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

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What do you do when your Faith in God's plan for your life is disrupted by infertility? In this episode, Dr. Anna Locke shares how she bridged the gap between Religious beliefs and getting help through reproductive assistance. Dr. Anna and her husband suffered from dual factor infertility and when she gave birth through c-section to her twins, endometriosis was discovered. 

Dr. Anna is an international award-winning author and educator who has worked in the mental health profession for more than 15 years. She holds a doctorate in counseling and is a licensed professional counselor in multiple states, including Puerto Rico. She currently owns Charlandra Counseling Services, a virtual infertility counseling center; and is an assistant professor at Nyack College. Dr. Anna is an active leader in the American Counseling Association, and author of "Body Betrayal: Living and Understanding Infertility" and "Introduction to 21st Century Counseling: A Multicultural and Social Justice Perspective". From her personal and clinical experience with infertility, Dr. Anna created the Fertility Clarity © approach to infertility counseling. 

00:04:38- Meet Dr. Anna

00:08:29- Endometriosis is found during emergency c-section.

00:10:26- Catholicism & shame

00:15:50- Are we being punished by God?

00:20:00- Bridging the gap between Religion & reproductive care.

00:26:16- Acceptance.

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

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Are you still in the thick of TTC (trying to conceive), have you and your partner/spouse been diagnosed with dual factor infertility? Our guest Stephanie Reyes and her husband have.

Stephanie will begin IVF after 2 years of infertility this Spring season. She suffers from PCOS, Neurofibromatosis, and her partner has MFI (male factor infertility) with poor morphology, and borderline motility. Stephanie is a military spouse and there's a chance her husband will be temporarily deployed during the entire IVF cycle. Because of Stephanie's genetic condition, she suffers from chronic pain, which adds another layer of TTC struggles. @ivfyou_2022

Time Stamps:

00:00:00- Intro

00:02:20- Meet Stephanie

00:06:30- TTC when your spouse is active Military.

00:12:00- PCOS diagnosis.

00:13:59- Neurofibramotosis

00:15:29- Male infertility

00:17:10- Uterine polyps were a surprise.

00:21:08- Who was I before infertility? 

00:29:00- Preparing to possibly do IVF with my husband deployed. 

00:32:30- Today, I feel hopeful about IVF. 

• Showcase your infertility advocacy & use code: IAM15 to receive a discount on your Infertile Tees purchase!

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

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How many losses have you experienced, when did you decide to get help with your grief and trauma? Our guest Lindsay Blair went through 7 years of unexplained infertility, 5 miscarriages, 2 ectopic pregnancies, which resulted in both of her fallopian tubes being removed through emergency surgery. All of this happened before welcoming her miracle twins in 2020. 

In this episode we discuss being a newly wed while going through so many losses, a detailed account of ectopic pregnancy surgery, navigating the layers of grief to healing, taking breaks from TTC, and knowing when to get help from a trained professional. Lindsay became certified as a Fertility Coach, Trauma Specialist, & Miscarriage and Bereavement Doula to help other women find courage during their pain-filled journeys of suffering, grief, loss, and uncertainty. 

Showcase your infertility advocacy & use code: IAM15 to receive a discount on your Infertile Tees purchase!

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Have you or your spouse been diagnosed with male factor infertility? In this episode with Dr. Barrett Cowan and Dr. Natan Bar-Chama you will gain a better understanding of male infertility, causes, and what options are available to diagnose and treat it. 

Dr. Cowan, is co-founder of Posterity Health. A comprehensive digital male fertility management platform designed to help assess, evaluate, and treat male fertility. The company seeks to educate, engage, and treat men, shifting the burden of conceiving from solely the woman and creating a unifying experience for the couple.

On Monday, March 14th, Posterity Health launched a new nationwide initiative called Project AIM (Access to care - Inclusion of the Male partner). Project AIM provides men with at-home testing and access to male fertility specialists through leading OB/GYN's across the country, beginning with RMA of New York, widely acknowledged as a national and international leader in state-of-the-art reproductive medicine.

