Latest / Clyde Confidential / Fertility Doctor Explains How Egg Freezing Actually Works with Dr. Ghadir

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Fertility Doctor Explains How Egg Freezing Actually Works with Dr. Ghadir · Clyde Confidential

0:00
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many women walk into my
0:01
Speaker 1: office thirty eight, thirty nine, forty years old and said
0:04
Speaker 1: to me, I never thought I wanted to have a child,
0:07
Speaker 1: just flat out said, I just knew I did not
0:09
Speaker 1: want to have children. And something in my body changed
0:12
Speaker 1: as I got older, and now I'm really worried that
0:15
Speaker 1: my eggs are too old. So even if there is
0:17
Speaker 1: a tiniest zero point one percent one percent chance that
0:21
Speaker 1: you want to have a child, do something to protect yourself.
0:30
Speaker 2: Hi, guys, welcome back to another episode of Clyud Confidential.
0:33
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to introduce you to one of my doctors, actually,
0:36
Speaker 2: doctor Shakin Gadir. He is a fertility doctor in Los
0:40
Speaker 2: Angeles and one of the best. And we actually just
0:43
Speaker 2: froze my eggs. So we're here to talk about the
0:45
Speaker 2: process for all of you who are curious or we're
0:47
Speaker 2: thinking about doing it yourselves. We're here to educate you
0:50
Speaker 2: and just have a pretty open comfo about it. So
0:53
Speaker 2: without further ado, Hi doctor Goadir.
0:55
Speaker 1: Hi Megan, thank you so much for having me. I'm
0:57
Speaker 1: really excited. I'm very proud of you for talking about
1:00
Speaker 1: this and educating and empowering women just like yourself. So
1:03
Speaker 1: I'm very excited about today's podcast.
1:06
Speaker 2: Thank you. So I am thirty three years old and
1:11
Speaker 2: I decided to I was thinking about it for a
1:13
Speaker 2: while because I've had so many of my friends go
1:15
Speaker 2: through the process in New York and LA and finally
1:18
Speaker 2: I decided to do it because it was winter. We
1:22
Speaker 2: did it last March, and I was, I think, a
1:26
Speaker 2: little bit nervous going into it, but at the end
1:27
Speaker 2: of the day, it was the best thing I could
1:29
Speaker 2: have ever done. I think for the period of time
1:32
Speaker 2: or the period I was at in my life and
1:34
Speaker 2: being single and focused on my career, it just made
1:37
Speaker 2: a lot of sense for me. And I had an
1:40
Speaker 2: amazing experience with your office. So for anyone thinking about
1:44
Speaker 2: doing it, my reasoning was really just why not. It's
1:47
Speaker 2: amazing insurance and if you have access to it, A
1:50
Speaker 2: lot of companies are now offering coverage. I think it's honestly,
1:56
Speaker 2: it's just good back up. I might not even use
1:58
Speaker 2: my eggs, but it's good backup. And now I'm not stressed,
2:02
Speaker 2: So I feel I'm very happy I did it.
2:05
Speaker 1: I think you went into it for all the right reasons.
2:08
Speaker 1: I think that women that do this as a backup plan,
2:11
Speaker 1: and hopefully many of our patients don't have to use these,
2:14
Speaker 1: but there are women that do need to use these,
2:16
Speaker 1: and there are women that come back to use them,
2:18
Speaker 1: and if they wouldn't have frozen them, their door of
2:20
Speaker 1: fertility and the possibility of having a family would have
2:24
Speaker 1: been completely closed.
2:26
Speaker 2: How long have you been doing this?
2:28
Speaker 1: So I've been doing this now for twenty years. I'm
2:32
Speaker 1: one of the partners at HRC Fertility in Beverly Hills.
2:36
Speaker 1: Since you were done with this process, we actually moved
2:38
Speaker 1: into our brand new office. We have an incredible sixteen
2:43
Speaker 1: thousand square foot space at ninety seven seventy seven Wilshire
2:47
Speaker 1: Boulevard and the heart of the medical triangle of Beverly
2:50
Speaker 1: Hills with the most advanced and incredible IVF lab and
2:53
Speaker 1: surgery center that you'll ever see. And the clinic is
2:55
Speaker 1: also fantastic, so imagination.
2:58
Speaker 3: Thank you.
2:59
Speaker 1: It's beautiful and I'm very honored to be a part
3:02
Speaker 1: of the team there.
3:03
Speaker 3: It's a great group of people.
3:04
Speaker 1: As you saw my staff like, there's some really wonderful people,
3:09
Speaker 1: and a doctor can only be as good as her
3:11
Speaker 1: staff as your staff.
3:13
Speaker 2: No notes, I personally was also nervous about going in
3:18
Speaker 2: and dealing with all the appointments and the blood draws
3:21
Speaker 2: because I get very nauseous and I'm uncomfortable with needles.
3:26
Speaker 2: But one of your nurses, I think it might have
3:28
Speaker 2: been Amber. I didn't even feel it, and I'm like,
3:32
Speaker 2: I can't go through that again without Amber because she
3:35
Speaker 2: was so wonderful. But your office is amazing. Everyone made
3:39
Speaker 2: the process really seamless, and we also walk you guys
3:42
Speaker 2: through the process because I think it would be very
3:43
Speaker 2: helpful to hear. But I guess I'm just curious. So
3:47
Speaker 2: you've been doing this for twenty years. Yes, I feel
3:49
Speaker 2: like my circle, I guess now because I'm in my thirties.
