100 episodes
This is Infertility A Podcast by Progyny
-
- Health & Fitness
-
-
4.8 • 90 Ratings
-
This is Infertility is a bi-weekly podcast where we fuse narrative storytelling with experience and science to give you a new perspective on what it’s really like to go through a family building journey. Each episode dives into the emotional, physical, and financial burdens carried by those who experience infertility on their path to parenthood. Be it IVF, IUI, egg freezing, surrogacy, adoption, etc., the path is never the same and it can be long, painful, and lonely. It’s our mission to give those struggling a platform to be heard, a community connection, and an opportunity to raise awareness of the 1 in 8 who, for many reasons, struggle with infertility.
-
Building Your Family; The Complete Guide to Donor Conception
In today’s episode, we explore the complex world of donor conception with experts Dr. Mark Leondires and Lisa Schuman, LCSW. They provide an overview of their book, Building Your Family; The Complete Guide to Donor Conception, which serves as a resource for those considering donor conception due to infertility, medical issues, same-sex partnerships, or gender orientation.
The book covers everything from initial considerations and emotions to the medical and genetic processes involved, selecting the right donor, and talking to children about their donor conception.
Tune in to hear how to manage the challenges of a donor conception journey.
Guest: Dr. Mark Leondires and Lisa Schuman, LCSW, authors of Building Your Family; The Complete Guide to Donor Conception
Dr. Mark Leondires
Medical Director and Founding Partner
at Illume Fertility and Gay Parents to Be
Lisa Schuman, LCSW
Founder of The Center for Family Building
Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny
For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com.
This episode is also a video! Watch it here: https://youtu.be/kX60smGnP9k -
Overcoming the Emotional Toll of Infertility
Today’s episode highlights the emotional toll that infertility can take on individuals and couples. Our guest speaks candidly on how her fertility journey affected her mental health, marriage, and perspective towards friends who found easy success with pregnancy.
Hana Peters and her husband started trying to have a baby and soon realized they needed to seek additional support. In this episode, Hana shares her journey. She speaks on the unsolicited advice she received along the way and how this impacted her relationships, her initial reaction to a diagnosis of unexplained infertility, and how she was able to pursue parenthood with a dedicated doctor and through her employer-sponsored benefit, Progyny.
For mental health support and resources, check out:
Progyny Article: Coping with stress during fertility care
This is Infertility Podcast episode: Bonus Episode 10: Prioritizing Your Mental Health During Your Fertility Journey
Employer guide: How to support employees with infertility mental health guide
Guest: Hana Peters, Progyny Member at Salesforce
Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny
For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com.
This episode is also a video! Watch it here: https://youtu.be/o_-IvppWYK0 -
Single Parent by Choice: Rethinking the Notion of Family
In today’s episode, award-winning journalist, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt shares insights from her two books, which have ignited the knowledge and passion that came from her own family building journey.
Her latest book, Reconceptions: Modern Relationships, Reproductive Science, and the Unfolding Future of Family, calls upon her experience of becoming a single parent by choice. She dives into her own family building journey, how she’s navigated using a sperm donor and the relationships she’s built from this, and how she’s rethinking and redefining the meaning of family.
Guest: Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, award-winning journalist and author
Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny
For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com.
-
#NIAW: A Path to Parenthood Turned into a Path to Purpose
Today’s guest embodies the purpose of National Infertility Awareness Week. Each year the infertility community, led by RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, takes this week to amplify and educate the public about reproductive health and issues that make building a family difficult for many.
Danielle Zoll has dedicated herself to advocacy and awareness through her St. Louis based organization, Making a Miracle. The isolation Danielle felt along her path to parenthood with endometriosis, lack of coverage, and pregnancy loss, inspired her to build a community that supports others along their family building journeys.
Tune in for how Danielle made her miracle.
Guest: Danielle Zoll, founder of Making a Miracle
Host: Emma Gallagher, Progyny
For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com. -
Becoming a Single Parent by Choice: How Gloria Met Emmet
With a focus on her career and a determination to find the right "other half” for her child, today’s guest shares her journey to being a single parent by choice.
Navigating the stress of her ticking biological clock, Gloria Soler went from realizing that the perfect parenting partner was not yet on her horizon to manifesting her own dreams of parenthood. Gloria went to find the doctor, the right sperm donor, the right treatment, and with a comprehensive employer-sponsored benefit, Gloria met the love she had been searching for all along, her son Emmet.
Tune into Gloria’s journey with Progyny to learn how she navigated her path to parenthood.
Guest: Gloria Soler, Progyny Member
Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny
For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com. -
From Surgeries to Success: Haley's Path to Parenthood
The journey to ideal health is a constant battle. And when emergency surgery is needed, most may not think twice about the impact this will have on their future fertility. In today’s episode, we hear from Haley, who shares her family building journey. It’s one marked by multiple diagnoses, surgeries, and financial strain. Despite these setbacks, Haley was determined to become a parent. She advocated for herself and found a doctor that she could trust. She then learned her employer had a fertility benefit, which relieved the financial pressure and helped her to reach her goal.
Haley's journey embodies the realities that many face on the path to parenthood: a mix of setbacks, doubts, and ultimately, hard-won victories.
Guest: Haley, Progyny Member
Host: Shannon Zuber, Progyny
For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com.
Customer Reviews
Love this podcast
I have been listening to this podcast for over a year and it has helped me to ask questions to my doctor while on my journey to motherhood. It’s really good to hear the SMC and fibroids stories as I am a SMC and have fibroids. Keep up the good work as I enjoy listening.
Spade and Gretchen’s episode
Love their story. I used to watch them in RHOC, and have followed them since I’m social media. Love the way they tell their story and how relatable it is. As a person who suffers with Premature ovarian failure, there have been quite a bit of similarities of struggles. Losses and especially Doubt of the relationship. But in my case it was more of letting my husband know if he wanted to end our relationship to pursue a family, I understood. Luckily, he disagreed and he said this is OUR issue and whatever our fate is we’re going through it together. Here we are a couple years later and are happily 5 months pregnant!
Not everyone can try IVF
It would be nice to find a podcast that focuses on people who can’t afford IVF, and/or even if they could, still have an extremely LOW chance of success, hence don’t try IVF. IVF is not an option for all, and it would nice to hear how to cope with the ongoing sadness of that once in a while.