Project AIM’s benefits include:

• Supporting the couple through their journey to parenthood by promoting the coordinated evaluation of both parties
• Exploring the root cause of male infertility and possibly detecting underlying men’s health conditions
•  Embracing the LGBTQIA+ community with inclusive family building services
• New Yorkers looking to conceive will have the opportunity better navigate a fertility journey together through a new initiative called Project AIM

Dr. Cowan is the Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Posterity Health. He has specialized in treating men with infertility for over 20 years. He received his medical degree with honors and completed his urology residency and fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine. He remains committed to helping couples who struggle with infertility issues. He has published multiple scientific articles and authored a chapter on a commonly read fertility book. He is a member of the American Urologic Association, American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for the Study of Male Reproduction, and the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology

Dr. Bar-Chama is the Director of the Center of Male Reproductive Health at RMA of New York, is a board-certified Urologist and Male Infertility Specialist. Following his urology residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he was awarded the New York Academy of Medicine F.C. Valentine Fellowship and sub-specialized in Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at The Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. For the last 20 years, Dr. Bar-Chama has been the Director of Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery and is on faculty in both the Departments of Urology and Obstetrics/Gynecology and Reproductive Science at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Bar-Chama’s practice is exclusively dedicated to the fields of male infertility and sexual medicine, and he has published extensively and lectured throughout the world in these areas. He is currently on the Board of Directors and slated to be President of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology (SMRU), is past president of the Society for the Study of Male Reproduction (SSMR) and serves on the board of directors of the patient advocacy organization.

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Have you felt shame about your infertility diagnosis? Our guest Ceire Nevins did and she hid her fertility treatments from family, friends, and co-workers. Shame, unconscious, and limiting beliefs of what family-building should look like kept her from being open with loved ones. 

Ceire and her husband went through three years of unexplained infertility, multiple Clomid rounds, four unsuccessful IUI's (Intrauterine Inseminations), two cycles of IVF (Invitro Fertilization) before welcoming their twin girls. Not long after giving birth to her daughters, Ceire was pleasantly surprised to discover that she was four months pregnant.

On the next part of her family-building journey, she struggled to conceive a fourth baby to complete her childhood dream, and constantly fought with her husband. This led to her self-healing journey and passion for helping other women with infertility. 

In this episode Ceire shares how she overcame shame into living a life of gratitude, embracing the present moment, and how she found her purpose as a fertility coach, helping women struggling on their journey to motherhood. 

Ceire states: "Through the struggles and lessons of my fertility journey, I'm inspired to support women with their journey, so they don't have to face it on their own."

Showcase your infertility advocacy & use code: IAM15 to receive a discount on your Infertile Tees purchase!

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Would you TTC for an extended time, say, more than five years and would you continue into your 40's? In this episode Mandy Refvik shares her thoughts, feelings, and craziest TTC (trying to conceive) moments over the course of ten years.

Mandy ran into ample hurdles along the way. She states on one of her Instagram posts: "At first, my doctors told me I was "too old" to get pregnant, "too old" to pursue IVF. But I knew my body, and I knew it was worth a try. So I did it anyway."

Brandy and her husband embarked on their path to family expansion and did so by going abroad to Barbados to seek assisted reproductive care. After years of struggling to get pregnant and 3 rounds of IVF, they welcomed their first child, a baby girl when Mandy was 42. 

Time Stamps:

00:00:00- Intro

00:05:55- Meet Mandy

00:15:00- My spouse was my rock.

00:18:25- My craziest moments TTC (trying to conceive).

00:23:35- Let's get help.

00:39:25- IVF abroad in Barbados.

00:58:20- A last word.  

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Infertility And Me is currently featured in Apple iTunes, New & Noteworthy. eeeeeek! Thank you for your support over the last 2 1/2 years, friends!! Have you ever felt silenced by the pain of Infertility or loss? Today is a rewind from episode 33 with Olajumoke Iba. Our Nigerian friend and guest Olajumoke told us about her journey through five medicated Clomid cycles, one missed miscarriage, three IVF treatment cycles, and the difficult decision to be childless not by choice. 

Infertility often deceives us into believing that our story and journey aren't needed or that no one wants to hear it. Today and every day through the strong and authentic stories of men and women on this platform, we are reminded that we are not alone and that there is power in speaking up! 

00:06:16- Meet Ola

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

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When I was very much in the thick of TTC and struggling through the shit-show that is infertility—I yearned for community, but never quite found one that I felt “safe” in. Which is why I created Infertility And Me—to be the support to you that I needed. 