3:53
Speaker 2: But most I feel like a lot of people weren't
3:56
Speaker 2: really doing this until recently or what changes have you
3:58
Speaker 2: seen in.
4:01
Speaker 1: So when I started to do this twenty years ago,
4:03
Speaker 1: egg freezing was just something talked about, like sometimes people
4:07
Speaker 1: did it in like their laboratories for research or things
4:10
Speaker 1: like that. It wasn't until about, I want to say,
4:12
Speaker 1: maybe like fifteen to seventeen years ago, like just a
4:16
Speaker 1: few years into my career, where egg freezing became a
4:19
Speaker 1: possibility that we were actually doing. But for many years
4:21
Speaker 1: we were doing what was called the slow freeze process,
4:25
Speaker 1: and that had really poor success rates. When you thawed
4:29
Speaker 1: the egg, you had to also do this version of
4:31
Speaker 1: many different steps in that slow freezing, and that slow
4:35
Speaker 1: thawing caused a lot of crystallization inside of the eggs,
4:38
Speaker 1: which damaged the DNA. The female egg is the largest
4:42
Speaker 1: egg actually it's the largest cell in the female body,
4:46
Speaker 1: so it has a lot of water content, and freezing
4:48
Speaker 1: it and thawing it caused a lot of problems. Then
4:51
Speaker 1: the next version of egg freezing came out, which was
4:53
Speaker 1: called vitrification, and that's when they freeze the egg and
4:59
Speaker 1: like this, they saw the egg. So that process became
5:02
Speaker 1: completely different. The damage to the DNA of the egg
5:06
Speaker 1: became minimal, the survivability of eggs went sky high. And
5:11
Speaker 1: that's what we're using now that people have done incredibly
5:13
Speaker 1: well and have come and used their eggs sometimes like
5:15
Speaker 1: ten fifteen years later and doing incredibly we Wow.
5:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so I'm thirty three. Let's say I don't
5:21
Speaker 2: find my husband until I'm forty three, My eggs will still.
5:23
Speaker 1: Be okay, your eggs will be absolutely fine. So the
5:26
Speaker 1: eggs are frozen kind of in time. People ask us
5:28
Speaker 1: this question all the time. Are the eggs, like you know,
5:31
Speaker 1: you know, degrading every year that they're sitting there? And
5:34
Speaker 1: the answer theoretically is no.
5:36
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I mean, hopefully I'm finding my husband today,
5:39
Speaker 2: but that's good to know. And just in case it
5:42
Speaker 2: doesn't work out, what age is the best age to
5:46
Speaker 2: start the process? Would you say?
5:48
Speaker 3: Younger the better?
5:49
Speaker 2: Okay?
5:49
Speaker 1: So as simple as that, the younger the better. When
5:52
Speaker 1: we have patients that are using egg downers, meaning patients
5:55
Speaker 1: that their own eggs are no longer good and they
5:57
Speaker 1: never froze their own eggs, we usually pick egg donors
6:00
Speaker 1: between the ages of twenty and twenty nine. So if
6:03
Speaker 1: you're able to freeze your eggs between twenty and twenty nine,
6:06
Speaker 1: you're basically freezing them at the age of an egg donor,
6:08
Speaker 1: which is the most ideal time to freeze an egg. Wow,
6:12
Speaker 1: many of our patients do not want to deal with
6:15
Speaker 1: this in their twenties, aren't even thinking about this. So I, personally,
6:19
Speaker 1: as a physician looking at this globally decided that if
6:23
Speaker 1: you haven't done it in your twenties, which you should have,
6:25
Speaker 1: you do it at the age of thirty. If at
6:27
Speaker 1: the age of thirty you are not ready to have
6:29
Speaker 1: kids right then and there, and if you want kids
6:32
Speaker 1: in the future after that kid, you've got to think
6:34
Speaker 1: about freezing your eggs or embryos.
6:36
Speaker 3: If you're in a partnership already.
6:37
Speaker 1: But if you're single and you've ten thirty and you're
6:40
Speaker 1: not about to have kids and be done soon, then
6:42
Speaker 1: you really really must freeze your eggs.
6:44
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good to know.
6:46
Speaker 1: I have a big caveat I still would prefer someone
6:50
Speaker 1: in their forties to have one or two frozen eggs
6:52
Speaker 1: then no eggs. It's still better than not doing it.
6:55
Speaker 1: So it's not that I'm saying this that if you
6:57
Speaker 1: didn't do it at thirty, don't call me and we're
6:59
Speaker 1: not going to do this for you. But it's just
7:01
Speaker 1: better for you. But if you have not there are
7:04
Speaker 1: still some women. I have had forty four year old
7:07
Speaker 1: women that have fogged their eggs, gotten pregnant, and had kids.
7:11
Speaker 1: So those are incredible success stories, and I'm very proud
7:14
Speaker 1: of those patients for not giving up. I still think
7:17
Speaker 1: one egg is better than no egg.
7:19
Speaker 2: I got eleven eggs out of my procedure, but I'm
7:23
Speaker 2: going to do it again because I want to have
7:25
Speaker 2: double that at least. How many eggs does it take
7:28
Speaker 2: to make an embryo?
7:30
Speaker 3: It depends.
7:31
Speaker 1: So we have had patients that have had twenty five eggs,
7:36
Speaker 1: thirty eggs, and didn't get one healthy embryo out of it.
7:39
Speaker 1: I don't know what the quality of the sperm is.
