Infertile AF: Infertility and Modern Family Building through ART

Paula Rallis is an amazing woman who flips houses, flies planes, interior decorates and runs a chic lifestyle blog ( www.paularallis.com ) and IG account, @paularallis. In this episode, she tells Ali all about how, after a year of trying to have a baby and being unsuccessful, she found out she was born with a very rare medical condition in which she has only half of her reproductive system. After...

Today, Ali is talking to Amy, who, after 18 months of trying and more than 540 ovulation tests (yes, she counted!), finally had her son. Amy explains how a misdiagnosis of PCOS lasted for six years before she realized she didn't have it after all, the pressures she felt to have kids as an Indian woman, and why she and her husband didn't want to do anything invasive. She also tells us about...

You might know journalist Amy Klein from Fertility Diary, the column she wrote in the New York Times about her infertility journey. Today, Ali is talking to Amy about everything she went through—including nine rounds of IVF, four miscarriages, two rabbis and one reproductive immunologist—before finally having her daughter in 2015. Amy also talks about finding (and affording) a clinic, baby envy, a...

A lot has happened to Whitney Port since you first met her on MTV's The Hills and The City. She married Timmy, the love of her life, became an entrepreneur, started a podcast, With Whit, and had a son named Sonny. Today, she talks to Ali about the miscarriage that "rocked her world"—and how it brought up feelings of guilt, confusion, heartbreak and even selfishness. She also talks abou...

In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week, Ali and her Fertility Rally co-founder, Blair Nelson of Fab Fertility, talk about how they met and bonded right away, why this infertility community means so much to them, and what—and who—everyone can expect at the very first Fertility Rally, happening October 23-25 in Brooklyn. Make sure to follow @fertilityrally for updates, and sign up for the n...

Today, Lia tells Ali all about her long and difficult journey to motherhood, including a pregnancy that ended tragically after her uterus ruptured at 31 weeks. She also talks about the two different and amazing surrogates who came into their lives, and how tragedy struck again, heartbreakingly, before they had their healthy baby girl. Lia also explains why she started Fly Bravely, a NYC consultanc...

Today, Ali talks to her friend Janna about going through infertility for six excruciating years. Her story includes full-blown IVF, mini IVF, IUI, lots of heartbreak, a devastating miscarriage and D&C and ultimately, the adoption of her now-almost one year old son, Zeke. She also describes that brutal moment when the nurse is looking at your ultrasound, gets quiet and says, 'I need to talk...

Maddy Gutierrez describes herself as a "body positive Manhattan mom, Fashion Lover and Beauty Junkie," and today, she talks to Ali about all of those things, as well as her struggle with secondary infertility, which she's in the middle of right now. Maddy gets into the details of her journey, including having her now five-year-old son with no issues, going through multiple IUIs, how Co...

Today, Ali talks to Dr. Liz Kane, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Natalist, where she develops pregnancy tests, ovulation kits and more to help people who are trying to conceive. Liz, who ran a research lab at Harvard, talks about the challenges of leaving academia to start a family, how her chronic migraines affected her fertility journey, the postpartum hemorrhage that threatened her...

Today, Ali talks to Nathalie, an infertility warrior, mama of one and the founder of Fertilust, a fertility-inspired wellness and nutrition hub. Self-described as "a recovering workaholic and type A down to the blood type," Nathalie shares her story of unexplained infertility, silent endometriosis, several IVF cycles, pity parties, how changing her nutrition changed everything, and why thi...

Today, Ali talks to Cynara, who she met when they were both in Albany lobbying to make gestational surrogacy legal in New York. Cynara used a surrogate to have her daughter, Pearl, and today she chronicles her entire journey, including unexplained infertility, having eight miscarriages in 10 years, feeling broken, and having suicidal thoughts. As she says, "It was like, 'There's someth...

Today, Ali talks to Samantha Busch, wife of NASCAR champion Kyle Busch, star of Racing Wives, and Infertility Advocate. Samantha gets real about having their first baby through IVF, how infertility has affected her marriage, going through it all in the public eye, her devastating recent miscarriage, and how they're considering using a surrogate for their next child. Samantha also talks about h...

