Infertile AF: Infertility and Modern Family Building through ART

Today, Ali is talking to Cory Silverberg, sex educator and the author of You Know, Sex, a graphic style book that The NY Times recently called one of "The Books about Sex that Every Family Should Read." and Ali could not agree more. The New York Times Book review says, "Silverberg's writing is fearless . . . Here is that rare voice that can talk about the hardest things kids go thr...

Today, Ali is talking to Catie and Ryan, who she met when Catie joined the Fertility Rally family. Catie and Ryan talk about everything that lead up to having their baby, who is actually going to be here any day now — from unexplained infertility to five IUIs to Ryan's "super sperm" to miscarriage to the anxieties of pregnancy after loss. Ryan also talks about writing his book, "Fi...

Today, Ali is talking to Ajima, who is calling from Belgium to share her very complicated family building story. It starts when Ajima's doctor went in to remove some fibroids, and mistakenly amputated her cervix, rendering her infertile. It also includes another traumatic medical experience, when Ajima's sister-in-law, who had agreed to be Ajima's surrogate, became paralyzed after rece...

Today, Ali is talking to Allison, whose story begins with a diagnosis of leukemia at the age of three years old. Allison talks about her diagnosis, going through chemo and radiation, and getting a life-saving bone marrow transplant from her sister, who was just one year old at the time. Now a childhood cancer survivor, she talks about how her treatment came into play when it came time to try to ha...

Cheyna Roth is a Senior producer at Slate, where she produces podcasts for a living. Ali first heard about her and her story when she talked about her own infertility struggles on a podcast that she frequently co-hosts, called "The Waves."  Today, she shares that story with us, talking about endometriosis, the random places she's injected meds in her ass, retrievals, transfers, IUIs, m...

Michelle V. is the proud mom of her angel baby Sweet Pea, who she lost due to miscarriage, her angel daughter Colette Louise who she lost at nine days old, and her only living child, her rainbow baby, Elliott Miguel. Today she tells Ali all about her journey, including infertility, miscarriage, giving birth to her daughter at just 24 weeks, their nine-day stay in the NICU, the devastating loss of...

Today, Ali is talking to Miscarriage Awareness advocate Chauncey Ellis about her two very different losses. Chauncey talks about growing up as part of the LDS church, how she was one of eight children in her family, and having her first daughter at a young age. She also talks about trying again seven years later, the two miscarriages she experienced, the grief she deals with to this day, and later...

Today, Ali is talking to Dancing With the Stars pro Peta Murgatroyd about the secondary infertility journey she is currently experiencing, after she and her husband, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, another DWTS pro, had their son, Shai, who is now five years old. Peta  talks about her three miscarriages, dealing with loss in the middle of her Dancing with the Stars season, why she felt embarrassed and ashame...

On this episode, Ali talks to Ashley Gildin Spitzer about her four-year-long infertility journey, which ended with she calls her "twiblings," two babies born four months apart. Ashley starts with her diagnosis of hypothalamic amenorrhea (loss of her period), then talks about her IUI which ended in a blighted ovum. She then talks about her IVF journey, which included several retrievals, sev...

HOW WILL OVERTURNING ROE V. WADE IMPACT IVF PATIENTS AND THE INFERTILITY COMMUNITY AT LARGE? 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....

Today, Ali's friend Monica tells us all about her infertility journey, including how she discovered she has uterus  didelphys, a rare congenital condition where you're born with two uteruses and pelvic kidney--both of which make it difficult and unsafe for her to carry her own pregnancy. Monica talks about meeting her husband, when they started to try having babies, starting IVF, falling d...

On today's show, Jaime shares her infertility journey, including how she lost her baby girl, Emily,  at 23 weeks gestation in December 2020 due to getting Covid while pregnant. Both Emily and Jaime's placenta tested positive for Covid. "It was an absolutely devastating loss," Jaime says. "Prior to losing her we had five early miscarriages. We finally brought home a baby this Fe...

Today, Ali is talking to Lilliana Vazquez,  host of E! News,  style expert and founder of  The LV Guide , about the six years she spent battling infertility. Lilliana gets super candid about all the things:  how she met her husband, how her first retrieval got messed up, how it's difficult to talk about infertility in her Latin community, how IVF is "a  thief ," being your own health a...

