Fertility Cafe

Episode Summary  Fertility care is ever-involving. For many, medical treatments are not covered by their insurance. Coverage for infertility and fertility preservation can currently be disallowed by insurance companies. Many insurance companies have fertility coverage classified as cosmetic or elective.   On this episode of Fertility Cafe, Eloise gets to talk to Mollie Walker and Chelsea Caldwell....

Episode Summary  On this episode of Fertility Cafe, Eloise dives into the complicated question: what’s happening with supply and demand in the world of third-party reproduction? COVID-19 has certainly had a drastic effect on the availability of surrogates, egg donors, and sperm donors, yet at the same time, the demand for these crucial pieces to the third-party reproduction puzzle has only increas...

Dr. Lori Marshall is the medical director and a founding partner of Pacific Northwest Fertility in Seattle as well as Clinical Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at University of Washington School of Medicine.  She serves as the director of the Pacific NW Fertility Center for Collaborative Reproduction, overseeing its donor egg bank, and donor egg, gestational carrier, and donor embryo progr...

Following her own very personal experience as a parent through gestational surrogacy in 1990, Darlene first served as a contract coordinator in a reproductive law firm. She learned about the legal aspects of egg donation and surrogacy while coordinating documentation for intended parents, donors, and surrogates during the legal contract stages. Darlene started to successfully connect high-profile...

Richard Vaughn is a parent via surrogacy and egg donation and is the founding principal of International Fertility Law Group, a law practice focused exclusively on assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Links for more resources Rate, Review, and Subscribe!  We would be honored if you took the time to rate and review our podcast! And of course, don’t forget to hit that Subscribe button to have n...

This episode is about surrogate partner involvement. The husband, wife, or committed boyfriend or girlfriend of a would-be surrogate has an important role to play which cannot be overlooked. In this episode, we talk all about how surrogacy is a shared experience and what partners should expect when the lady in their life becomes a gestational surrogate.  We Discuss Topics Such As: Despite this epi...

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with….Maya Grogel, Jennifer Vesbit and Gina Davis of Empower Donation. These are three women united, on a mission to normalize embryo donation as a family building option.  Together they have founded Empower Donation, an education company dedicated to increasing awareness, empowering choice and fostering understanding for everyone involved in embryo donation....

More and more Americans seem to be struggling with infertility these days. Is this a matter of increased awareness? Certainly, more people are talking openly about their struggles than ever before. But can the numbers really be chalked up to less stigma around the conversation of infertility. On this week’s episode, host Eloise Drane dives into what the science says about the increase in fertility...

Our guest today is Chiquita Lockley, Executive Producer and Director of Eggs Over Easy. Eggs Over Easy: Black Women & Fertility is a documentary film about black women fertility, family building choices, and maternity care.   Links for more resources Blog: Why Many Black Women are Silent About Their Struggle with Infertility

In today’s episode, host Eloise Drane gives her insight into the ins and outs of choosing an IVF clinic. With over two decades of experience in the infertility industry, Eloise has seen it all! From state-of-the-art clinics to single practitioners who offer highly personalized service, she’ll discuss what to look for, what to avoid, and how to evaluate success rates when shopping for a fertility c...

Sasha Ottey is Founder and Executive Director of PCOS Challenge: The National Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association. Serving 55,000 members, PCOS Challenge is the leading patient support and advocacy organization for people with PCOS. Sasha started PCOS Challenge after she was diagnosed with PCOS and experienced great dissatisfaction with the availability of support resources for women with the co...

Everything you never knew you needed to know about surrogacy! On this week’s episode, we’re spilling the tea on all the strange facts, surprising details, and interesting tidbits about surrogacy. We asked our surrogates, past and present, our staff, and our buddies in the field to share what they wish they knew before beginning a surrogacy journey. From what not to do during the application proces...

Erin is a freelance writer and a donor conceived rights advocate. At age 35, she found out from her parents that she was conceived using donated sperm. It was all a shocking experience and it inspired her to create the community and resource “We Are Donor Conceived”. Erin wanted other donor-conceived people to benefit from the resources she had amassed in her own search. Links for more resources R...

