Pregnantish

Nia Sanchez, Miss USA 2014, never thought she'd have a fertility issue as she was young and healthy when she and her husband, actor Daniel Booko, started trying to conceive in 2019. To their surprise, they were diagnosed with 'unexplained infertility' and pursued fertility treatments, all the while finding ways to support each other through the tough experience.  On this episode we explore wh...

If you saw Krisily Fernstrom on Instagram today, you'd see a woman going through infertility and egg retrievals quote, “hoping, praying and waiting” to become a mom. IVF warrior is in her bio, along with TV host, Movie Critic and Miss Rhode Island USA. She was also a contestant on The Bachelor and the popular reality show spinoff, The Bachelor Pad. Some people may remember her as Krisily Kennedy,...

Deidre Downs Gunn, M.D, held the state title of Miss Alabama, before entering the national Miss America competition in 2005. And, she holds another title today: Deidre is the first Miss America to enter a same sex marriage and build a family with her wife. Deidre and her partner Abbott met on a dating site in 2017 while Deidre was finishing a fellowship and reproductive endocrinology and infertili...

You may recognize the Dürt family: Matthew and his partner Elliot, from the headlines their family story made just a couple of years ago. Elliot's sister Lea donated her eggs to the couple and Matt's 61-year-old mother, Cecile, carried and delivered their first baby (who is also her first granddaughter!) -- making her one of the oldest women in the world to give birth! Matt and Elliot are now the...

Identical twin sisters Amy and Courtney, who jokingly refer to themselves as 'lefty' and 'righty', both knew that they'd have to pursue IVF in order to have children so they wouldn't pass down a rare genetic condition. They didn't imagine the years of fertility treatments, set-backs and losses they'd experience, or that they would become even more connected than they already were. 36 yea...

If you saw meditation and mindfulness expert Josephine Atluri with her family today, you may think she had no issues trying to conceive. She has 5 children and twins on the way! But, Josephine’s path to parenthood was anything but straight or simple. Multiple IVF rounds, late term pregnancy loss, international adoption and surrogacy are all part of her family story. And each chapter of her fa...

"So Tell Me About the Last Time You Had Sex" is a question Ian Kerner often asks people in his sex therapy practice and it's the title of his new book. In this interview, Ian and Andrea discuss the difference between procreative sex and recreational sex, and Ian shares why we may need to update our 'sex script' in order to stay connected through tough challenges like grief and infertility. Ian s a...

When people look at entrepreneur Samantha Busch and her husband, NASCAR driver Kyle Busch, they may see a picture-perfect life and family, and have no idea how much this couple struggled behind the scenes to become parents. Both faced an infertility diagnosis that led them on a path they never expected while in the public eye, and one that resulted in their Bundle of Joy Fund. They developed...

If you came across Gregory Sdeo on Twitter, you may think his account is a joke. After all, his handle is "Balls Don't Work" and his name is listed as "Got No Sperm" -- but there's no joke here.  Greg is one in the estimated 40-50% of men with an infertility diagnosis that's impacted his ability to start a family with his wife.  This episode explores why we often frame infertility a...

Actress and Entertainer Athena Reich, who has been called one of the best Lady Gaga impersonators, created a show called #ARTBIRTH just around the time that birth was on her mind.  When Athena was in her mid-30s, she did what she says, 'Any clock-ticking lesbian would do' and she picked a sperm donor with the goal of getting pregnant via IUI or IVF.  What Athena didn't kno...

Jennifer Grobrecht never expected to be expecting.  Born with MRKH, a condition in which a woman is born without a uterus, Jennifer didn't imagine she could or would ever carry a pregnancy. But, through the generosity of a family she didn't know, and a scientific breakthrough that allowed a uterus transplant to happen, Jennifer delivered a healthy baby. Jennifer is just the third wo...

If you looked at good friends Abbey and Wendy, who met 8 years ago at a beach house on Fire Island, you'd have no idea that they share so much more than meets the eye. These friends, who were single after divorce and relationships that weren't going anywhere, had dreams of motherhood and decided to build their families, instead of waiting for the right men to come along.  After a series...

When we think of infertility and menopause, we don't generally picture someone who looks like Kelly McLay - who is a fit and youthful looking marathon runner. Kelly didn't think of herself this way, either, when she was diagnosed with menopause at 24 years old.  Kelly became one of the one in the 1000 women who reach menopause before the age of 30. And yet, we don't hear these...

 Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month is in October, but we all know that this devastating experience affects countless people throughout the year. Some estimate that 1 in 4 experience miscarriage and no matter how common it may be, it is still misunderstood, taboo in some circles and incredibly painful.   In 2014, after a 16 week pregnancy loss, Psychologist Dr. Jessica Zucker was compel...

Infertility advocate Aprill Lane always knew that she wanted to have four children; but when she and her husband were diagnosed with Unexplained Infertility in their 20s, she turned to endless IVF cycles and adoption to build her family. A decade of treatments and trying later, Aprill and her partner welcomed their fifth child spontaneously.  Today, Aprill's made history as one of the fi...

On this episode of the Pregnantish Podcast, Andrea explores a chapter of her own family building story: gestational surrogacy. Contrary to popular belief, this process is still somewhat rare, with approximately 750 gestational surrogacy births a year in the United States. Unlike traditional surrogacy, which is less common today, gestational surrogacy occurs when the surrogate is not genetically re...

Third-party reproduction, egg and sperm donation, is becoming more popular as the number of singles, infertile couples and members of the LGBT community build their families with the help of fertility treatments.   The first known baby born via egg donor was in the early 1980s. Just a few decades old, there’s still a lot we don’t know about egg donation. However, what we do know is that more...

The tropes of the sperm donor and the families they help create are well worn, to be kind. The stupid college kid trying to make a couple quick bucks, the infertile couple making a last ditch effort, etc – some of these stories might be true, but they're just a fraction of what sperm donor stories really look like. In this episode, Andrea sits down with two people whose stories speak to the differ...

Egg freezing is a part of the path to parenthood for a growing number of people. In recent years, technological innovation in the way eggs are harvested and frozen and shifts in cultural norms have opened the procedure up to a wider group of people hoping to start families. However, there are still plenty of misconceptions surrounding it. In this episode, Andrea sits down with Sarah and Ko to talk...

Seth knew he wanted to be a father from a young age, but when he started taking testosterone and transitioned more than 15 years ago, he understood that building a family was going to get more difficult. The idea of gestating his fertilized eggs in his wife’s uterus was just the beginning of a path to parenthood full of hormone treatments, arguments with insurance companies and so much more. Hoste...

Andrea Syrtash is a modern family planning expert. Her journey to parenthood may have been long and winding, with cycle after cycle of fertility treatments and surrogate searches, but the steps she took to become a mother aren't as uncommon as you might think. On Pregnantish, Andrea will talk to people like her – whose lives didn't exactly follow the "first comes love, then comes marriage, then co...