Latest / The Home of Fertility with Liz Walton & Helen Zee / Ten IVF Cycles To Two Children And A Book Series That Helps Families Talk wonderful chat with Stephanie Boag

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Ten IVF Cycles To Two Children And A Book Series That Helps Families Talk wonderful chat with Stephanie Boag · The Home of Fertility with Liz Walton & Helen Zee

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Home of Fertility, a space for real conversation and expert insights about fertility, healing, and creating family.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Alice Walker.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm Helen Zay.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: We are two mums who've walked this path and are passionate about supporting you on your journey, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about it all.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Fertility treatments, holistic support, relationships, mindset, and the emotional highs and left.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: Because sometimes the missing piece lies in someone else's story, in the quiet wisdom of the body, or in a breakthrough that's finally made for you.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: We are so glad you are here.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let's dive in.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, hello, hello.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning, we have evening welcome for you, baby, in this amazing world that we have.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, welcome to the Home of Fertility Podcast with me, Liz Walton.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Today I have a wonderful, beautiful human being, and she has written a book on her journey through IVF, and it's called Sticky Pineapple.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really excited to bring this to you today.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the lovely Stephanie Bogue.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: How are you, my lovely?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm wonderful, and thank you so much for having me, Liz.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's so great to be on your podcast.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I am also very excited you're here from a very busy time.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you so much.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: And um, let's see, where whereabouts are you in Australia?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm based in Melbourne.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, in Melbourne.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: And how is Melbourne today?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's lovely and sunny in Cambridge.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_04: It is lovely and sunny, and I've just been out with my seven-year-old shopping for birthday presents and Father's Day presents and all kinds of things.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_04: So it's been a great day already.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, nice.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well done, well done.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: So let's see.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to introduce who Stephanie is, and then um then we can have our chats, can't we?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: So everybody knows who is this amazing lady.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: So Stephanie, as you've just heard, she's a proud mum of two girls, one's five, one's seven.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: They were both born via IVF.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: And with this, she's now the author of a book, Sticky Pineapple Book Series.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: Her series was published in 2025 and has won now multiple international book awards.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: And look, it also includes an adult book, uh, Sticky Pineapple.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a it's it's a powerful mind, okay.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Waiting for a heartbeat and a beautifully illustrated children's book, Sticky Pineapple, The Little Precious Gems.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: How I Came Into the World.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, there are two beautiful books.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Here they are.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And she is a fertility advocate and has written her books to help millions of people around the world who are or have already been navigating that fertility and IVF path.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it's based from her own lived experience.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Her adult book gives a raw and deeply personal insight into her own fertility struggle and the journey over many years, 10 IVF cycles, including multiple miscarriages, endometriosis before eventually having success on her ninth cycle, and then again on her tenth.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well done, you.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Her children or this children's book was inspired by a bedtime conversation that she had with her five-year-old who asked, How was I born?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: I love that, Stephanie.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: So let's start at the beginning.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: What my love was the inspiration behind your sticky pineapple book, which includes, as I said, both the adult here and the kids' book.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: And my daughter has read them.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, what send us the inspiration.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: I know I finished on, it was about a conversation, but let's let's go into that a little bit more.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, thank you, Liz.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think uh based on your sort of beginning and opening, what was really important to me when I was going through my own journey is that I didn't have access to resources and and books, um, be that an adult's book or or a children's book, once I eventually became successful.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so the adults book was really inspired by my IVF specialist who, upon my last cycle and being successful, she said, you should go out there and inspire millions of people with your story because um you have been so incredibly resilient um in navigating um your your own journey.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_04: And at the time I was exhausted and fatigued, and I thought, oh my goodness, that's the last thing I want to do.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so, as people will find out, um I subsequently wrote this book seven years later.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the inspiration behind the children's book was indeed that what you said in the opening, which was my then five-year-old Alice at bedtime, said, Mummy, how was I born?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_04: And so I took a deep breath and a pause, and then I thought, no, I'm going to tell her in a really warm, gentle, imaginary, non-threatening way how she did come into this world, um, how her and her sister came into this world via IBF.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_04: And she just loved it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I've since been a um guest author at Bookweek, and I've spoken to over 200 children.