7:41
Speaker 1: Fifty percent of an embryo depends on the sperm and
7:44
Speaker 1: how good the male partner sperm is. So if you
7:47
Speaker 1: have a twenty two year old, is your male partner
7:50
Speaker 1: with phenomenal sperm, that's going to be a little different
7:52
Speaker 1: than if you have an eighty year old as your
7:55
Speaker 1: future partner.
7:55
Speaker 2: How about neither. How about someone who's mid thirties.
7:59
Speaker 1: Well old men early forty, they have a big variety
8:02
Speaker 1: of sperm as well. But what I'm trying to say
8:04
Speaker 1: is that it's very difficult to answer that question. We
8:07
Speaker 1: have had I had a patient that once made two eggs,
8:10
Speaker 1: both turned out to be embryos, both turned out to
8:12
Speaker 1: be genetically normal, and both took and she had two kids,
8:15
Speaker 1: which is incredible. But I've also had patients have thirty
8:18
Speaker 1: eggs and not one of them turn out to be
8:20
Speaker 1: a healthy embryos. So the best advice I could give
8:22
Speaker 1: someone without knowing and not knowing how to read the
8:25
Speaker 1: future and what may happen to them, is that the
8:27
Speaker 1: more eggs you.
8:28
Speaker 3: Have, the better.
8:30
Speaker 2: Okay, and your office handles freezing of the embryos and
8:33
Speaker 2: genetic testing as well, or would.
8:35
Speaker 1: I need to do No, we do that all. So
8:37
Speaker 1: we do egg freezing. If you're in a partnership, Let's
8:39
Speaker 1: say you are both thirty years old and just starting
8:41
Speaker 1: your careers and want to work for a bunch of
8:43
Speaker 1: years before you want to have a house and have
8:46
Speaker 1: your kids, then we would say at that point, let's
8:48
Speaker 1: make your embryos. The benefit of making the embryo is
8:52
Speaker 1: you put the egg and the sperm together. You grow
8:54
Speaker 1: the embryo in the laboratory to what's called the blastoesis stage.
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Speaker 1: It's the most advanced an embryo can be outside of
9:00
Speaker 1: the human body. At that stage, we're able to do
9:03
Speaker 1: a tiny little biopsy and freeze the embryo, and a
9:06
Speaker 1: week later we get the genetic testing results on all
9:09
Speaker 1: forty six chromosomes to see which one is chromosomely normal
9:13
Speaker 1: and which one is not.
9:14
Speaker 2: Wow, Yeah, okay, great, well, I will keep that in mind.
9:17
Speaker 2: We'll be in touch. First, I need to do my
9:19
Speaker 2: next round, and then.
9:21
Speaker 1: We definitely need to do your next round. We definitely
9:24
Speaker 1: need to do your next round.
9:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe this March, so we'll see winter. Winter feels
9:28
Speaker 2: like a nice time for me. Sure you know much
9:30
Speaker 2: going on, but I'll let your office.
9:32
Speaker 1: No.
9:32
Speaker 2: Sure, but yeah, I want to back up, and I
9:34
Speaker 2: want to tell everyone about my process and just sort
9:36
Speaker 2: of walk people through it because I think everyone is
9:39
Speaker 2: super curious. I remember when I first met with you,
9:44
Speaker 2: you told me that my AMH was super low. Can
9:47
Speaker 2: we explain that to folks? Because sure, yeah, I think
9:49
Speaker 2: I was on extra hormones.
9:52
Speaker 1: Maybe or well AMH, let's start with that. Sure is,
9:56
Speaker 1: the anti malarian hormone AMH comes from all the eggs
10:00
Speaker 1: in the female body. The more AMH on the blood test,
10:03
Speaker 1: it means the more eggs you have in your body,
10:05
Speaker 1: So we check the blood. If your AMH level is high,
10:07
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of eggs. Doesn't tell you anything
10:09
Speaker 1: about quality. Your age tells you a lot more about
10:12
Speaker 1: your quality than the AMH level. But there is a
10:16
Speaker 1: hint because as AMH goes down, sometimes quality goes with
10:21
Speaker 1: it as well. In your case, there's a little bit
10:23
Speaker 1: of a exception. Women that are younger, meaning in their
10:27
Speaker 1: earlier thirties that have a lower AMH actually usually have
10:30
Speaker 1: much better quality than someone with that same AMH level
10:33
Speaker 1: on their late thirties or early forties because their age
10:36
Speaker 1: is affected their quality at the same time. So the
10:39
Speaker 1: AMH is the first and most important blood test that
10:41
Speaker 1: you should be doing to tell you how you were
10:43
Speaker 1: doing there. So your AMH unfortunately was a little low.
10:47
Speaker 1: That's why I'm so happy we got eleven because for
10:50
Speaker 1: the level that we had, eleven was still very very good.
10:53
Speaker 3: YEA, yes, exactly.
10:55
Speaker 2: So my AMH was low. I go into your office
10:58
Speaker 2: for my appointment last March, and we did a series
11:01
Speaker 2: of blood tests first to sort of determine what my
11:05
Speaker 2: plan of action would be and what my dosage of
11:09
Speaker 2: these hormones would be for my shots, my fertility shots.
11:12
Speaker 2: Can we walk everyone through that, yes.
11:14
Speaker 1: So when you start, we start with a consultation. After
11:17
Speaker 1: that we do an ultrasound that tells you can look
11:19
Speaker 1: at the ovary and see how youthful the ovary looks.
