Love and Science Fertility

Erica Bove, MD

At Love and Science, we discuss all things fertility! We empower physicians and other high achieving women to build their families with confidence and self compassion. 

  1. 6d ago

    Eighteen Years, Six IVF Cycles, and One Miracle: Dr. Dina Wilson’s Story

    Dr. Dina Wilson is a hospitalist physician in Oregon, a fierce advocate for fertility awareness, and a mother who waited eighteen years to hold her son. Her journey spans misdiagnoses, six IVF cycles across multiple clinics, complete embryo arrest — cycle after cycle — a pandemic pregnancy, and a six-figure bill paid entirely out of pocket. She is now in the middle of trying for a second child. This episode is for anyone who has ever felt like the system is not designed for them, but they're not quite ready to give up on their dream of parenthood.  In this episode: How Dina was sent away by three OBGYNs in her 20's without an infertility evaluationWhy she and her husband shelved fertility treatment through medical school, residency, and debt repayment — and what that cost themWalking into her first IVF cycle completely naive — and planning a party around the retrieval dateThe phone call on day three that changed everything: complete embryo arrest, then cycle after cycle, across multiple clinicsWhat it felt like to be told by one of the most prominent REIs in the country that he wasn’t sure he had anything else to offerHow in vitro maturation (IVM) — a low-stimulation protocol with early retrieval — finally produced embryos that implantedGetting pregnant on her sixth IVF cycle with day three embryos, against all odds, right before the pandemic shut everything downThe guilt and shame that comes with being a physician who didn’t know what she didn’t know — and why that guilt is so expensiveSecondary infertility: what it’s like to want another child, and how the grief shifts but doesn’t disappearHow Dina finally learned to set boundaries at work so she could show up for her fertility treatment — including switching jobs to get the flexibility she neededWhy shame cannot survive in community — and what it means to share your story when you’re still in the middle of it Find Dr. Dina Wilson: Instagram: @doctordina 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

  2. Aug 6

    The Invisible Patient: Supporting Men Through Fertility Treatment, with Dr. James Kuan

    Male factor infertility accounts for nearly half of all infertility cases — and yet the male partner’s experience is often an afterthought, from the design of the collection room to the timing of the workup. Dr. James Kuan is a board certified urologist with more than twenty years of experience in men’s sexual health, founder and CEO of Sexual Medicine for Men in Seattle, and medical director of the Seattle Sperm Bank. He joined Dr. Erica for an incredibly candid conversation. This episode is for couples navigating the fertility journey together — and especially for the male partner who has been quietly struggling on the sidelines. In this episode: Why male factor evaluation is still treated as an afterthought — and why that needs to changeThe parking lot moment: what happens when a male partner can’t produce a sample on retrieval day, and why it’s more common than anyone talks aboutNearly a third of men develop new onset erectile dysfunction during fertility treatment — and what to do about itWhy simply being told “this is normal” resolves ED in a third of those men without any medicationThe case for REIs prescribing Viagra: it’s safe, it doesn’t affect sperm, and it’s no different than a pair of crutches for a sprained ankleWhy the male workup should happen in parallel with the female workup — not as an afterthoughtSperm as more than a USB drive: new data on what healthy sperm actually contribute to conceptionThe four I’s framework for inviting male partners into the process: invite, inform, involve, interveneWhy sex during fertility treatment shouldn’t only be mechanical — and what actually happens to outcomes when intimacy declinesThe two to four day rule for abstinence before a sample — and how most couples are making it harder than it needs to beDesire mismatch, communication, and why foreplay starts at the kitchen sinkED and abnormal semen analysis as canaries in the coal mine for broader men’s health — including cardiovascular disease and testicular cancerA critical warning: testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is bad for sperm — if your partner is on it and you’re trying to conceive, see a urologist nowWhy it’s okay for the fertility journey to be a little messy — and why that messiness doesn’t mean you caused it to failFind Dr. James Kuan: Instagram: @drjameskuanNewsletter: sexafterretirement.comPractice:  https://jameskuanmd.carrd.co/ (Washington state patients only) 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

