Choosing the next step in your fertility journey can feel overwhelming — IUI or IVF? Wait or escalate? Dr. Erica breaks down the exact framework she uses with her patients and clients to cut through analysis paralysis and make evidence-based, values-aligned decisions about treatment.

In this episode:

• Why every treatment plan has to start with your desired family size — and why this question gets skipped so often
• The history that actually matters: how long you've truly had sperm-and-egg exposure (not just "trying")
• Red flags that move IVF up the timeline: tubal disease risk factors, genetic conditions, and more
• Why the difference in success rates between trying 6 months vs. 12 months under 35 is smaller than you'd think
• The “two to three follicles” rule for IUI cycles for unexplained infertility or endometriosis — and why hitting that goal can take you from under 5% to 10–15% success per month
• Letrozole vs. Clomid: side effects, success rates, and why letrozole is often the better first choice
• "Hybrid therapy": using a baby dose of FSH with letrozole in women in their late 30s — the physiology behind why it works
• When IVF makes sense from the start: large desired family size, genetic risk, tubal factor, or PGT-M/PGT-SR indications
• Why "less is more" isn't always wrong, even when IVF feels like the safer bet
• Reframing scarcity mindset around embryo numbers and aneuploidy risk

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

Father's Day can hit differently when you're in the middle of a fertility journey. Whether you're navigating it as a couple, as a male partner who is secretly dreading the weekend, or as someone supporting a loved one through it — this episode is for you.

Dr. Erica covers why these "softer holidays" can feel like salt in the wound, why men in particular are often left without language or permission to process grief on the fertility journey, and how couples can use this moment as an unexpected doorway back to each other.

In this episode:

• Why Father's Day (and Mother's Day) hit so hard on the fertility journey — and why that makes complete sense
• The emotional burden men carry as "protectors" and why giving them permission to feel is good for everyone
• The serenity prayer reframe: what you can control, what you can't, and why knowing the difference matters
• A communication framework for sharing feelings and needs — especially when you and your partner are on different pages
• How to use curiosity ("what is it like to be you right now?") to reconnect with your partner
• Tips for supporting a loved one through this weekend — including one thing to absolutely not do
• Five tools (plus a bonus) for getting through Father's Day with more grace and agency: 
  • Trigger prevention and real-time management
  • Honoring all of your feelings — including the ones that coexist
  • Knowing your village before you need them
  • Boundaries and permission to leave situations which are causing pain
  • Intention setting before you walk in the door
  • Trusting the process and finding your reasons for authentic hope

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

In this insightful interview, Dr. Laura Salyer and Dr. Erica Bove explore the intersection of creativity, nervous system regulation, and healing in healthcare professionals, especially women physicians on the fertility journey. They discuss practical strategies to reduce stress, foster joy, and enhance fertility through flow science and trauma-informed approaches.

Key Topics:

• The role of creativity and flow in healing and stress reduction
• Impact of medical trauma and gender bias on women physicians
• Practical tools for nervous system regulation and actual self-care
• The connection between stress, cortisol, and fertility
• Trauma-informed approaches in healthcare organizations

Dr. Lara Salyer is an integrative and family physician, leadership mentor, and Creativity Catalyst.

After experiencing burnout fifteen years into her own medical career, she began exploring a different way of living and leading. One rooted not only in science and strategy, but also in nervous system awareness, embodiment, creativity, self-trust, and sustainable success.

What started as painting, running, and tiny moments of creative expression became something much larger– a return to herself.

That experience transformed the way she understands leadership, healing, performance, and human potential. Today, she helps women in medicine reconnect with the parts of themselves that became buried beneath overfunctioning, perfectionism, caregiving, and chronic responsibility.

Through trauma-informed leadership, transformational coaching, strategic redesign, creativity, flow neuroscience, and embodied practices, she supports women who are ready to stop abandoning themselves in the name of achievement.

Here is a link to her free resource Catalyst Energetics™, a somatically informed framework designed to help clinicians reconnect with parts of themselves that were often set aside during medical training. This map offers a way back — gently, safely, and without force:

https://rightbrainrescue.com/l/digital_download/971232/catalyst-energetics

https://drlarasalyer.com/

IG: @drlarasalyer

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

In this deeply personal and practical episode, Dr. Erica welcomes child psychiatrist and founder of Do Better MD, Dr. Shivana Naidoo, for a conversation that goes far beyond the clinical. Dr. Naidoo is the host of Thinking It Through with Dr. Naidoo and a fellow speaker from the Women Physicians Wellness Retreat in Grand Cayman — and this episode is exactly the kind of conversation that retreat was made for.

