We’re excited to launch a new series of bite-sized episodes packed with expert insights on infertility. These short, digestible minisodes are designed to give you quick, valuable takeaways from leading experts and professionals in the field. No matter what you're navigating, these minisodes will provide you with practical advice, emotional support, and the latest information on all things infertility and Assisted Reproductive Technology. Tune in for easy-to-digest wisdom on a topic that deserves...
Dec 03, 2024•14 min•Season 4Ep. 304
Today, we are mixing it up a bit. Ali is chatting with Bethany Warren, a psychotherapist and EMDR consultant who's had a passion for helping people navigate reproductive and perinatal mental health issues for 25 years. Beth specialize in Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders, working with individuals experiencing pregnancy loss, termination for medical reasons, infertility and more. Today, she focuses on dealing "Navigating Reproductive Trauma," a session that originally aired at Fertility Rally ...
Nov 26, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 303
Today, Ali is talking to Megan Day, who shares her very real and honest story about infertility, including losing her son when she was 19 weeks pregnant. "It was called a miscarriage," she says. She explains what happened after that, including five excruciating surgeries and a lot of unanswered questions. Megan talks about the complications of RPOC (Retained Products of Conception), when she and her husband decided to pivot to surrogacy; finding a gestational carrier, and finally, awaiting the a...
Nov 19, 2024•51 min•Season 4Ep. 302
Today, Ali is talking to an amazing couple: Fertility Rally member Lauren Roth and her husband, Patrick. Lauren talks about growing up in Guatemala, how she and Patrick met, and what happened when they started to build their family. The couple then shares details about why Google and WebMD are "not particularly helpful" during infertility; their chemical pregnancy; and the unsexiness of "sending a calendar invite to have timed sex." They also talk about becoming frustrated as a couple, their fiv...
Nov 12, 2024•56 min•Season 4Ep. 301
It's the 300th Episode!!!!! Today we are featuring clips from some of the top-rated episodes with some of Ali's favorite celeb guests. First up, Christina Perri shares her long and difficult family-building journey, including miscarriage; the devastating stillbirth of her daughter, Rosie; navigating mental health; her blood-clotting disorder, and more. Then, Tara Lipinski talks about her endometriosis; IVF; miscarriage; navigating fertility treatments compared to the insanely hard work she did a...
Nov 05, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 300
On this episode, Ali is talking to Sarah Freese about her infertility and IVF journey. Sarah shares the details on having irregular periods when she was a young woman, being on the birth control pill from age 18 to age 33, and how once she started to try to have kids, it was not as easy as she'd hoped. She talks about doing IVF, how her failed IVF transfer was "one of the worst calls" she's ever gotten, and about having implantation issues. She also talks about frozen embryo transfers versus fre...
Oct 29, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 299
Today, Ali is talking to mom of four Rachel Mangahas about the long road to building her family, including going through international adoption twice and using a surrogate. Rachel talks about her infertility journey, and how it made her feel so broken and alone. She also talks about wanting a big family, doing timed intercourse and ovulation kits, male factor infertility, and IUIs. She explains how they navigated international adoption -- for two of their children -- and the sweet surprise they ...
Oct 22, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 298
Today, Ali is talking to fierce infertility warrior and mama Maggie Phipps, co-founder of Larken (which means "fierce" in Gaelic), a comfy essentials brand for anyone navigating fertility treatments, postpartum, motherhood, and beyond. Maggie shares how her mom had three miscarriages; how she herself had an early miscarriage; and how conceived her first two kids naturally, but then had trouble with baby number three. She also talks about her traumatic ectopic pregnancy and how she felt brushed o...
Oct 16, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 297
Today, Ali is on the pod with one of our beloved Fertility Rally members, Jenny Angerman @thedailyendomama. Jenny tells Ali about being adopted from India; how she met her husband; what happened when they started to try for kids and it wasn't happening; her endometriosis diagnosis; fibroids; IUIs; one IVF cycle that unfortunately did not work out, and then, finally getting pregnant. Jenny also shares her thoughts on trauma bonding; sharing her journey on IG and TikTok; how everything changed onc...
Oct 08, 2024•47 min•Season 4Ep. 296
Today, Ali has two incredible guests: Eve Wiley is a leading advocate against fertility fraud after discovering that she was conceived with a different sperm donor than her parents were told. Dylan Morgan is the COO of Cascade Cryobank. Together, they are working on advocating against fertility fraud and increasing transparency when it comes to donor sperm protocols and procedures. What is Fertility Fraud? It’s when a doctor intentionally uses his own sperm to inseminate his patients without the...
Oct 01, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 295
On today's episode, Ali talks to Komel Caruso, the Co-Founder of HerMD, about her infertility journey. Komel talks about growing up in a traditional Muslim household and the sex education (or lack thereof) she received as a Catholic school student. It was, "Don't have sex, you'll get pregnant. You'll just get pregnant every time you have sex. I was just so fearful that if I had sex, I would get pregnant. Even if I was using birth control, I could still get pregnant. That fear leads to a lot of a...