  3. Jul 30

    A Birthday Reframe: Trading Control for Self-Kindness, with Dr. Jessie Mahoney

    Dr. Erica and Dr. Jessie Mahoney — pediatrician, triple-certified coach, and founder of Pause and Presence — share the same birthday: July 30th. When they discovered they were birthday twins, sitting down to mark it together felt like the obvious thing to do. And the conversation was so good they decided to make it a tradition. This is their latest installment. What started as a fun idea has become something more: a yearly ritual of honest reflection, shared wisdom, and the kind of conversation that only happens between two people who are genuinely doing the work. In this episode: What each of them is most proud of from the past year — and why pausing to notice pride is its own practiceDr. Jessie’s TEDx Talk on “What Would Love Do” — and what it actually took to make it happenThe Lita role: why showing up creatively for the people you love matters more than proximityDr. Erica’s decision to resign from her fellowship director position — and how self-kindness was the thing that finally provided clarity and courage to make a hard decisionSurrender as a cellular experience, not just a cognitive oneWhat happened when Dr. Erica stopped trying to date — and what showed up insteadWhy rest is uncomfortable even for people who teach it — and why that doesn’t mean it’s wrongFemale friendships as non-negotiable: putting them on the calendar like everything else that mattersThe lesson that came with a stress fracture (Dr. Jessie) and a spinal fracture (Dr. Erica): the body will make you rest if you won’t do it yourselfWhat a woman with stage IV cancer said two days before she died — and why Dr. Jessie hasn’t stopped thinking about itThe birthday wish they’re both carrying into their next year: we had so much funFind Dr. Jessie Mahoney: pauseandpresence.comPodcast: Pause and PresenceLast years Birthday Episode 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

  4. Jul 23

    You Deserve to Be a Patient: Caring For Yourself During Fertility Treatment with Dr. Tina Adams

    Dr. Tina Adams is a double board-certified OBGYN, certified life coach, former burned out physician, and host of the Navigating Possibility podcast. She helps women physicians break free from survival mode — and in this episode, she and Dr. Erica dig into what happens when that survival mode collides with the part-time job of infertility. This is a conversation about anger, agency, emotional regulation, and what it actually takes to find your voice inside a system that was never designed to support you. In this episode: Dr. Tina’s path from full-scope OBGYN to OB hospitalist and certified coach — and why restructuring her clinical job opened up possibilities she never anticipatedWhat the stressed out brain actually looks like neurologically — and why adding the fertility journey on top is so destabilizingWhy medicine trains us to have no needs — and what it costs us when we believe itThe mantra that anchors so much of this work: I deserve to be a patientAnger as a messenger: what it’s trying to tell you, why women in medicine have been conditioned to suppress it, and what to do with it insteadWhy allowing an emotion moves it through you — and why resisting it keeps it stuckThe downstream benefits of doing this emotional work now: it doesn’t just help the fertility journey, it makes you the parent you’re working so hard to becomeLegislative advocacy for fertility coverage: what’s working, where the gaps are, and why self-insured institutions are a problem even in mandated statesPractical tools you can access now, such as the Five Calls app: )the lowest-lift way to use your voice with legislators) and the RESOLVE toolkit: ready-made templates for asking your employer for fertility coverage and time to focus on your fertility journey Find Dr. Tina Adams: christinaadamsdmd.comPodcast: Navigating PossibilityInstagram: @christinaadamsdo2Facebook & LinkedIn: Christina Adams MD 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

  5. Jul 16

    The Long Road to Surrender: Dr. Rachel Welbel's Fertility Journey

    Dr. Rachel Welbel is a PM&R physician, a Love & Science community member, and today she's four weeks postpartum with a daughter she wasn't sure she'd ever have. Her journey spans three years, multiple retrievals, canceled cycles, a heartbreaking loss at 16 weeks, failed transfers, a chemical pregnancy, and diagnoses that came in layers — each one another thing to absorb and move through. What brought her through wasn't one breakthrough moment. It was slow, quiet, hard-earned surrender. In this episode: The loss that started it all — and the decision no one prepares you forWhy IVF felt like the logical answer, and why the journey turned out to be far more complicated than expectedThe diagnoses that kept coming: adhesions, a possible stage IV endometriosis diagnosis, Lupron suppression, canceled cycles, a chemical pregnancyWhat the shift toward surrender actually looked like — and why it took months, not a momentBecoming genuinely okay with other outcomes: gestational carrier, child-free living, one child instead of twoThe mantra that carried her: the more control I relinquish, the more control I actually feel — because the control was never mineStanding in Auschwitz with the hope that her ancestors were blessing her new pregnancyThe Love & Science tools that helped most: common humanity, authentic hope, and the physician-only communityHonest postpartum reflections: grief alongside gratitude, and why she never wants to forget what it felt like to still be waiting 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

  6. Jul 9

    IVF Isn’t Working: Now What?