On today’s episode of Fertility Cafe, we explore everything you need to know about surrogacy for gay parents. With advancements in assisted reproductive technology and expanded access to family-building resources for the LGBTQ community, it’s fully possible for gay men to have their own biological children. More gay men are turning to parenthood via surrogacy than ever before. Host Eloise Drane di...

On this episode we have two lesbians chatting about non-traditional families. Jaimie Kelton and Robin Hopkins, the creators and hosts of the popular podcast If These Ovaries Could Talk, realized the world needed to know there was more than one way to make an LGBTQ family. Links for more resources Rate, Review, and Subscribe!  We would be honored if you took the time to rate and review our podcast!...

On today’s episode of Fertility Cafe, we talk about one special group of women who just so happen to make up a large share of surrogate mothers in the United States: military wives. What makes these women so uniquely suited to serve as surrogates? Is there something in particular that motivates or inspires them to answer the call? Surrogacy has long been a hot topic in military circles, and for go...

Erica McAfee is the Founder and CEO of Sisters in Loss, a maternal child health company that helps Black women replace silence with storytelling around pregnancy and infant loss and infertility.  She is also a Certified Birth & Bereavement Doula, Doula Trainer and Mentor, and Mom to 2 babies in heaven and one rainbow baby Maxwell also known as Super Mighty Max. Sisters in Loss provides pregnan...

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about what happens after an Intended Parent has finally found his or her ideal egg donor. Host Eloise Drane tells it like it is, setting realistic expectations, in hopes of warding off disappointment and frustration during the egg donor process. The decisions, first to work with an egg donor and then who your donor will be, are huge and can be emotionally fr...

Black and brown women experience infertility at almost 2x the rate of our counterparts and yet are least likely to seek treatment. In addition, many conditions that directly impact fertility, such as fibroids, endometriosis, PCOS, and others disproportionately affect black women as well. On today’s episode, Rev. Stacey Edwards-Dunn Founder of Fertility for Colored Girls shares her own infertility...

On today’s episode, we’re going to look into some of the most sensationalized surrogacy cases that have hit the headlines. While a lot of these stories have the appeal of a juicy tabloid exposé, they’re worth examining as cautionary tales and as a way to understand why so many are vocally opposed to the practice. Surrogacy gives intended parents hope where they were lacking it before—everyone dese...

In this episode of Fertility Cafe, host Eloise Drane talks with Candace Wohl about safe independent surrogacy. Candace Wohl, writer, public speaker, and over-sharer of all things infertility is now a mother through surrogacy after over a decade long struggle. Candace and her husband Chris decided that in order to overcome adversity, they must stare it directly in the face with humor and positivity...

In the season two opening episode of Fertility Cafe, host Eloise Drane is talking about how COVID-19 affected surrogacy. In this episode, she talks about the struggles that both surrogates and their intended parents faced during the early to middle stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Links for more resources

In Fertility Cafe episode #20, Host, Eloise Drane and Dr. Bethea-Walsh talk about the psychological evaluations and mental health consultations which kick off a surrogacy journey. Both intended parents and surrogate candidates often feel nervous about the prospect of speaking with a mental health professional but as Eloise and Dr. Bethea-Walsh discuss, there is nothing to be nervous about. Your me...

The most common questions that a potential intended parent asks often is what’s the difference between: Adoption and Surrogacy? A common misconception is that adoption and surrogacy are the same thing, which I can tell you: they are not! Today, I’d like to share my thoughts about each path, and what you’ll want to consider, plan for, and think through before navigating each one. In no way is this...

After being in the industry for now 20 years, I’ve become increasingly troubled by the realization that a huge percentage of people can’t fulfill their dreams of parenthood because of the staggering costs. IVF is expensive. Surrogacy is expensive. And these costs keep too many people from pursuing their dreams of becoming parents.  So yes, I am an agency owner, but I know that agency costs can be...