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 talks about trying again, doing three IUIs; getting pregnant on her third IUI; and the anxiety after loss s...
May 02, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 273
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 feels authentic? And when it doesn’t, is it just plain fun to laugh at? Ali, Abbe and Elizabeth get int...
Apr 24, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 272
"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 a solo parent, including being the only heterosexual man in a room of 250 people at the Men Having Babies conference; finding a...
Apr 19, 2024•50 min•Season 4Ep. 271
"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 that decision; finding a sperm donor, including her pro tips on choosing a donor and navigating the donor sperm pr...
Apr 12, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 270
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 is today, three years later: No longer going through treatments herself, working in a clinic, and making life much easier...
Apr 05, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 269
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 factor infertility, and recovering from an eating disorder. She talks about joining Fertility Rally; finally finding ...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 4Ep. 268
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 scrutiny since the moment she was born (check out the NOVA documentary about her life). She also explains why her parents did IVF in the...
Mar 21, 2024•46 min•Season 4Ep. 267
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 us about her own egg freezing journey, which was the impetus behind the movie. She also talks about the ferti...
Mar 14, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 266
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 also the city manager of the Jewish Fertility in Birmingham. One caveat: We recorded this before the rulin...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 265
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 embryos, creating embryos, discarding embryos and things of that nature? Are women supposed to stock up on t...
Feb 29, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 264
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;" navigating pregnancy loss; cancelled IVF cycles; taking infusions; and the treatment she got for her immune sys...
Feb 23, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 263
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 pregnant after infertility, having her daughter, and doing a sibling cycle that unfortunately was not successfu...
Feb 20, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 262
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. Stacy eventually ended up transferring two embryos, neither of which were deemed "normal or healthy" -...
Feb 09, 2024•53 min•Season 4Ep. 261
Today, Ali is talking to solo mom by choice Julia Karol, Stork'd podcast host, about everything from when she decided to embark on the solo parenting route to where she is today. Julia talks about freezing her eggs, why she prefers the term "solo parent by choice" to "single parent by choice;" the complex, interesting process of choosing a sperm donor; going through IUIs; and what happened when Covid hit and the clinics shut down (think at-home insemination). She also talks about the financial s...
Feb 01, 2024•51 min•Season 4Ep. 260
Khaled Kteily is the Founder and CEO of Legacy, the largest male fertility clinic in North America. Founded at Harvard, Legacy has raised $45M from some of the world’s best investors: Justin Bieber, DJ Khaled, The Weeknd, and Orlando Bloom, to name a few. Today, Ali is talking to Khaled about his own family building journey, and how an accident with a scalding hot cup of tea in his lap from Starbucks ultimately led him to create Legacy, which aims to change outdated views of fertility as a "wome...
Jan 26, 2024•37 min•Season 4Ep. 259
Dr. Marcy Crouch is a pelvic floor physical therapist, so she helps women prepare for delivery, get through their pregnancies with less pain, and much more. So you can imagine how difficult it was to go through infertility while working with pregnant women. Today on the show, Marcy tells Ali about her own journey, including going through IUIs, moving to the "big guns" of IVF, and her first heartbreaking miscarriage at 11 weeks. She also talks about being "a complete wreck," the "constant anxiety...
Jan 22, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 258
Dr. Marcy Crouch is a pelvic floor physical therapist, so she helps women prepare for delivery, get through their pregnancies with less pain, and much more. So you can imagine how difficult it was to go through infertility while working with pregnant women. Today on the show, Marcy tells Ali about her own journey, including going through IUIs, moving to the "big guns" of IVF, and her first heartbreaking miscarriage at 11 weeks. She also talks about being "a complete wreck," the "constant anxiety...
Jan 18, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 258
This is such a great episode. It's hard not to fall in love with Bachelor alum Sarah Herron, who has such a huge heart, and who opens up to Ali about her fertility journey, from what she knew (and didn't know) about sex education to where they are today. Sarah talks about meeting her husband and deciding they wanted to build a family together; why she had a feeling she would have fertility issues; being diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve; being told they needed to do IVF; getting pregnant...
Jan 09, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 257
Today, Ali talks to her Fertility Rally member and friend Kristin, who recently had a baby girl through IVF. But it was a long road to get to this point, and Kristin shares it all, including what she knew (and didn't know) about fertility as a younger woman; "pulling the goalie;" going through infertility during Covid lockdown; how life became a "hormonal shitshow;" when her husband had male "performance anxiety;" relationship issues; depression and not wanting to get out of bed; seeing a therap...
Jan 06, 2024•57 min•Season 4Ep. 256
It’s the 100th Episode! Today Ali interviews her husband, Vince, about his version of their infertility story. Over some Coors and White Claws, they start with how the met and fell in love in high school, what happened when they moved to New York in 2003, and how their lives changed when they decided to have kids. They also discuss how, after Ever was born with no problem in 2009, their world was rocked when they found themselves going through unexpected secondary infertility, two failed IUIs an...