11:22
Speaker 1: On the ovary, there are these little bubbles we count
11:24
Speaker 1: they're called antral follicles. We count them on the right ovary,
11:27
Speaker 1: we count them on the left ovary, and at that
11:29
Speaker 1: point we will see exactly how many total there are,
11:32
Speaker 1: and it gives me a big hint on how healthy
11:35
Speaker 1: and youthful the ovary is. The more little bubbles, the
11:38
Speaker 1: healthier and more youthful the ovary is, which is a
11:40
Speaker 1: wonderful news. So that's the first thing. The second thing
11:44
Speaker 1: is on day two, three, or four of the menstrual cycle,
11:47
Speaker 1: we usually bring you in again for another ultrasound along
11:50
Speaker 1: with some blood tests such as FSH and estra diol
11:53
Speaker 1: and LH, and these give me even a little bit
11:56
Speaker 1: more information about how the overall fertility is. So by
11:59
Speaker 1: doing all the blood tests in the beginning of the period,
12:02
Speaker 1: and also the AMH at any time during the month
12:04
Speaker 1: does not have to be on the period, I can
12:07
Speaker 1: make a very reasonable precise protocol that I think would
12:11
Speaker 1: be best for that person and how they respond. If
12:14
Speaker 1: your fertility is really high with a very high AMH,
12:17
Speaker 1: I only need to give you very little amounts of medication.
12:20
Speaker 1: If your fertility is declined AMH is declined, then I
12:23
Speaker 1: really need to give the body a boost to try
12:25
Speaker 1: to create what's still sitting there. I may give different medications,
12:29
Speaker 1: add things such as potentially human growth hormone or other
12:32
Speaker 1: medications that help.
12:34
Speaker 2: So the process really starts when the female comes in
12:39
Speaker 2: and gets her period correct.
12:41
Speaker 1: Everything always begins from the period.
12:43
Speaker 3: Two weeks later, you're pretty much done.
12:44
Speaker 1: So you call us on day one of your period.
12:46
Speaker 1: Ideally come in on day two of your period for
12:48
Speaker 1: an ultrasound and blood tests. Ideally on day three, start
12:51
Speaker 1: your injections. Average number of injections is about twelve days
12:55
Speaker 1: and two days later it's your egg retrieval and then
12:57
Speaker 1: you're done.
12:58
Speaker 3: So it's basically from when your.
12:59
Speaker 2: Periods, so probably about a month.
13:01
Speaker 1: Would you say, well, it depends, So usually I think
13:05
Speaker 1: a week after the egg retrieval and the process where
13:08
Speaker 1: the eggs come out around the two week mark, people
13:10
Speaker 1: are about a week later back to normal. I think
13:13
Speaker 1: they're really back to normal once their period comes about
13:15
Speaker 1: a week after that. So I'd say this is a
13:17
Speaker 1: one month process in general. But obviously the last two
13:20
Speaker 1: weeks you're just kind of letting your body recover and
13:22
Speaker 1: you're not coming to my office all the time and
13:24
Speaker 1: doing all the things you did right it's probably the
13:28
Speaker 1: first two weeks were building up to the egg retrieval day.
13:31
Speaker 1: There's about three or four visits to my office. Then
13:34
Speaker 1: the eggs come out. Then we usually do one or
13:36
Speaker 1: two follow up ultrasounds before we tell you everything's normal
13:39
Speaker 1: and back to normal.
13:41
Speaker 2: I remember having to get off of my birth control
13:44
Speaker 2: before I started the process, because I was on lolo
13:46
Speaker 2: estrin since I was eighteen actually, so it's been a
13:49
Speaker 2: long time of me being on that birth control. But
13:51
Speaker 2: that birth control doesn't make me get my period. And
13:54
Speaker 2: a lot of my friends who I tell that to say,
13:56
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, that's so unhealthy. That's not safe. Go
13:58
Speaker 2: talk to your doctor. But that's it.
14:01
Speaker 1: It's not unsafe at all. It's not unsafe at all.
14:04
Speaker 1: But for women that have been on birth control for
14:07
Speaker 1: a very very long time, like just straight through, that
14:10
Speaker 1: can suppress the ovary tremendously.
14:13
Speaker 2: I've taken breaks. I've definitely taken breaks, and then when
14:15
Speaker 2: I go off it immediately get my period.
14:17
Speaker 1: But I so this time when we go back, I
14:21
Speaker 1: think we'd want you to take a good break. Okay,
14:23
Speaker 1: so like maybe like right around here my.
14:25
Speaker 2: Period so much.
14:27
Speaker 1: I mean, I've never heard anyone say they love it,
14:29
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I want you to do
14:31
Speaker 1: really well, and I want to see if maybe your
14:33
Speaker 1: AMH was very suppressed because of your Yes, I wonder.
14:38
Speaker 2: I'm open to it. I'm open to it. But just
14:42
Speaker 2: so people know, it's not a negative thing to not
14:46
Speaker 2: get your period on birth control. It's pretty normal on
14:48
Speaker 2: certain dosages.
14:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, Okay.
14:52
Speaker 2: And then I remember also from my process, I couldn't
14:54
Speaker 2: work out for that whole duration.