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, some would have been born via IBF, they may not have known, but most of the room obviously have been born naturally, and they all loved it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_04: So it's really, well, it's a book that um is tailored to children born via IBF through some of the magical themes that I talk about and use and the imagery um throughout it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's really a book for any child um asking their curious question to their parents of how did I come into this world?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I love hearing that you're taking it into schools for children because I think as they grow up, it um it kind of stops the um the stigma because it's already something that's normal, you know, which is something I love with doing the last couple of fertility events, you know, it's realizing that, you know, there is still that stigma.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's just full of so many emotional buttons.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: So the more we can help and support everyone to know, you know, if there is a problem, it's okay to get help and we don't need to feel bad about it.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I I really love that.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: And if we think about now more and more, more classrooms are um, or more classrooms have kids born through, you know, different assisted reproductive ways.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it's, you know, I think that sounds so beautiful.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well done, you.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, I've even had um other parents whose children were born by donor or surrogacy adoption, and they've all read the books and said, Oh, I just had to adapt the words slightly, and my children just loved it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and they said thank you because you know they hadn't read or seen or heard of other books like this out there.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so I'm just thrilled that it's getting into the hands of of millions of people that need it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I am thrilled also.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I love how you've done like the adult one, you know, uh, and you know, waiting for a heartbeat.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: Gosh, that's always the prayer, isn't it?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Just waiting for that heartbeat.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's a really powerful couple of words.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: So that's beautiful that you've done it for adults as well as kids.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I I think that's yeah, that's that's that's awesome.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: So well done, you so what advice would you give to other people navigating or about to embark um on this fertility journey?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_04: So um I think it's important um to just backtrack a bit from and to explain to your listeners about my own.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: My infertility journey was unexplained.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: So, right throughout, it was never um, there was never a real rhyme or reason why I couldn't get pregnant.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: And so I talk about this in Sticky Pineapple and a Powerful Mind, Waiting for a Heartbeat, in that um my journey really started like everyone else's, um, in thinking that we could just get pregnant naturally.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: And then after um about three years, numerous visits to doctors, having plenty of blood tests, and um finding out that both of us were seemingly fine, um, eventually we we started down the IVF path because it was becoming increasingly clear that um we were really struggling to get pregnant on our own.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so um my advice for people out there is go and um investigate, check.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_04: No one ever investigated pharindometriosis.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: That for me wasn't found out about until my eighth cycle of IVF.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_04: Now there's no no direct correlation that that could have been a reason why I couldn't get pregnant.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: I could have had it anyway, and and it still might not have mattered.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but certainly once it was removed, I had a bumper um egg collection of about 17 eggs when previously I was only ever um getting five eggs, and then those diminishing for what was actually suitable for transfer, which I write about in the book.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so for me, I I definitely felt like there was something in this removal or the finding of endometriosis and removing it, and then all the things that I was doing, um, going to health retreats and getting my mind and body in as um healthy and positive and strong state of mind that I possibly could, what was within my control, because so much of it is outside of your control, yeah.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, to give my chance the best myself the best chance of success.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well done, and that's very interesting to hear.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it does take a long time with endometriosis.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's what we hear, isn't it?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, so well done.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it's it's it's a huge uh subject endometriosis, and I know more and more doctors are um, I suppose, getting more knowledge with that as more and more people are um having these um situations and being given these diagnoses, aren't they?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well I think it was very clear that I probably had endometriosis from the a very young age.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_04: I had very severe period pains, and no one ever questioned me about that or asked me about that or made any linkage.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_04: So um again, the reason why I write the this book now for others is because um no one did question and ask until very, very late in the piece and then investigated and then removed it under, you know, general anaesthetic.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so I really just encourage people just just be curious, like take your health in your own hands, ask questions, keep pushing, keep asking, um, you know, and and try and investigate, investigate, investigate.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_04: And um, you know, before you're starting to go down this path.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Advocate for yourself.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay to ask all the questions.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: So um what did you do to support your mental and physical health during this extremely long journey?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_04: So um again, because our fertility was unexplained, it was thought that we would get pregnant very quickly.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so initially, to be honest, going into it, I thought, uh, we'll we'll just do, you know, probably one round of IVF and we'll be on track and we'll be fine.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_04: And again, I write about it in my book that um we were successful on the first round.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_04: And that was just IUI, where they they had just given us um additional hormones to um increase the chance of the embryo sticking.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh, but I subsequently miscarried and lost that baby.