

Tap here to take our yearly podcast and community survey!

If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a 5 star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify. Ratings & Reviews help increase the show's visibility so that we can reach more friends who may be silently suffering too!

Have you ever thought, well maybe my body just isn’t made to procreate? In this episode, Danielle Faith shares why it took years to get a full spectrum diagnosis of her fertility health. She states that she had to be an advocate for herself in order for her Doctor's to believe her.

Danielle has endometriosis, PCOS and ovulatory dysfunction. Danielle also shares her miscarriages and how it changed her. She endured 6 embryo transfers, before finally welcoming her baby girl. @makingamiracle8421

Danielle has created and published books to help others through the unthinkable struggles of infertility and loss. She also has been organizing a group of IVF warriors to encourage and uplift those going through infertility, and "Infertility survivor kits," which she delivered by hand to her former fertility clinic. Danielle is a rainbow mama to a beautiful baby girl after 6 years of infertility treatments.

00:01:45- Meet Danielle.

00:02:41- Endometriosis as an adolescent.

00:04:50- PCOS & Anovulation.

00:09:04- Miscarriage & Ovarian Hyper Stimulation syndrome.

00:12:43- Hyperemesis Gravidarum & HELLP syndrome during pregnancy.

00:13:42- Fertility Treatments during COVID.

00:14:58- Healing emotionally.

00:22:16- Our stories are very different, but we're all fighting the same monster.

Tap here to take our yearly podcast and community survey!

Submit your story to me via email at [email protected] for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTube

For Fertility Friend Check-Ins, we have an update from CJ, who suffered terrible bedside care. To recap, the Doctor who performed her previous IUI maneuvered her cervix in a way during the procedure that caused extreme pain. We also hear from a friend dealing with both unexplained & secondary infertility. She is at the end of TTC for a sibling and is feeling intense jealousy for people getting pregnant successfully.

"Knowing I'm going to have much more treatments, procedures and surgery, it makes it hard mentally to want to go back, but in the end, we will because we do anything to grow our family.”—CJ

In this episode, you will learn:

1. How do you deal with jealousy and loneliness when you see other people getting pregnant?

2. What are some ways to cope with triggers related to grief?

3. Being solution driven when you're feeling negative emotions.

Resources:

[00:19:26] - Book by Marisa Renee Lee mentioned in this episode: Grief Is Love Living with Loss

In this episode Monique shares an excerpt from Marisa's book, Grief is Love Living with. Monique thanks you for tuning in to the episode and asks you to share it with your fertility friends.

Enjoying the show? Please leave a rating & review—just one sentence helps tremendously!

*Tap here to share your Fertility Friend Check-In, submit your story for a chance to record with Monique, or say hey & introduce yourself;)

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Have there been times when TTC that you’ve felt like a failure? Our guest Mallory states, she often felt like a failure after her diagnosis, 8 unsuccessful IUI's, 3 rounds of IVF, and one miscarriage.

Mallory describes herself as an optimist, which helped her move through the sadness, anger, and grief of infertility. It wasn't until she had a candid conversation with her Pastor about her unsuccessful fertility treatments and loss that a "light bulb" turned on for her. He helped her realize that infertility was happening to her and she was not at fault or to blame. Tune in as Mallory McGary shares her story of unexplained infertility and miscarriage.

Time Stamps:

00:02:11- Meet Mallory

00:06:20- 8 unsuccessful IUI's & IVF.

00:09:02- Infertility is like a constant mindset game.

00:11:43- Miscarriage & IVF.

00:17:00- Healing emotionally. 

 Tap here to take our yearly podcast and community survey!

*Follow on Instagram