On today's show, Meg, aka @creating.crawfords, tells us all about her infertility journey, her  heart condition, and the spinal injury she endured—all of which have made it so that she is unable to carry a baby. Meg talks about her miscarriage, trying for another year and half, the car accident that left her with chronic pain and in a neck brace, and how she and her husband pivoted to both sur...

Today Ali is talking to Jade, an amazing friend she met through Fertility Rally, and who works as a school counselor. Jade explains her entire infertility journey, including her hysteroscopy, "huffing"  essentials oils, what happened when her doctor found uterine polyps, multiple failed IUIs, her laparoscopy and the discovery of endometriosis, and how all of this affected her relationship ...

Today Ali is talking to her very dear friend Taylor, who you might know from IG as @infertileandimpatient, and who Ali met when she joined Fertility Rally (@fertilityrally). Taylor has been through a ton, and today she tells Ali everything that happened leading up to the miracle birth of her twin girls, Quinn and Charlie. She talks about being blinded by miscarriage after miscarriage, being told b...

Mathilde Froustey is a principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet and one of the best dancers in the world. Born in Bordeaux, France, Mathilde started dancing at the age of 9 and trained at the Marselle National School of Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet School. Today, even though she says, "In the dance world, infertility is a taboo subject," she comes out to Ali about her personal str...

Today, Ali is talking to Jaycee Gossett, a founding teacher and VP of training at The Class. The Class is a workout that strengthens your physical, mental, and emotional well-being through an innovative combination of fitness and mindfulness. Jaycee is a rockstar in the wellness world and today she’s going to tell Ali all about her infertility journey—which she is still in the midst of. She talks...

Today, Ali's badass friend Samantha Busch  @samanthabusch  returns! It's been over two years since we did our first podcast episode, in March 2020. SO. MUCH. HAS. HAPPENED. Samantha and Ali catch up on ALL the things, including how she switched clinics and did another egg retrieval, how she had another loss--a pregnancy that ended devastatingly with two blighted ovums, finding the right ge...

John Smothers is 71-year-old businessman, and today he's telling us about the difficulties he and his wife had building their family in the late 70s and early 80s, when ART hadn't really been developed yet, and it was all very "hush hush." It took John and his wife, Gayle, 7 years to have their first child, due to Gayle's endometriosis. But the trauma of infertility lived on. ...

Today, Ali is talking to her good friend and the very FIRST Fertility Rally member, Maiclaire Smith, about the long and winding road she took to get to her baby son, Isaac. " Having Isaac doesn’t erase what we went through," she says. "The pain, the loss, the sacrifices that went along with three years of hell to get us our miracle baby. This is just a small part of what infertility lo...

Emma K. Belle is a life coach and mentor with a focus on Mental Health Recovery, Trauma Recovery and Emotional Awareness Learning. She's also a huge advocate for the infertility community, and an #infertility warrior herself. She heads up a Bipolar Disorder Recovery Online Support Group, and she also created TFMR Mamas, a group for those who have lost their babies to Termination for Medical Re...

Today Ali is talking to her friend and Fertility Rally member Jess L. about the infertility journey she and her wife, Ann, have been on so far. "In a same sex relationship, you know right away that you're gonna need help--reproductive assistance," Jess says, as she fills us in on everything that's happened so far, including choosing a sperm donor (known or anonymous?); the cost of...

Today, Ali chats with Colorado lifestyle blogger Dani Wade, aka @dwbella. Dani fills Ali in on the four years she has spent so far battling infertility, and how her journey is not over yet. Still in the midst of her story, Dani tells Ali what has happened up until this point, including hormone fluctuations, failed IUIs, the "heartbreak of the process," and how she's had very tough conv...

Today, Ali is talking to True Warrior Jewelry founder Melissa Randazzo about her long and complicated battle with infertility and endometriosis. Melissa tells Ali about how she'd never heard of endo before, and what happened when her insides were "black, covered in scar tissue, and all my organs were attached to themselves." She also talks about the healing power of crystals and how th...