Together, they explore the emotional terrain that female physicians navigate every single day — as healers, patients, partners, and women in the middle of their own fertility journeys.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Dr. Naidoo's journey into child psychiatry — and what drew her to the power of bearing witness to someone's suffering as treatment
• The mental health statistics you need to know: why infertility carries anxiety and depression rates comparable to cancer, and why that number climbs with every unsuccessful cycle
• Both doctors share their own miscarriage stories — the isolation, the hormonal upheaval, and the "bad womb" narrative that so many women carry
• Why the physician brain (analytical, high-achieving, Type A) can actually work against us when it comes to the fertility journey
• Practical strategies for getting through your clinical day when you're also navigating fertility treatment — from pre-preparing for triggering patient questions to canned responses that feel authentic, not performative
• The conservation framework for giving yourself permission not to give 100% to every patient — and why that actually makes you a better doctor
• How compassion fatigue, countertransference, and moral injury show up differently for physicians who are their own patients
• The body-first approach to recognizing when you need support — because the body keeps score when the mind is in denial

Dr. Shivana Naidoo can be found at:

• 📧 [email protected]
• 🌐 dobettermd.com
• 📱 Instagram: @drshrivananaidu
• 🎙️ Podcast: Thinking It Through with Dr. Naidoo, Child Psychiatrist

If you're a female physician who has ever felt like you're failing at everything simultaneously — your patients, your fertility journey, your relationships — this episode is for you. You are not alone. One in four female physicians faces infertility. One in three female surgeons. We see you.

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

In this episode, Dr. Erica sits down with Dr. Nirali Dubal — board-certified pediatrician, ICF-certified life coach, and certified mindfulness meditation teacher — to explore how mindfulness and meditation can support high-achieving women on the fertility journey.

What we cover:

• What the research says about meditation and the brain (functional MRI studies, prefrontal cortex changes)
• How meditation reduces stress, improves sleep, and supports immune function
• Why you don't need hours a day — even 2 minutes counts
• Dr. Nirali's personal journey from pediatrician to meditation teacher
• How to reconnect mind and body when you're stuck in "analysis paralysis"
• Emotional regulation on the rollercoaster of fertility
• Practical ways to start (micro-meditations, body scans, Insight Timer)

Resources mentioned:

• Insight Timer app (free guided meditations)
• Dr. Nirali's website: niralidubal.com
• Instagram/Facebook: @PeacewithPurpose

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

In this inspiring episode, I sit down with my mentor, Dr. Unachukwu, founder of the EntreMD Business School, to talk about what happens when physicians stop playing small and start building businesses around their gifts.

Dr. Una shares how a single anticlimactic moment after seeing her first patient as an attending sparked a decade-long journey of reinvention — from socially awkward introvert to the founder of a movement helping hundreds of thousands of physicians thrive through entrepreneurship.

We also go behind the scenes of my own journey: how I went from feeling geographically stuck and dying inside at work, to building Love and Science Coaching, helping over 90% of my physician clients achieve success on their fertility journey — and learning to practice clinical medicine for fun.

In this episode, we cover:

• How EntreMD Business School was born out of Dr. Una's personal story as a pediatrician
• Why "the MD as-is is no longer enough" — and what physicians need now
• The moment I said yes to support and how that led to my first client in 48 hours
• What it really means to have time freedom, financial freedom, AND impact freedom
• How to overcome fear, sticker shock, and time concerns when investing in yourself
• Why over 90% of my physician fertility clients have achieved success — and what that means for you
• The compounding return of investing in yourself: how Dr. Una invests six figures a year and why
• The mindset shift from "I can't afford this" to counting the ROI, not the cost

Key Takeaway: On the other side of your "yes" is a version of yourself you haven't met yet — and it will blow your mind.

Connect with Dr. Una:

• Instagram: @drunachukwu
• Facebook: Nneka Unachukwu
• Website:  entremd.com

Previous Episode with Dr. Una: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daring-to-dream-entrepreneurship-and-the/id1737219651?i=1000733123314&l=zh-Hant-TW

Guest Details

Dr. Nneka Unachukwu is the founder of EntreMD, a company on a mission to help 100,000 physicians build profitable 7 and 7+ figure businesses so they have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on their terms. She does this through the EntreMD Business School, the only school of its kind for physician entrepreneurs, the EntreMD podcast, a top 1% podcast, and her best-selling books. Dr. Una, as she is fondly called, has also been featured in Forbes, and her company was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies in America two years in a row.

www.entremd.com

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to help you build your family with confidence, compassion, and hope. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

Thinking about freezing your eggs — or counseling patients who are? As female physicians, we're often the last to prioritize our own fertility. This episode is your concise, evidence-based guide to planned fertility preservation, from someone who's been through it personally and professionally.

