Infertile AF: Infertility and Modern Family Building through ART

On today's episode, Ali is talking to Emily Patel, founder of Hopeful Mama Foundation, about her family building journey, years of struggles, and finally having her two daughters. Emily talks about  having hot flashes and night sweats at the age of 16, being put on birth control, and later learning that she had premature ovarian failure/early menopause. She also talks about having a doctor wit...

Christie Bishop is host of the podcast, "What Nobody Tells Us," where she tackles taboo topics and hosts uncomfortable conversations, from cancer to grief to the foster care system. Today, she tells Ali her own family building story, starting with how her then-fiance, Bryan Bishop, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given six months to live. Bryan's diagnosis changed ever...

"I never thought I'd be down a 10 year journey just to have my one and only miracle daughter," says Sandra Rimaldi, an infertility nurse and infertility warrior who spent a decade trying to build her family. For years, Sandra worked with renowned Reproductive Immunologist Dr. Jeffrey Braverman, who passed away in 2019, treating patients from all over the world who had unexplained infer...

Leyla Bilali is a veteran fertility nurse with over a decade of clinical experience at a top NYC clinic. She considers herself to be a "Fertility Godmother," with big ideas for fertility care. Today, she tells Ali about her family building journey, including the road to having her two girls, and the devastating losses she has experienced while trying for a third child. Leyla talks about wo...

Pride Month Continues! Today we are celebrating the beautiful family built by Christina Bailey, aka @babybaileymamadrama on IG. Christina talks about coming out when she was younger, having her two older daughters via IVF, and how the LGBTQ community gets asked a lot, "Why don't you just adopt, or why don't you just foster?" Christina talks about going through the embryo adoption p...

In 2011, singer Nelly Joy told a doctor that she thought she had endometriosis, but the doctor just chuckled and said, "Most girls have painful periods," handed her birth control and Nelly went on her way. She spent years navigating kidney issues, anemia (blacking out), IBS, and constant throwing up from pain while being on the road doing an arena tour with Jason Aldean and Eric Church, op...

Meet Leia and Krison Burroughs, who are still in the midst of their family building journey. On today's show, Leia and Kriston tell Ali about how Kriston was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia when he was just a year old, and how they had no idea that the sickle cell drug, Hydroxyurea, would have a direct effect on his fertility. They also talk about microTESE surgery, the five hysteroscopies L...

Today, Ali has a true sports icon on the show: Former pro soccer star Carli Lloyd, who won two World Cups and two Olympic Gold medals during her incredible career. Carli is currently pregnant -- and in the second trimester -- with her first baby, but it's been a long and difficult infertility journey to get here. Carli tells Ali all the details, starting from when she and her high school sweet...

Happy Pride Month! Ali's guest today is Michael, one of the dads behind Two Dads U.K., whose mission is to raise awareness of same-sex parenting and help other same-sex couples and other single gay people realize that becoming a parent shouldn't just be a dream. Michael talks about coming out; building a family with his husband, Wes; the 3-4 years they researched surrogacy; the birth of th...

Today Ali talking to her sweet SoulCycle friend Lex Borino, a super successful bridal hair stylist about her recent egg freezing journey. Lex, who is 30 years old, explains why she came to this decision: "Once I turned 30 and realized, 'Ooh, I'm not in a relationship, that's not on the table right now,' I had to look at my options and be like, 'What can I do to be proactive...

Today's episode features Carly Stockdale, who started Nascency, Everything to know about surrogacy, and whether it’s right for you Carly talks about her egg freezing experience, pregnancy, and why she and her husband decided to use a surrogate for baby number two. She also talks about everything she's doing with Nascency, which provides info on becoming a surrogate and also taking the surr...

Today's episode features a total badass, UFC fighter Katlyn Cerminara. Katlyn talks about getting into fighting as a young girl; thinking she would be pregnant right away when she took out her IUD (very relatable!); and going to a specialist after trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant after three months. She also talks about being told by her doctor "You're so young, everything looks f...