14:57
Speaker 1: So after that first week of injections, when the still
15:00
Speaker 1: goes from these really small little walnut shaped items, they
15:04
Speaker 1: grow and they become let's say, like grapefruits, and they
15:08
Speaker 1: have a propensity. If you're like jumping or spinning or
15:11
Speaker 1: doing pilates or anything that potentially moves your body in
15:15
Speaker 1: the wrong way, the overary can like fall forward or
15:17
Speaker 1: fall back and as a result twist the blood flow
15:20
Speaker 1: which goes from the blood vessels to the ovary, and
15:22
Speaker 1: that leads to something called ovarian torsion, where people in
15:25
Speaker 1: the past have lost their entire ovary because of it.
15:28
Speaker 2: Have you dealt with that before the past?
15:29
Speaker 1: I have, oof, I have, and it was the majority
15:32
Speaker 1: of it's happened less than a handful of times in
15:35
Speaker 1: my entire career, but the majority of times the patient
15:38
Speaker 1: was doing some kind of activity that was not really
15:41
Speaker 1: great after the surgery, and they should have been just
15:43
Speaker 1: basically taking it easier.
15:45
Speaker 2: Oof. Yeah, I did not want to mess with that,
15:47
Speaker 2: so I actually did listen to you. But a lot
15:49
Speaker 2: of women I think are also worried about ozebic and
15:53
Speaker 2: egg freezing. Can we talk about that a little bit.
15:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we basically tell people until the time you
15:58
Speaker 1: start your period and you're about to go into it,
16:01
Speaker 1: you can be on it. The reason we tell people
16:04
Speaker 1: to stop right when their period is and because two
16:06
Speaker 1: weeks later they're going to be having a procedure under
16:10
Speaker 1: a light anesthetic, which is called the sedation generally it's
16:12
Speaker 1: propofol when patients fall asleep. When you are asleep and
16:17
Speaker 1: we're not putting a tube down your throat, you're breathing
16:19
Speaker 1: on your own.
16:20
Speaker 3: But when you fall asleep.
16:22
Speaker 1: We don't want you to like cough or aspirate the
16:26
Speaker 1: food that's sitting in your gut. And what ozembic and
16:29
Speaker 1: all of these glp ones do is that they slow
16:32
Speaker 1: down the movement of your gut to give you that
16:35
Speaker 1: full feeling, and that's why you don't feel like eating,
16:37
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of food left in your stomach
16:39
Speaker 1: and your intestines and doesn't move down as quickly, so
16:42
Speaker 1: as a result, you feel full. We just don't want
16:45
Speaker 1: that slowness of the gut and to food being remained
16:48
Speaker 1: inside of your stomach and you could aspirate it if
16:51
Speaker 1: you coughed or throw up during surgery.
16:53
Speaker 2: Okay, got it, So it doesn't. It's not the type
16:55
Speaker 2: of thing that makes you infertile or affects amount, not
16:58
Speaker 2: at all.
16:58
Speaker 1: To be very honest, I actually that GLP ones are
17:01
Speaker 1: actually healthy for some people patients that are overweight. So
17:05
Speaker 1: for patients that are overweight or have insulin insensitivity or
17:08
Speaker 1: possibly PCs, there may be some benefit there. PCs is
17:13
Speaker 1: polycystic ovary syndrome. It's when a patient's own insulin receptors
17:20
Speaker 1: are not working that well and instead testosterone, which is
17:24
Speaker 1: a male hormone, will bind it. So people that have
17:28
Speaker 1: pcos have higher levels of male hormones in their body.
17:31
Speaker 1: It affects their periods becoming irregular, It increases like hair growth,
17:36
Speaker 1: especially on the chin, and their ovaries look very polycystic.
17:40
Speaker 1: All kind of rooted from the increase in male hormone
17:43
Speaker 1: in their body.
17:44
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay. I what about someone who has who doesn't
17:48
Speaker 2: have pcos but has trouble with their ovary. So let's
17:51
Speaker 2: say someone has one ovary, are they still able to
17:55
Speaker 2: freeze their eggs.
17:56
Speaker 1: Someone who has one ovary can absolutely freeze their eggs.
17:59
Speaker 1: You can eggs, but it only be half the eggs. Okay,
18:02
Speaker 1: So you won't be making eggs from the other ovary
18:04
Speaker 1: because they're missing it.
18:06
Speaker 2: Okay, So that is great to know. Regarding the ozempic
18:09
Speaker 2: during the process, would you say a lot of the
18:12
Speaker 2: water weight was because of the hormones or is it
18:15
Speaker 2: really just lifestyle?
18:17
Speaker 1: So I've seen both. I have seen people that during
18:21
Speaker 1: the time that they're doing egg freezing, they are extremely nervous.
18:25
Speaker 1: They're one of the people that start to munch on
18:27
Speaker 1: everything and eat everything in sight when they are nervous,
18:30
Speaker 1: and they truly will gain weight. I've also seen the
18:33
Speaker 1: majority of patients are huge majority. It's retaining the fluid.
18:39
Speaker 1: So as you take the hormones, your ovary begins to grow.
18:42
Speaker 1: Your ovary grows and becomes intellec I was saying two
18:45
Speaker 1: grapefruits that is a lot of fluid that your body's retaining.
18:48
Speaker 1: So on the scale, you're definitely going to be going
18:51
Speaker 1: up and you're going to one hundred percent feel bloated
18:53
Speaker 1: in your abdominal region because these two little walnuts that
18:56
Speaker 1: are become now too gigantic grapefruits are putting pressure and
19:00
Speaker 1: your abdomen and the egg.
19:02
Speaker 2: Freezing process you basically induce to pregnancy more or less.