Sep 24, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 294
Today's guest, Amber Izzo, describes herself as "your oversharing, slightly chaotic mum friend and an IVF campaigner." Today, she's sharing her 7 1/2 year-long journey through infertility and family building, including blocked fallopian tubes, male factor infertility, and so much more. Amber talks about the deep toll everything took on her mental state, how she was "spiraling" and "became obsessed," how she felt brushed off by her doctors, and how, at one point, she had suicidal thoughts. She ta...
Sep 17, 2024•46 min•Season 4Ep. 293
Today's guest, Asima Ahmad, is a double board-certified in reproductive endocrinology and infertility and obstetrics and gynecology. She is also the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Carrot Fertility, which believes in Fertility Care for All. On this episode, Ali and Asima talk about how Asima diagnosed herself with PCOS in her 20s; how her aunt had navigated multiple stillbirths; what it feels like being a fertility doctor and patient at the same time; and how, when Asima suffered her own...
Sep 10, 2024•42 min•Season 4Ep. 292
Gaia is founded on the premise that Everyone Who Wants a Family Should Have the Chance to Try. Today, Ali is talking to Gaia CEO and Founder Nader AlSalim, who shares his own unexplained infertility journey, and how that led him to create Gaia, a groundbreaking company in the fertility landscape (see more below). Nader talks about the frustrations of their "unexplained infertility" diagnosis; the emotional, financial and physical tolls of infertility; going through five rounds of IVF with his wi...
Sep 03, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 292
On today's episode, Ali is talking to Sammi, a strongAF infertility warrior she met when Sammi joined Fertility Rally. Sammi shares all the details of the path to having her children, including going through secondary infertility; a very rare C-section ectopic pregnancy (a first for this show); termination for medical reasons; more surgery; the discovery of male factor infertility; and when they decided to go down the surrogacy road. She also talks about meeting her "angel" surrogate, several bu...
Aug 27, 2024•49 min•Season 4Ep. 290
On today's episode, Ali is talking to yet another amazing woman who has turned her pain into her purpose: Dr Sarah Oreck , Co-Founder and CEO of Mavida Health . After her late-term pregnancy loss, Sarah created a company that would provide those on their path to parenthood the right tools and resources to take care of their mental health, every step of the way. Ali and Sarah talk about sex education and what they both learned about having babies when they were growing up; the devastation of what...
Aug 20, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 289
Catherine John is a dear member of the Fertility Rally fam, and today, she's sharing her entire story with Ali, from being diagnosed with PCOS to going through IUIs. Catherine talks about exploring the option of doing her fertility treatments in Tijuana (and why she ultimately decided against it), her irregular periods; why she was told she was a good candidate for IVF; and what happened when she finally became pregnant with her son. TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE: PCOS; high testosterone; ovari...
Aug 13, 2024•51 min•Season 4Ep. 288
What do you know about the vaginal microbiome? What does your vaginal microbiome have to do with your ability to conceive? Ali didn't know much about this, and is still learning, thanks to today's guest, Cheryl Sew Hoy, CEO and Founder of Tiny Health. Cheryl, a longtime entrepreneur and women's health advocate, explains how the microbiome impacts well-being and fertility. She talks about prioritizing her career for years, having her two kids via C-section, what the term "vaginal seeding" means, ...
Aug 06, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 287
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 with terrible bedside manner, who told her, "Well, you're never gonna have a kid," and later, how going thro...
Jul 30, 2024•52 min•Season 4Ep. 286
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 everything about how and when they'd try to have kids, as their doctor told them, "You need to go bank sperm -- righ...
Jul 23, 2024•58 min•Season 4Ep. 284
"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 infertility diagnoses. At the same time, she was undergoing her own infertility journey, including IVF, a traumatic t...
Jul 16, 2024•52 min•Season 4Ep. 283
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 working in the fertility industry, freezing embryos, her husband's vasectomy, co-founding Dandi based off of h...
Jul 09, 2024•47 min•Season 4Ep. 282
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 process, but deciding it was not the right path, and later, breaking up with her wife. "I spent so much time grieving...
Jun 28, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 281
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, opening sold out shows, being in and out of the ER not knowing what was wrong. When she and her husband starte...
Jun 22, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 280
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 Leia had, and how the whole infertility journey has been hard on their marriage. They explain why they fi...
Jun 15, 2024•52 min•Season 4Ep. 279
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 sweetheart-turned-husband, Brian, started to try for a baby, and what happened when it wasn't working. She ta...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 278
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 their daughter, Talulah; and how they’re working hard to make LGBTQ parenting better, safer and more equal. Su...
May 31, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 277
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 in still being able to have a family without having a partner in the picture?'" Lex talks about how her mother had secondar...
May 23, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 276
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 surrogacy path as an intended parent. For more, go to https://www.nascency.com/ TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE: ...
May 16, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 275
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 fine" -- and why that pissed her off; doing a handful of IUIs that were unsuccessful; and moving onto IVF. She ta...
May 10, 2024•50 min•Season 4Ep. 274