Today Ali is talking to Modern Mom Probs founder Tara Clark about her unexplained infertility journey. Tara talks about growing up in Catholic school and the "fear-based" sex education she got; her three devastating miscarriages; being diagnosed with fibroids and having a procedure to remove them, and why she and her husband needed to take a mental health break after their losses. She also...

In this week’s special crossover episode, Ali is joined by her friends Abbe Feder (host of The Fertility Chick) and Elizabeth King (host of Creation Innovation podcast) to discuss infertility in pop culture. As infertility becomes more talked about in TV, movies, music and the news, what shows get it right? Where do we still need more support and stories shared? How can we ensure the narrative fee...

"Growing up, I always imagined I'd one day be married with kids" says today's guest, single dad by choice John Yurcisin. "I've dated many smart, interesting, beautiful women. I was engaged once and called it off. I just never found my life partner." And so, John decided to become a dad on his own. On this episode, John shares the entire journey to having his two sons as...

"Truthfully, my journey is about 10 years long at this point," says today's guest, Cara DiFalco. Cara grew up in a big, boisterous Italian family in NJ, and she always knew she wanted many children. After getting divorced with no children at 38, she decided she would pursue being a single mom by choice, and today, she tells us her whole story. She talks about how her family embraced th...

It's part two with our friend Bailey, who first shared her story on the pod in 2021. At the time, Bailey talked about having hair loss, night sweats -- finding out her AMH was just 0.1 and she had diminished ovarian reserve. She was told, 'You should be freezing your eggs, like, yesterday.'" Catch up on Bailey's first episode, and then listen to this one to find out where she i...

LFG!!!!!! Today's guest is a dear friend of Ali's, Ashely Hingston, aka @rage_against_infertilty. Ashley tells Ali all about having PCOS symptoms as a young woman and going on birth control, how certain doctors don't want to work with someone over a certain BMI; and going through letrozole rage. She talks about meeting her husband, Rob, doing medicated cycles and discovering male facto...

It's our Fifth Anniversary Episode! Ali's very special guest today is Elizabeth Carr, the first person born in the U.S. — in 1981 — via in vitro fertilization. "My birth was so widely publicized that my first press conference was at three days old," Elizabeth says. "I didn't get here like everybody else." Elizabeth shares what it's been like to live under media scru...

My guest today, Leah McKendrick, is the writer, director and star of the new movie about egg freezing and fertility in your 30s, called "Scrambled." The movie is amazing -- it even got a 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, so go check it out on demand and show the Hollywood system that we want even more movies and content around egg freezing, fertility, infertility and more. Today, Leah tells u...

My guest today, Julie Cohen, is an infertility warrior and advocate, and today, she tells Ali all about her roller coaster of a family building journey, including having her three boys, who are earthside with us today, and also her devastating experience with termination for medical reasons (TFMR), due to an extremely rare condition called Limb Body Wall Complex. Julie is amazing, and she's al...

On today's special bonus episode, Ali is joined by Dr. Sahar Wertheimer, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist practicing in Los Angeles, and InCircle Fertility founder, fertility coach and infertility warrior Abbe Feder to discuss the implications of the overturning of Roe V. Wade. Among the things they discuss: If life begins at fertilization, what does that mean for embr...

Caryn Johnson is the Co-Founder and CEO of BOND, an innovative line of supplements reimagining hormone and reproductive health, inspired by her experience with infertility. In 2017, when trying to start a family, Caryn learned she was autoimmune infertile. Today, Ali and Caryn unpack all of it, including exactly what "autoimmune infertile" means, how she was "pregnant for a few hours;&...

Kristin Dillensnyder is a certified life coach who specializes in working with women who are consumed by their infertility to help them find their strength and joy again. And she should know--because she's gone through her own infertility journey too. On this episode, Kristin talks to Ali about male factor infertility, IUIs, going through IVF, fresh transfers, frozen transfers, getting pregnan...

Stacy Since found out she was conceived via donor sperm at the age of 41, and today, she's talking all about her experience, including why her mom and dad chose to keep it a secret; how Stacy found out she was donor conceived; and what happened when she met up IRL with her bio-dad. She also talks about her own infertility journey, which started with IUI and went on to include 10 egg retrievals...