19:06
Speaker 1: We're not inducing a pregnancy, but what we are doing
19:09
Speaker 1: is it mimics some of the hormone increases while you're pregnant.
19:14
Speaker 1: So that's why some people as their estrogen level goes up,
19:17
Speaker 1: which is the fuel for all behind all of these
19:19
Speaker 1: eggs growing, there is also that estrogen level symptoms like
19:26
Speaker 1: breast tenderness, bloatedness that kind of go along with pregnant
19:30
Speaker 1: all that.
19:30
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember I was trying to walk the dogs
19:33
Speaker 2: the day before my procedure. By the way, my case
19:36
Speaker 2: was definitely water weight and because I just felt I
19:39
Speaker 2: know my body very well, I was puffy, and I
19:42
Speaker 2: remember like trying to waddle, like walk the dogs. It
19:44
Speaker 2: was waddling. It was just it was a very interesting sensation.
19:48
Speaker 2: But that was honestly the only negative effects. Like, I
19:50
Speaker 2: think the whole process than that was very easy. I
19:53
Speaker 2: think your office was so so helpful the shots. To
19:56
Speaker 2: do them at home by myself was a little daunting,
19:59
Speaker 2: but it was really not bad at all. And I
20:03
Speaker 2: actually ended up facetiming one of the nurses in your
20:05
Speaker 2: office one night because I didn't want to. I think
20:07
Speaker 2: it might have been my first night. I had a
20:09
Speaker 2: couple questions, so they were very flexible with being available
20:12
Speaker 2: to me, which was really kind. So if anyone is
20:15
Speaker 2: nervous about doing the shots at home, very easy, don't
20:18
Speaker 2: be scared. I actually they weren't painful either.
20:21
Speaker 1: Well, we have another surprise for you because we now
20:24
Speaker 1: are using our needle free IVF. Oh so the needle
20:27
Speaker 1: free IVF is have you seen the insulin monitors that
20:31
Speaker 1: people put behind their arms. Yes, it's very very similar, Okay,
20:34
Speaker 1: and it goes right on your abdomen and it just
20:38
Speaker 1: sticks there. It's a tiny, tiny little catheter that sticks there.
20:41
Speaker 2: WHOA.
20:42
Speaker 1: If you look at my social media channel, there was
20:44
Speaker 1: like one point four million views of me having this.
20:47
Speaker 2: What is your social media channel? By the way, for everyone.
20:49
Speaker 1: Listening, So it's d R for doctor Shaheen Gadeir s
20:53
Speaker 1: h A h I n g h A d I R.
20:56
Speaker 1: So I did it actually twice replaced this video like
20:58
Speaker 1: one of them got like almost one and a half
21:00
Speaker 1: million views. Oh my god, of me placing it because
21:03
Speaker 1: I wanted to feel what it felt like. Yeah, and
21:05
Speaker 1: I felt like just a little, little, little nothing. And
21:11
Speaker 1: the next thing, the catheter was attached to me.
21:13
Speaker 2: Wow.
21:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:13
Speaker 1: And today I placed one for a patient of mine
21:16
Speaker 1: who also has a podcast and who's talking about this
21:18
Speaker 1: and was on the news about it. As I placed
21:20
Speaker 1: it for her, She's like, god, I barely felt it. Wow.
21:23
Speaker 3: Yes.
21:24
Speaker 1: So if anyone wants to see how to do it,
21:25
Speaker 1: so instead of putting the needle into your skin to inject,
21:28
Speaker 1: you put it into all the needles, go into a
21:30
Speaker 1: little syringe. You connect the syringe with a little tube,
21:33
Speaker 1: you're subjected, and it just goes in.
21:34
Speaker 2: Can we do that for round two with me?
21:36
Speaker 1: For sure?
21:37
Speaker 2: I love how this this happens.
21:38
Speaker 1: After I did my fund Yes, and well we're the
21:41
Speaker 1: only clinic in the country that's doing this. Oh my god. Yeah,
21:44
Speaker 1: we're very excited.
21:45
Speaker 3: Yes.
21:46
Speaker 1: One of the doctors that I work with, when she
21:48
Speaker 1: had to do IVF. She said that she had a
21:51
Speaker 1: major needle phobia.
21:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean same who likes needles?
21:54
Speaker 1: But she so she's like, what am I going to do?
21:56
Speaker 1: So she figured out, oh my god, why why don't
21:58
Speaker 1: I just put it through something?
22:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's what we do.
22:01
Speaker 2: Now. Do you know when you guys gave me the
22:04
Speaker 2: little kit to take home, there's one giant needle in there.
22:09
Speaker 1: For the giant needles are for mixing. Correct, they're not forgiving.
22:13
Speaker 2: I know, but I wasn't fully paying attention the first
22:19
Speaker 2: when Amber was giving me the instructions, which is why
22:21
Speaker 2: I had to FaceTime her. And my friend Katie was
22:23
Speaker 2: over and you were in my kitchen and Katie was like, no,
22:25
Speaker 2: I think that's the one you put in your stomach,
22:28
Speaker 2: and it was the huge one, and I was like,
22:30
Speaker 2: are you sure.
22:31
Speaker 1: I don't know.
22:31
Speaker 2: Like we're going back and forth and like there was
22:34
Speaker 2: a moment where we tried to do it, and then
22:36
Speaker 2: I said to her, I said, listen, I don't care
22:38
Speaker 2: if the doctor gets mad at me. I don't I'm
22:39
Speaker 2: not putting this in my stomach. And then I called
22:41
Speaker 2: Amber and she was like, absolutely, do not.