 Infertility And Me sheds light on the struggles of infertility in a safe space. The ultimate goal of the show is to create community, infertility awareness, advocacy, and to learn from one another’s experiences.

IAM Podcast began November 22, 2019 as a passion project, which quickly turned into SO much more. It has been my vision from the beginning, to share diverse stories of (in)fertility, be a voice to silent-sufferers, and a face for Black women and men. Through the platform, thousands have found hope, validation, and community.

WHY Patreon?

For almost 2 1/2 years, I have been creating episodes and passing the mic to other friends in the community to share their stories with you;) Needless to say, it requires a lot of time and hard work. With your patronage, I will be able to hire help for the production of audio and visual episodes. It will also enable more marketing for the shows exposure and possible meet-ups. Don’t worry though, episodes will still be FREE on streaming platforms!🙌🏾😌None of this is possible without you!

• Private community away from social media
• Live zoom chats/check-ins
• Local meet-ups
• You would be supporting the work and efforts that go into creating audio and visual episodes.

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Has I.A.M podcast helped you? If so, please leave a 5-star Rating & Review on Apple iTunes or Spotify—just one sentence helps tremendously!

Would you choose a surrogate from a different race? Have you considered using a surrogate or currently researching the path of surrogacy? In this episode, Kimberly Gowdy shares the steps she and her husband took to find their perfect surrogate.

Kimberly always yearned for a child, but after seven miscarriages, three unsuccessful surrogacy attempts, and two embryos left, she and her husband received an unexpected blessing. The twist—Kimberly is Black, her surrogate is white, and they live in the south! 

Kimberly Gowdy is the author of the book The Colorless Womb, which details her surrogacy and infertility journey. She also created a support group called MOBY (Mommy Older Baby Younger), a support group for mother's 35 & over.

In her book, The Colorless Womb, she tackles infertility, surrogacy, and racial and societal pressures of parenthood—dealing with ignorant comments from friends and family like, "Is your baby going to be white?" to "It took a white woman to save you?" The problem was that Kimberly searched high and low for a surrogate that looked like her, but all fell short in the health area. 

Time Stamps:

00:00:00- Intro

00:04:03- Meet Kimberly Gowdy

00:06:39- Miscarriages and pregnancy losses.

00:10:45- IVF & TTC

00:16:16- Three unsuccessful Surrogacy attempts.

00:26:00- The Colorless Womb: someone to call me mommy.

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

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Dr. Matrika Johnson answers community questions regarding fertility care. If you follow @infertilityandmepodcast on Instagram, you may remember seeing a Q & A in Stories, in preparation for today's episode with Dr. Johnson. 

00:00:00- intro

00:04:06- Meet Dr. Johnson

Community Questions:

1. 00:07:52- What are two or three main things that patients should look for when choosing a Reproductive Endocrinologist?
2. 00:11:12- Are heavy menses and large clots a concern? Considering all tests come back normal. (lap, etc)
3. 00:15:49- "Options" for blocked tubes other than removal?
4. 00:21:12- Can diabetes cause difficulty when TTC?
5. 00:23:40- Tips for the community.

Matrika D. Johnson, M.D., completed her undergraduate training at Davidson College, where she was a Davidson scholar. She later earned her medical degree from Wright State University where she received the Janet C. Thompson Memorial Scholarship Award for her academic achievements.

Dr. Johnson completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis, where she served as a board member for the Residents & Fellows Diversity Initiative. After residency, Dr. Johnson completed a research fellowship at Case Western Reserve University, followed by a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Magee Women’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Johnson is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.

In 2020 and 2021, Dr. Johnson appeared in Charlotte magazine’s list of the Top Doctors in Charlotte for the specialty of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Johnson is the founding physician of Reproductive Specialists of the Carolinas.

When Dr. Johnson isn’t helping patients, you can find her running in the beautiful city of Charlotte. Dr. Johnson also enjoys the musical arts, international travel, and the great outdoors. She is happily married and loves spending quality time with her husband, stepson and dog, Apollo.

Reproductive Specialists of the Carolinas 

⦁ Instagram: ⦁ @fertilitycarolinas

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