Dec 29, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 255
This week's guest, Charlie Dice, is a 36-year old, married, childless-turned-childfree woman who has been through 8 years of infertility struggles, including three miscarriages and one failed round of IVF. A year and a half ago, Charlie and her husband made the difficult decision to stop trying to have a baby, and to move forward from infertility. "Honestly, it was one of the best decisions we ever made," Charlie says. "It saved our marriage, our friendships, our finances and our mental health."...
Dec 22, 2023•52 min•Season 3Ep. 254
Today, Ali is talking to Alyssa Ages, a Toronto-based, New York-born author and freelance writer. Alyssa is a mom of two, a strongman competitor, an endurance athlete, a rock climber, and a CrossFitter -- and today, she shares her family building and infertility journey. Alyssa talks about miscarriage and chemical pregnancy, what she knew about her fertility growing up, and why she is on a "soapbox" now to encourage women to talk and learn about their own fertility, and to advocate for themselve...
Dec 17, 2023•52 min•Season 4Ep. 253
On today's episode, Ali is talking to Fertility Rally member Melissa Nath, who Ali and Blair lovingly refer to at the Rally Fam's "Resident Nurse" and "Social Chair." Melissa talks about how she met her husband, Darrel, and what happened when they started down the family building road. Their journey includes nearly two years of Darrell being on hormones, two rounds of IVF with Melissa's own eggs, one round of IVF with an egg donor, one failed embryo transfer, the sudden loss of Melissa's mother,...
Dec 09, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 4Ep. 252
Today's guest is author, lawyer, and fertility advocate Alex Johnston , who is on a crusade to educate women about the importance of knowing their fertility status even before they’d ever think about getting pregnant. Alex is the author of Inconceivable: My Life-Altering, Eye-Opening Journey from Infertility to Motherhood , which chronicles her painful and beautiful path to motherhood. She tells Ali all about her seven year-long journey, which began when she found out at age 34 that she was in p...
Dec 02, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 251
It's our 250th Episode! Wooooot! Today, Ali is talking to a very special guest: Adriana Carrig, the brilliant IVF mama behind Little Words Project, the jewelry line featuring inspiring and empowering words and promoting kindness and support. Adriana tells Ali all about her family building journey, including what kind of sex education (or lack thereof) she got while growing up; her two year trial period of having sex but not getting pregnant; and what happened when she and her husband, Bill, went...
Nov 22, 2023•51 min•Season 4Ep. 250
When we last talked to Kristyn, in January 2020, she shared how "nothing on the road to motherhood was easy" for her, from the "Clomid crazies" to her first failed frozen embryo transfer. At the time, her IVF twins were toddlers. Today, her twins are five years old, and Kristyn fills us in on what's happened since our last podcast episode, including two more years of fertility treatments. "In total, I did five embryo transfers over two years," she says. "Two losses and three that didn't implant ...
Nov 18, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 249
Today, Mara Smith joins Ali on the show to talk about her family building journey, which includes her diagnosis of PCOS, and what it was like to do IVF 20-plus years ago. (Her IVF twins are now in college.) Mara shares how it was a very lonely experience more than two decades ago, since not really anyone was talking about it. She also talks about PPROM (Preterm premature rupture of the membranes -- a pregnancy complication she faced), NICU life with her newborn twins, and what happened when she ...
Nov 08, 2023•40 min•Season 4Ep. 248
The road to parenthood has been challenging for Ali's guest today, Jessie Jaskulsky. In 2016, Jessie lost her son, Luke, at 22 weeks gestation. After their unimaginable loss, Jessie went through a series of surgeries and treatments, until she was diagnosed with Asherman's Syndrome (a rare complication from her early delivery). On this episode, she tells Ali all about her journey, including how, after lots of ups and downs, they eventually decided to pursue surrogacy. Jessie tells Ali how they na...
Nov 03, 2023•40 min•Season 4Ep. 247
Dr. Lucky Sekhon is a board certified reproductive endocrinologist. infertility specialist and obstetrician and gynecologist who works at RMA of New York . Lucky is also a friend of Ali's and you might know her from social media, where she is a big voice with super smart, super important information about all things infertility and ART. Today, she tells Ali her family building story, including why she created embryos and went through IVF when it came time to have her family. She also talks about...
Oct 27, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 246
Sarah and Cody met freshman year in high school and have been dating since they were 14. Today, they're telling us all about their family building journey, including how it started taking over their day to day lives, the five medicated cycles they did, and how Sarah was shocked by how much she didn't know about her own body before going through infertility. They also talk about experiencing a missed miscarriage, an ectopic pregnancy, and a chemical pregnancy, and how they all "hurt like hell." T...
Oct 20, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 254