22:43
Speaker 1: Put that in the size of the needle is never
22:45
Speaker 1: going to make a difference by Yeah, No, it was.
22:47
Speaker 1: It was patients like, yeah, it's the one that you
22:50
Speaker 1: pull the fluid out with so it comes out fast,
22:52
Speaker 1: you push it in fast, you mix it then with
22:54
Speaker 1: your little tiny needle, you give it to yourself.
22:56
Speaker 2: Yes.
22:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, but just again for like a patient to be
22:58
Speaker 1: aware like this, the eyes of the needle where you
23:01
Speaker 1: give an injection has nothing to do with the medication
23:04
Speaker 1: going in your body totally. I mean it's going to
23:06
Speaker 1: cause a tremendous amount of pain, yes, and you know
23:09
Speaker 1: some of the medications are a powder and a fluid.
23:11
Speaker 2: Yes.
23:11
Speaker 1: People are like how much of the fluid. I'm like, honestly,
23:14
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter the fluid. It's just saline.
23:17
Speaker 2: Once I got the hang of it, it was very easy.
23:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you push a lot of fluid into
23:22
Speaker 1: your body, it's going to be discomfort. Yeah.
23:25
Speaker 2: Well, besides that little the first night after that it
23:28
Speaker 2: was smooth sailing. And again I'm very happy amber was available.
23:32
Speaker 2: But no, I'm looking forward to trying out this new
23:35
Speaker 2: technology because even though the needles didn't hurt, that sounds
23:38
Speaker 2: like it's going to make my life a lot easier
23:40
Speaker 2: it's going to.
23:40
Speaker 1: Make your life a lot easier. You can exercise with it,
23:43
Speaker 1: you can have intercourse with it. You could just leave
23:45
Speaker 1: it there, you could shower with it. Everything that you
23:47
Speaker 1: need to do. It just six and it weighs like nothing.
23:49
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because doing the regular shots, you said there
23:52
Speaker 2: was none of that.
23:53
Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing you still after a certain
23:56
Speaker 1: day can't exercise. This doesn't allow you to exercise longer,
24:00
Speaker 1: and this doesn't allow you to have intercourse longer. But
24:02
Speaker 1: it can stay on your body in the first week
24:05
Speaker 1: when you still allowed to do those things.
24:07
Speaker 2: Okay, understood, good to know, Good to know around two.
24:11
Speaker 2: So what advice I guess would you give someone who's
24:14
Speaker 2: curious about the process or interested in perhaps freezing their
24:18
Speaker 2: eggs with your office.
24:20
Speaker 1: I think the number one advice that I would give
24:22
Speaker 1: a woman who has even a one percent chance of
24:25
Speaker 1: having a child, because I can't tell you how many
24:27
Speaker 1: women walk into my office thirty eight, thirty nine, forty
24:29
Speaker 1: years old and said to me, I never thought I
24:32
Speaker 1: wanted to have a child, just flat out said, I
24:34
Speaker 1: just knew I did not want to have children. And
24:37
Speaker 1: something in my body changed as I got older, and
24:40
Speaker 1: now I'm really worried that my eggs are too old.
24:43
Speaker 1: So even if there is a tiniest zero point one
24:46
Speaker 1: percent one percent chance that you want to have a child,
24:49
Speaker 1: do something to protect yourself. So many employers are now
24:53
Speaker 1: covering egg freezing. If you're looking for a job, ask
24:56
Speaker 1: for what their benefits are, choose the job at least
24:59
Speaker 1: for that year. It has the benefit involved with.
25:01
Speaker 2: Shout out to Amazon. By the way, I think Amazon Amazons.
25:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, Amazons, the Amazon's amazing. But there are a lot
25:07
Speaker 1: of other big employers and even smaller employers that want
25:12
Speaker 1: women to be empowered to work there and not worry
25:15
Speaker 1: and we'll give you this support. So that's one thing.
25:17
Speaker 1: The other thing is like, if you are going to
25:20
Speaker 1: do it, then just do it and be done. Because
25:23
Speaker 1: when I see patients and then they don't come back,
25:25
Speaker 1: and they come back a year later and I see them,
25:27
Speaker 1: I'm like, what happened? Like I had to all this
25:28
Speaker 1: work and this and that, and I had all these
25:30
Speaker 1: things to do, and I got nervous. You just now
25:33
Speaker 1: you have a one year decline in their egg quality
25:37
Speaker 1: and quantity of your eggs. So doing it sooner is better.
25:40
Speaker 1: So if you're going to do it. Do it if
25:42
Speaker 1: you're not sure about doing it, really think it's thoroughly through.
25:45
Speaker 1: And if you have an option of checking with employment
25:47
Speaker 1: or any insurance, then please make sure you do that
25:49
Speaker 1: as well, and try to be healthy, because we do
25:54
Speaker 1: know that. Additionally, if you're like doing things that harm
25:57
Speaker 1: your body and you're not healthy, or you're not eating well,
26:00
Speaker 1: whether it's too much or too little, or not giving
26:03
Speaker 1: your body the right nutrition, these things can all affect
26:06
Speaker 1: this as well.
26:07
Speaker 2: I still take a lot of the vitamins that you
26:09
Speaker 2: prescribe me prior to my egg retrieval, like the COQ ten.
26:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, the COQ ten. It's the strongest antioxidant in the
26:16
Speaker 1: world that if it helps your entire body, try to
26:19
Speaker 1: stay as youthful as possible, especially your eggs. So these
26:22
Speaker 1: supplements and these things are actually really good for people,
26:25
Speaker 1: and we're happy to tell everyone what they need to
26:27
Speaker 1: take and when they should take it. I don't give
26:30
Speaker 1: the supplements to people just to do the procedure. I
26:33
Speaker 1: try to make that really clear. These are good for
26:35
Speaker 1: you as a woman. These are good for you to
26:37
Speaker 1: take you from now until you're done having kids and
26:40
Speaker 1: then going towards menopause. As a reproductive age woman, not
26:43
Speaker 1: just to do for this procedure.
26:45
Speaker 2: The prenatals that I was on, I will say also
26:47
Speaker 2: made my hair grow like crazy in a good way.
26:49
Speaker 2: But I stopped taking them because they were prenatal vitamins.
26:52
Speaker 2: Is that something that I could wait go take?
26:55
Speaker 1: I tell every single reproductive age woman that comes and
26:58
Speaker 1: sees me that probably the pre natal vitamin is the
27:01
Speaker 1: most well balanced vitamin for a reproductive age women.
27:05
Speaker 2: Okay, maybe I will give that another world.
27:08
Speaker 1: I think you should. I think it's a great vitamin
27:10
Speaker 1: to take.
27:11
Speaker 2: All right, great good to know. The last thing I
27:13
Speaker 2: did want to ask you, so I talk to you
27:15
Speaker 2: about sergucy in your office and how do you deal
27:19
Speaker 2: with that with patients? And do partner with sergacy agencies?
27:23
Speaker 1: So we partner with a lot of surrogacy agencies. We've
27:26
Speaker 1: now I've been doing this long enough that I can
27:29
Speaker 1: hand pick the ones that I really like to work
27:30
Speaker 1: with and are really good. So that's important for me
27:33
Speaker 1: as well. I think that it's very very very important
27:37
Speaker 1: to if that is something that you know that is
27:41
Speaker 1: an option you do not have to carry a pregnancy
27:44
Speaker 1: if you don't want to live. We live in California,
27:48
Speaker 1: which has the best fertility laws in the entire nation.
27:51
Speaker 1: It allows us women to do whatever is best for them.
27:55
Speaker 1: And we're lucky because here in the USA you can
27:57
Speaker 1: do things like this.
27:58
Speaker 3: We have people traveling from around.
27:59
Speaker 1: The world to us to try to make you know
28:01
Speaker 1: their families a dream and they're it's illegal in their country.
28:06
Speaker 1: So we're very lucky and it's something we do all
28:08
Speaker 1: the time. We also help people with egg donation if
28:10
Speaker 1: they didn't freeze their eggs. We also help our LGBTQ community,
28:14
Speaker 1: our gay couples find egg donors and find surrogates. We
28:17
Speaker 1: help our lesbian couples get sperm donors.
28:19
Speaker 3: Well, we are able to help with all of this.
28:22
Speaker 2: Amazing. And are you guys only in LA or do
28:25
Speaker 2: you have a counterpart in New York For some of
28:26
Speaker 2: my New York gals.
28:28
Speaker 1: So, I don't have another office in New York, but
28:30
Speaker 1: I have enough really good friends of mine that do
28:33
Speaker 1: this in New York that I can get them in. So,
28:35
Speaker 1: for example, if they did a consultation with me, we
28:38
Speaker 1: got them started. But they need to do their first
28:40
Speaker 1: and second ultrasound and blood tests in New York City
28:42
Speaker 1: and then fly into LA so they can do the
28:44
Speaker 1: procedure with myself in my own clinic.
28:46
Speaker 3: We do that all the time, okay.
28:47
Speaker 1: So that's called outside monitoring. And we have enough colleagues
28:51
Speaker 1: in New York and also in Miami and also in
28:55
Speaker 1: the larger cities that we.
28:56
Speaker 3: Can do this with them.
28:57
Speaker 2: Okay.
28:57
Speaker 1: Great.
28:58
Speaker 2: And in the future, are you hoping to expand your
29:00
Speaker 2: office into different cities or just sort of keep it.
29:02
Speaker 1: So we have twelve different locations right now? Wow, okay,
29:06
Speaker 1: awll different locations. We'll see what the future hasn't stopped
29:09
Speaker 1: for us. And we were just excited about our Beverly
29:11
Speaker 1: Hills office being launched. Right now, it's we're going to
29:15
Speaker 1: work on making this practice scroll a lot, and then
29:17
Speaker 1: we'll maybe think about different locations LAS.
29:20
Speaker 2: Twelve locations is a lot of locations. Yes, well great.
29:24
Speaker 2: I will be in touch regarding round two, so.
29:28
Speaker 1: We can't wait soon.
29:29
Speaker 2: I actually, for the first time don't have anything on
29:31
Speaker 2: my calendar for a minute, which I'm happy about. So
29:34
Speaker 2: maybe I'll come in soon.
29:35
Speaker 3: But wonderful.
29:37
Speaker 2: Thank you, and again anyone who's thinking about doing it.
29:39
Speaker 2: It really was seamless and easy, and it three weeks
29:44
Speaker 2: of your time. Four weeks of your time. In the
29:46
Speaker 2: grant syme of things, it's totally worth it. So even
29:49
Speaker 2: if you're on the fence, I think it's really good insurance.
29:51
Speaker 2: And this is the guy.
29:53
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you so much of course, see you guys.