    When IVF hasn't worked — and especially when it "should have" by now — it can feel like the ground is shifting beneath you. Dr. Erica breaks down exactly how she thinks through unsuccessful IVF, what questions haven't been asked yet, and why the answer is almost never "just keep doing more of the same." This episode is for anyone who has had high-quality embryos not take, who has been told everything looks fine on paper, or who is wondering if there's something being missed. In this episode: Why "unsuccessful IVF" means something different depending on how many transfers, what embryo quality, and what protocol — and why context is everythingThe question Dr. Erica always asks first: what were the odds IVF should have worked by now?Chronic endometritis: how common it actually is in this population, why so many people haven't been screened, and what happens to outcomes when it's treatedOccult endometriosis and adenomyosis as drivers of implantation failure — even without classic symptomsHydrosalpinx: the diagnosis that cuts success rates in half and is frequently missed on standard imagingInflammation, PMOS, and why GLP-1 medications are showing up in the fertility conversationUterine factor: IUD history, hypothalamic amenorrhea, Asherman's syndrome, and the compounding effect of multiple insults over timeWhen stepping back from IVF — and trying Letrozole, Clomiphere or gonadotropin IUI cycles — is actually the smarter clinical moveTwo powerful client stories: one who conceived spontaneously after surrendering the outcome; one who got pregnant on her first letrozole cycle after multiple failed IVF retrievalsThird-party reproduction and gestational carriers: how Dr. Erica helps people move toward those decisions thoughtfully, not reactivelyWhy "just keep trying" is not a strategy — and what thoughtful, empowered decision-making actually looks like 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

  7. Jul 2

    From Vice Chair to Whole Human Health: Identity, Burnout, and Lifestyle Medicine with Dr. Annahieta "AK" Kalantari

    This week Dr. Erica is joined by Dr. Annahieta Kalantari ("Dr. AK"), a double board-certified emergency medicine and lifestyle medicine physician and founder of Whole Human Health and Well-Being. After years of climbing the academic ladder — vice chair of education, a near-offer as DIO — Dr. AK had a wake-up call that led her to walk away from the path she'd spent her career building and reinvent her practice entirely. This conversation is about identity beyond the white coat, the courage it takes to let go of a role you've outgrown, and why small, sustainable changes (not overhauls) move the needle on health and fertility alike. In this episode: Dr. AK's path from ER residency to vice chair of education to founding her own practiceThe family Google Calendar moment that became her wake-up callMourning the loss of a professional identity you spent years buildingFinding the common thread (educator) that carried her from academic medicine to lifestyle medicineWhy "I am resourceful" is a mindset that applies far beyond career pivots — including the fertility journeyThe six pillars of lifestyle medicine and how they intersect with fertility and stressThe Kaizen effect: why small, cumulative tweaks beat all-or-nothing overhaulsReframing infertility as a question of aligning many small vectors, not one giant fixWhy physicians especially struggle to prioritize themselves — and what it takes to change that Where to find Dr. AK: Website: thewholehumanhealthandwellbeing.comBlog: From Dr. AK's DeskPodcast: No Filter Doctor (available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon) 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

  8. Jun 25

    Making Fertility Treatment Decisions: A Framework for Choosing Your Next Step

    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 oftenThe 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 moreWhy the difference in success rates between trying 6 months vs. 12 months under 35 is smaller than you'd thinkThe “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 monthLetrozole 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 worksWhen IVF makes sense from the start: large desired family size, genetic risk, tubal factor, or PGT-M/PGT-SR indicationsWhy "less is more" isn't always wrong, even when IVF feels like the safer betReframing 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

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5
out of 5
28 Ratings

About

At Love and Science, we discuss all things fertility! We empower physicians and other high achieving women to build their families with confidence and self compassion. 

Information

  • Creator
    Erica Bove, MD
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    144
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Love and Science Fertility
  • Show Website
    Love and Science Fertility

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