Elyse Ash is an infertility warrior and the founder of Fruitful, a fertility mentor service that pairs mentees who are going through infertility with mentors who have come out the other side. Fruitful is "committed to making infertility suck less." Today, Elyse talks to Ali about everything she went through before finally having her baby, including endometriosis with no symptoms, ovarian c...

Maggie, aka @bean.and.biscuit, has two baby sons who were born one month apart. Today, she tells Ali the incredible story of how this happened, starting with several failed rounds of IVF, including one round that ended in a miscarriage. Maggie and her husband then turned to surrogacy, and the surrogate got pregnant with one of their healthy male embryos. And then, soon after—in a miraculous turn o...

Today's guest is Michael Frank, a brilliant author whose novel, "What is Missing," takes on infertility as one of its central subjects. The reason Michael knows so much about infertility is that he went through it with his wife, and as he tells Ali, "I found it personally to be one of the hardest things I ever lived through." Find out about their three miscarriages, how he deal...

Ali's guest today is Nicole Lawson, who went through years of infertility, including three devastating miscarriages, before choosing to go the surrogacy route. Today, she has two healthy daughters via surrogacy--and she tells Ali all about the entire process, including some of the fears and reservations she had. Nicole was so moved by the surrogacy process that she started her own agency, call...

Not all of these stories end with babies. Today, Ali talks to Katy, who went through four years of infertility, including a failed IVF cycle and depression and anxiety, which left her feeling "stripped down" to her core. "I never thought the ending would be that i didn't have a kid," Katy says. But after a hysterectomy and some deep soul searching, Katy decided to stop trying,...

Today, Ali talks to Sarah Larson Levey, the founder and CEO of Y7 Studio. After talking about how Y7 yoga was a huge part of Ali's infertility story, they talk about Sarah's two devastating miscarriages, "being a complete hysterical fucking mess," the toll it took on her relationship, and how she managed this heavy emotional and physical stuff while building one of America's fa...

Kristyn is the founder of The Fertility Tribe, an incredible online community based on "redefining fertility together." Today, Kristyn tells Ali about how "nothing on the road to motherhood was easy" for her, from the "Clomid crazies" to her first failed frozen embryo transfer. Now a mother of toddler twins, she also talks about the 25 nights she spent pregnant in the hospi...

In this Season Two kickoff, Ali talks to Keeley, a producer in London, about her unexplained infertility journey, resulting in eight rounds of IVF in England, Spain, and finally, Russia. Keeley talks about her "total shitshow" of a second transfer, undergoing one traumatic "pregnancy in an unknown location," making the difficult decision to use donor eggs, and how her husband has b...

Karen describes herself as part teacher, part mom, fully inappropriate and forever infertile. She is the creator of Hilariously Infertile, a brand that includes an Instagram with more than 66,000 followers, stand-up comedy gigs, and a book (see hilariouslyinfertile.com for more). Today, she talks to Ali about IUIs, Clomid, the dangers of Google searching, discovering leggings, and why when going t...

Jasmin is an entertainment editor and writer whose New York Times essay about egg freezing, "Great Eggspectations," caught Ali's attention this spring. Today, she talks to Ali about how, since most of her friends were doing it, she jumped at the chance to freeze her eggs at 36 (but what she wishes she knew then). Also discussed: her possible endometriosis, the fortune teller who change...

Today, Ali talks to Dr. Dorette Noorhasan, the Medical Director and Co-Founder of CCRM Dallas-Fort Worth, about being an infertility specialist while going through her own infertility journey. Dorette discusses working with a surrogate as a single woman, the devastation when those two transfers didn't work out, needing a mental break, and how, after marrying her husband, they tried again with...

On today's episode, Ali talks to her childhood best friend, Michelle, about her years-long quest to have a baby. Included: Why she hates IUIs, getting a surprise diagnosis of PCOS, how to advocate when it comes to insurance, and how one night on a business trip in Hong Kong, her world came crashing down when she checked her medical portal. Michelle also details her six IVF cycles, how meditati...

Today, Ali talks to L.A.-based former nanny Angela, whose infertility journey started at 39 and includes two "missed" miscarriages, a stimulated follicle that turned into a cyst, and three IVF cycles with varying results. Angela says that at times, she felt like such a failure that she apologized to her husband, saying, "Why did you marry me? I'm broken." She also explains why...