Eggology Club Valerie Landis

DAILY YOKE

Jen Noonan married her husband in 2008 after meeting through mutual friends.  When they first began the process to start their family things didn't go as planned. Eventually, they sought help from a fertility clinic and was diagnosed with unexplained infertility. After a year of trying to conceive, taking hormone shots, dealing with miscarriage and treatments they finally were able to have a son in 2010.



When Jen and her husband wanted to grow their family for a second child, they spent months again trying to get pregnant for nothing to happen. They faced what is often known as secondary infertility.  It was a silent struggle due to the stigma attached to secondary infertility and miscarriage. It took five years to give birth to her second son who became their rainbow baby. For a copy of Jen's book "In Due Time" visit website induetimebook.com.



October is pregnancy and infancy loss awareness month. Reproductive Endocrinologist Dr. Lora Shahine of Pacific Northwest Fertility Center in Seattle offers a helpful book called Not Broken for those struggling with miscarriage or loss. Be sure to check out our entire conversation with Dr. Shahine on eggsperience.com. If you need a helpful book to talk to children about they were conceived, "Happy Together" by Julie Marie is a great place to start.



Right before the annual ASRM fertility meeting my dear fertility nurse friend Angela Boccardo passed October 7th after c-section giving birth to her baby boy Christopher. We are raising funds and started a GoFundMe account for the baby’s future and family of a single mom. Please consider contributing to GoFundMe account: https://www.gofundme.com/in-memory-of-angela-boccardo



#EggClub Shout Out: Kathrin Deutschle Otero Barba -- Instagram @emborrow



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DAILY YOKE

Picking a sperm donor is relatively common place especially for those choosing single motherhood, but egg donation is rarely discussed or talked about. Sperm or egg shopping can be similar to online dating and feel like a daunting task to navigate the system.



There are more resources than ever to support those using third-party reproduction, such as the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR) created by Wendy Kramer. The DSR website assists the individuals who donated their own DNA, conceived via sperm, egg or embryo donation, or born from donor-reproduction that are seeking mutually desired contact with others whom they share genetic ties with.



Another support group and community that provides assistance is called, We Are Egg Donors (WAED) founded by egg donors: Raquel Cool and Claire Burns. The WAED website offers women who donate their eggs support during treatment, provides clinic accountability, and honest judgment-free conversations about egg donation.



Molly Hawkey, a comedian, photographer, and actress in Los Angeles started a podcast called Spermcast to explore and find a sperm donor. Molly froze her eggs around her 37th birthday to delay parenthood with the right person, but after several dead-end relationships she is not sure that her ideal partner exists. Now at almost 40, she does not want to rush into getting married and plans to have a baby on her own. Molly is on the quest to find the perfect sperm donor and venture down the path of single motherhood by choice instead.



Wendy Burch is an Emmy Award-winning television journalist, reporter, and news anchor for KTLA in Los Angeles. She covered thousands of stories, but felt like she neglected to let her own personal story unfold until Wendy's biological clock alarm sounded on her 40th birthday. After several rounds of IVF,  injections, fertility drugs, acupuncture not resulting in a pregnancy, after much hesitation Wendy decided her best option was to use an egg donor. She thought it would be dishonest not to tell the truth to her fans and viewers about how she got pregnant, so she turned the news cameras on herself.  Wendy explains what made her decide to change her path to pregnancy using a donor egg.



Have you donated your eggs or signed-up to be an egg donor? Take this quick survey and help volunteer to share your experience with San Francisco State University and Generations Ahead research. Do you have a child conceived via egg donor? Check out this book Happy Together by Julie Marie @happytogetherchildrensbook to begin the conversation and help introduce the concept of donation to a young child.



#EggClub Shout Out: Daley Dunham @daleydunham 17 and Me



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DAILY YOKE

Mimi Lee made headlines when she battled her ex-husband for custody of their embryos during their divorce. A single judgement in San Francisco courtroom rendered a decision that would determined the fate of five embryos that Mimi and her ex-husband had intentionally created after her shocking diagnosis of breast cancer.  The decision would change Mimi Lee's life forever.



Cancer and life threatening illness can affect one's chance for preserving their fertility or ability to conceive. If you know someone with cancer check out Arona Martin's gifts at Because Love to show that special someone how much you care and say what words can not.



Feeling generous? Check out JillsWish.org and learn about how Jill Brzezinski-Conley inspired so many to "Rock What You Got" and more. Want to support other local charities doing incredible work for others? The Carey Foundation and The Tutu Project will help make someone you know smile.