• 🔬 History — how vitrification revolutionized egg freezing and why it's no longer experimental
• 💰 Costs — $5K–$20K+, what insurance may (and may not) cover, and how to think about storage
• 🛡️ Safety — the physical risks are low, but the emotional toll deserves its own action plan
• ⚠️ Limitations — success rates are promising but not guaranteed; know what the data actually says
• 📊 Success rates by age — why under 35 matters and how to use the Brigham & Women's calculator
• 🥚 Eggs vs. embryos — the nuanced counseling conversation you need to have with yourself (and your patients)
• ⚖️ Legal considerations — why relationship stability matters before you fertilize anything

Bottom line: freezing your eggs is a powerful option — but going in informed makes all the difference.

🎧 Subscribe, leave a review, and share with a colleague who needs to hear this.

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

This Mother's Day, we're sitting with the hard and the hopeful. Dr. Erica Bove welcomes Dr. Rebecca N. Thompson — family medicine and public health physician, and author of Held Together: A Shared Memoir of Motherhood, Medicine, and Imperfect Love — for a conversation that is equal parts raw, wise, and deeply affirming.

Dr. Thompson shares the deeply personal journey behind her collaborative memoir, including her own life-threatening pregnancy complications, three losses, and the decade-long process of weaving her story together with those of 21 patients, colleagues, and friends — half of them healthcare professionals. What emerged is a book that doesn't just document struggle, but transforms it into community.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why stories are always harder to tell in the present tense — and why that's okay
• The isolating experience of pregnancy loss as a physician and what "the knowledge didn't protect me" really means
• What Mother's Day can feel like when you're in the thick of fertility challenges — and how to navigate it with self-compassion
• The difference between false optimism and authentic hope — and why "everything happens for a reason" may not serve us
• How channeling sadness into strength isn't toxic positivity — it's agency
• The power of ordinary things (a hike, a pet, a phone call) when the world feels performative
• Community as a place to both lend strength and borrow it
• Why "the suffering is in the gap between expectations and reality"
• Friendships across different seasons of life — and how they can fracture and repair
• How medicine must make room for the humanity of its healers

Quote from this episode:
"We aren't unique in our struggles. Others have prevailed over hardships before us, and we too can find joy in the most trying of times." — Dr. Rebecca N. Thompson

Resources:

• Held Together by Dr. Rebecca N. Thompson: rebeccanthompson.com
• Order via the affiliate link on her site to support Postpartum Support International
• Book club discussion questions and speaking/teaching resources also available on her website
• Proceeds support: Resolve, Planned Parenthood, Children's Literacy Foundation, and the Trevor Project

If this episode resonated with you, you are not alone. You are held. 

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

In this episode of the Love & Science podcast, Dr. Erica Bove walks through her complete framework for evaluating fertility — including which tests she routinely orders, what each one actually tells her, and which expensive panels are often unnecessary.

From AMH and hormone testing to semen analysis, uterine cavity evaluation, and fallopian tube testing, this episode explains how reproductive endocrinologists think through infertility workups in a practical, evidence-based way.

We cover:
 • What AMH really means (and what it doesn’t)
 • Why Day 3 labs matter: FSH, estradiol, and LH
 • How ultrasound and antral follicle count guide fertility treatment
 • Sonohistogram vs HSG: what each test is best for
 • When to evaluate fallopian tubes more closely
 • The role of prolactin, thyroid testing, vitamin D, A1C, and PCOS labs
 • Expanded carrier screening and preconception testing
 • Why semen analysis is essential — and often delayed too long
 • Which fertility tests are evidence-based
 • Common tests that may be overordered or unnecessary

This episode is designed to help you better understand your fertility workup, ask informed questions, and feel more empowered navigating next steps.

Because fertility testing should not feel random or confusing — it should tell a clear story about what your body is doing and how to move forward strategically.

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove

If your cycles are irregular, ovulation is inconsistent, or something just feels off — prolactin may be a missing piece.

In this episode of the Love & Science podcast, we break down prolactin, a hormone that is often misunderstood, sometimes overtested, and sometimes completely overlooked in fertility care.

While prolactin plays an important role in pregnancy and lactation, elevated levels can disrupt ovulation, impact hormone signaling, and ultimately affect fertility outcomes in both women and men.

We cover:
 • What prolactin is and how it functions in the body
 • How elevated prolactin disrupts ovulation and hormone signaling
 • The connection between prolactin, GnRH, and reproductive function
 • When prolactin should actually be tested (and when it shouldn’t)
 • Why false elevations are common — and how to test correctly
 • Symptoms to watch for (including headaches, galactorrhea, and cycle changes)
 • When to evaluate for a pituitary adenoma (and why imaging matters)
 • How prolactin impacts male fertility and testosterone
 • Treatment options and when normalization can restore fertility

This episode is especially important if you’ve been told everything looks “normal,” but ovulation still isn’t happening consistently — or if you’re navigating unexplained infertility or recurrent pregnancy loss.

Support the show

As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.

If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:

https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/private-fertility-consult

Follow us on social media:

IG: www.instagram.com/loveandsciencefertility

FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553692167183

Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.

In Gratitude,

Dr. Erica Bove