This is Fertility

June is Pride Month , and this year we have an update from a couple we featured previously: Samantha and Jessica Pace. They shared their journey in this episode: Episode 75: LGBTQ+ Family Building: 10 IUIs Before IVF Success . When we left off, Jessica and Samantha were expecting their first child through IVF, after going through 10 failed IUIs first. Excitedly awaiting their daughter, the Paces h...

Mental health awareness and prioritization are certainly on the rise. As May was Mental Health Awareness Month, we at Progyny wanted to shed light on the serious intersection of mental health and fertility. Family building and fertility treatment can be incredibly stressful. In fact, 55% of people feel infertility is more stressful than unemployment and 61% feel it is more stressful than divorce ....

For some, infertility is a complete surprise, but for others, they know going into it that they might have trouble conceiving down the line. The latter situation is common for those who are diagnosed with endometriosis , PCOS , and other conditions that may lead to infertility. These diagnoses absolutely don't guarantee a negative impact, and each condition is treatable. Fertility troubles or not,...

Nothing makes you feel more deflated, angry, and misunderstood than when someone tells you to 'just relax.' This reaction can be expected in many situations, especially from someone who is struggling with building their family. In this episode, Bethany Johnson discusses her experience with infertility and how women have historically been blamed for "barrenness." Over time, this blame has trickled...

The Fertility 101 Series, because there's no shortage of daunting terms to keep your mind running, is a quick and dirty breakdown on a specific topic with insights from a fertility expert. Today's topic focuses on the link between stress and fertility. People often assume that stress is the cause of infertility, but stress frequently follows fertility treatments, as our expert will tell you. But s...

It's National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) , and Progyny is hosting a six-part series of back-to-back episodes featuring several experts who are fighting for fertility coverage. Our goal is to educate others on how they can advocate for themselves and ask for the support that's needed from their employer or state to build the family of their dreams. This is the last episode of the series, and...

It's National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) , and Progyny is hosting a six-part series of back-to-back episodes featuring several experts who are fighting for fertility coverage. Our goal is to educate others on how they can advocate for themselves and ask for the support that's needed from their employer or state to build the family of their dreams. This episode features Davina Fankhauser, th...

It's National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) , and Progyny is hosting a six-part series of back-to-back episodes featuring several experts who are fighting for fertility coverage. Our goal is to educate others on how they can advocate for themselves and ask for the support that's needed from their employer or state to build the family of their dreams. In this episode, you'll hear from Christina...

It's National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) , and Progyny is hosting a six-part series of back-to-back episodes featuring several experts who are fighting for fertility coverage. Our goal is to educate others on how they can advocate for themselves and ask for the support that's needed from their employer or state to build the family of their dreams. This marks our 100th episode, and we wanted...

It's National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) , and Progyny is hosting a six-part series of back-to-back episodes featuring several experts who are fighting for fertility coverage. Our goal is to educate others on how they can advocate for themselves and ask for the support that's needed from their employer or state to build the family of their dreams. This episode will dive into how benefits co...

The cost of healthcare can be exorbitant, especially for fertility treatments. There are some incredible grants, funds, and forward-thinking employers that provide support for fertility and family building care, but more and more states are starting to mandate that coverage be offered. While this idea might seem expensive at first glance, providing fertility coverage saves everyone money, not to m...

Motherhood has no set definition in this day and age because the modern family has evolved. It's much more open-ended than the singular idea of having to carry your baby after conceiving through intercourse "naturally." There are several different options and ways in which children can come into your life. Once we accept this fact and shift the focus towards being the best parent possible, it beco...

This February, Progyny hosted the webinar, "Infertility in the Black Community: Understanding Your Health Conditions and Finding the Right Doctor," to honor Black History Month and shed some light on the racial disparities in healthcare. This is an expansion on the July webinar, " Fertility and Maternal Health in the Black Community ." Progyny's moderator, Lissa Kline, guides experts Dr. Kanika Ha...

Support is going to be a prevalent theme in today's episode. Why? Because it's the support of our family, friends, employers, and physicians that help us get through tough times, especially when it comes to infertility. Amanda Lesesne is a veteran guest here on This Is Infertility. This will be her third time joining us, and (spoiler!) today, she comes with good news! However, it wasn't an easy jo...

The Fertility 101 Series, because there's no shortage of daunting terms to keep your mind running, is a quick and dirty breakdown on a specific topic with insights from a fertility expert. In this episode, you'll learn about endometriosis , a condition in which a woman's endometrial tissue grows inside of her abdomen. Each woman is different, but it's common that endometriosis generates pelvic pai...

As most people with infertility know through experience, treatments can be very expensive. One round of IVF alone can cost thousands of dollars, and it's usually the last step after trying multiple other pathways like IUI or timed intercourse beforehand, which can drain your resources. Fortunately, there are some options for funding. More employers are adding fertility coverage to their employee b...

Today's bonus episode comes from a recent Progny webinar, "Building a Family in 2021." It's the start of the new year, which might mean access to new benefits and new opportunities to start or continue building the family of their dreams. Moderated by Progyny's Selena Campbell and experts Dr. Susanna Park, a reproductive endocrinologist at San Diego Fertility Center, Kayleigh Hajny – a Progyny suc...

It's Black History Month, and while we should always be thinking about the current climate of racial inequality, February reminds us of how far we have come and how very far we still need to go. One especially urgent matter that you'll hear about today is implicit bias towards Black women in healthcare . Right now, a Black woman with cancer is 40% more likely to die than a White woman, and similar...

We're launching a new series called, Fertility 101, because there's no shortage of daunting terms to keep your mind running. In this series, we'll do a quick and dirty breakdown on a specific topic with insights from a fertility expert. The first episode covers Uterine Fibroids , a condition that is way more common than you might think. In fact, about 70% of women will be diagnosed with fibroids i...

"You don't need a child to live." That is a direct quote from an insurance representative when asked why fertility treatments weren't included in the caller's healthcare coverage. Infertility isn't a choice; it's a disease. Yet, when couples and individuals seek help, they're told by their insurers to deal with it on their own. As it stands, there is no national mandate for fertility coverage, whi...

We talk a lot about the statistic that 1 in 8 struggle with infertility, but the thing is, that number represents the general public and not specific demographics within it. Take physicians, for instance. The people on the front lines, helping others with infertility, COVID, and any other medical issue. Their infertility stat? 1 in 4. As elucidated in Physician Fertility: A Call to Action and One...

As we close season 3 of This is Infertility, we are reflecting on a turbulent year marked by extreme loss with the COVID-19 pandemic, a recession, a controversial election, wildfires, and so much more that has tested our resiliency. Whether you're trying to start a family or not, we've all fought through some type of challenge during 2020. So, we've chosen to highlight a few stories of those strug...

Dealing with infertility comes with an abundance of raw and painful emotions. It's ok to cry after an especially difficult appointment and it's not uncommon to feel discouraged. While infertility itself isn't funny, one way that we take control of stress and sadness is through humor. Karen Jeffries is the founder of Hilariously Infertile . This includes very honest, witty, and perfectly inappropri...

Episode 87: Cofertility: Infertility Uncomplicated No one ever expects conception to be difficult, so when your pregnancy tests are frequently negative, you're left with several questions. And what do you do when you have questions? You Google them. However, the internet is not always your best friend when it comes to medical advice. How is anyone supposed to find reliable information on a topic n...

Infertility and family building can be scary and isolating at times, especially when it seems like no one else around you are experiencing the same barriers to conception. Even as more people come forward to talk about their struggles, there is still a lack of race representation fueling these conversations. Regina Townsend is the voice behind The Broken Brown Egg; a blog, resource, and community...