Looking for a way to get involved, then turn no further than Medline's Pink Glove Dance and watch hundreds of videos inspired to support breast cancer survivorship. Or perhaps you want to watch a good film or movie. A great documentary called, "I Heart Jenny" by Blake Babbitt or the inspiring true-life story, "Decoding Annie Parker" film by Steven Bernstein are both good choices and options to watch.



#EggClub Shout Out: Paige More @paige_previvor of @the_breasties charity



SEASON 2 EPISODE 17 SPONSORS

Trust Fertility | The Flex Company |  Vino Diva |



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DAILY YOKE

Women have won a number of rights over the last 100 years, like the ability to vote, pursue an education, build a career, or choose a partner. However, just because a few things have changed in the modern era today, does not mean the world is now fair. Similarly, rules and regulations about health care practices in every country are not all equal.



When exploring fertility laws, old regulations and outdated processes are still in practice. Rules about who could freeze their eggs and how long the eggs can be cryopreserved for. One of these such laws is in the United Kingdom, which has imposed a 10-year limit on women's eggs. There is even a campaign for the UK Parliament to extend the 10-year storage limit on frozen eggs.



Another discriminating regulation is in China, where women who are unmarried or single, it is illegal and forbidden for them to freeze their eggs. The lack of women's reproductive rights in China has cause a rise in medical tourism to the United States, including famous China celebrity actress Xu Jinglei. Not all countries treat fertility preservation for medical or social reasons the same.



Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Higgins Clark joins the conversation talking about freezing her eggs and her experience. She explores expectations, her family's dynamics, input, and key contributing factors that lead her to that choice to freeze. Elizabeth helps educate young people about their reproductive choices, is an activist for equal rights, overall feminist with a big heart using her notable celebrity status to break down stereotypical mindsets.



The inequality does not just end with unfair egg freezing laws. The LGBTQ community has faced similar fertility discrimination in multiple countries. Dealing with issues like citizenship of their children, third-party reproduction laws, unfair surrogacy regulations, or banning fertility treatments unless identifing as a heterosexual individual or couple is just the tip of the iceberg.



Soon-to-be parents, Kate and Karyne Levy of the Gayest Show on Birth podcast provide their valuable feedback on such regulations as they build their family. Hear what they think about topics like the lesbian couple in Italy that could not legally register their baby or the gay couple's twins that pushed the legal limits of defining citizenship parenthood.



#EggClub Shout Out: Julia Chan @julias_egg_journey



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DAILY YOKE

Jennifer Frappier was 39, single, and living in Los Angeles California. Jenni wanted to balance her career, pursue her dreams, and start a family.  She decided to take matters into her own hands instead hitting the panic button, she froze her eggs so she could increase her odds of having it all. During the egg freezing journey, she chose to documented the experience and created a short film called, Chill. The documentary is currently being featured at several film festivals and should be ready for public release in Summer 2018. Check out the trailer for the film Chill.



Since freezing her eggs, Jenni has been busy with her job, buying a home, remodeling, and dating. Then she met someone special named Ari. After several "high-fives" on their first date, they both realized what a great match they made together. Ari surprised Jenni with an engagement and asked her if she would "high-five" him forever. They got married on March 25th which I was honored to attend their magical wedding day and am excited to see what happens next.



#EggClub Shout Out: Stephanie Montgomery - Steph's Egg-stravagant Egg-sperience



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DAILY YOKE

Recently two fertility clinics in Cleveland and San Francisco, announced they had storage tank failures and thousands of specimens, eggs, embryos, and sperm were lost in this tragedy. How do you safe guard your frozen specimens? Is it risky to transport your frozen assets? This episode explores the many possibilities involved when using your frozen eggs, how to mitigate the transport risks, and uncovers key details behind the scenes inside the fertility labs.



NY Times bestselling author, ghostwriter, blogger on website AdventuresWithTwins.com, and Forbes contributor MeiMei Fox tells her story about what happened when she was ready to use her frozen eggs. After moving to Los Angeles with the love of her life and attempting to naturally get pregnant but with no success, they finally decided it was time to use the 18 eggs she had frozen in 2009. She submitted a request to prepare transporting her eggs from the lab facility outside of San Francisco to her new clinic in Los Angeles. MeiMei goes on to explain how she became a mother to twins, what exactly happened to her eggs along the way, and what she wishes she would have known now looking back.



#EggClub Shout Out: Angella Nguyen @SunnySideAnge



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