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: And then we then moved very quickly into IVF.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so uh because my journey um was long and unexpected, so it was over my specific IVF journey um was about three years before I had my first child at 40 um and five years in total um by the time I had my my second child.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_04: So it was a very long and enduring, challenging journey.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: So my um mental and physical state very much changed over the course of those years because of how long things went on and also how many miscarriages I was having.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you know, um I just kept adding things like uh fertility naturopath um to my journey.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: I I got regular acupuncture.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_04: I started um to go regularly to health retreats, and I was doing lots of yoga and meditation and um pregnancy, fertility massages and all of those sorts of things, whatever it was that I could do um to put myself in as best positive um mental state that I could.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I would just I would say then on the career front, my career was um because it took so many years, I was growing and growing and growing in my career and um very much very ambitious and very much climbing that career ladder.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so I tried to just really um focus on that and try and keep the two quite separate for as long as I possibly could, um, until it became a point that, you know, I was having so many miscarriages and so many um doctor's appointments that I actually had to confide in some very close colleagues about what I was navigating.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and I just really want to honor all of that journey.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's so huge what our body and mind have to deal with, um, especially when away when we're trying to keep the secret, it's it's massive.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: So just you know, lots of love to your body and to your journey.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: And what can you share the things that you did to support yourself for the miscarriage?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: And also then, can you share because so many people are working and trying to, you know, do the IVF.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um so do you share how you supported yourself with those two different different areas?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that, you know, it's a big area for lots of people.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think um uh the way in which we all deal with grief and trauma is obviously very individualistic.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: And again, I write about this um in the book when um I had written the book and there's a chapter in there, and I get my husband to read the book, and he says, Did all of that really happen?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, really and so what that really um went to was the fact that um there can be two of you going through exactly the same journey, but how you confront that, deal with it, navigate it can be very different.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think to be honest, really what um we both kind of did was we uh were confronted by miscarriages.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um I very much um would hide under the covers in my bedroom and cry and cry and cry, and then talk to um friends, close friends, and then start the outreach of how I was going to get myself in as best possible mind, um, a resilient mind that I possibly could, because I knew I had to keep going.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, whereas my husband probably much more introverted and quiet and very different as well, given it wasn't affecting him physically, but it clearly was emotionally, uh, would sort of compartmentalize that and and life just would sort of, you know, go on.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you know, really as it went on, I I I think it's very challenging um dealing with with miscarriage um because life does tend to go on very, very quickly.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_04: And also most people don't tell other people that they're that they've miscarried.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_04: And so the first few times I didn't either.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then I just became very open about that with friends and family and would say, um, you know, I've actually subsequently miscarried.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, just to sort of um uh uh try and get some support and help that I could at the time to be able to go on.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_04: The the probably the most significant miscarriage in a way for us, and that's what I say, it sort of depends on what happens, is Alice was actually a twin.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_04: And um, and I write about this in a in the book, and I miscarried with the other twin and she survived.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I remember driving home from the hospital with my husband.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um, just it was a bittersweet moment.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_04: It was like we're so relieved and grateful that there was this one heartbeat, and that's why I caught it waiting for a heartbeat.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um we were so relieved to see that, and you know, obviously Alice survived and she's seven years old today, and that's just truly amazing.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, we we didn't really get the chance to to properly grieve, you know, um yet another one that we lost.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, look, that's like you say, bittersweet, but just so our our journeys are are so different.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it's beautiful to share all of this with all the ups and the downs.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, thank you for sharing at your top tips of what helped you because I think when we do that, it helps other people to to to be supported in that too.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you so much for sharing and well done for all of your journey.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's full on, isn't it?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's a bumpy ride.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_04: It really is, and that's why again, um, the listeners where if they buy the book, they'll see that the first chapter is me having a panic attack in the car, um, about to go in to see a psychologist seven years after you know, uh my children were born.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: Like you do that.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it wasn't it wasn't it's not necessarily uh grief and trauma that you're confronting in the moment.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: You might mentalize that and bury it.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it can pop up when you least expect it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: It needs to be healed at some point.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: So with that, and you know, opening up your books, you know, with so much emotion.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I I think that's really good how you started with, you know, this this was something that had to happen for me and to heal with the respective books, one for adults and one for little ones and children.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I we've got here who are your perspectives respective books targeted at, and what impact is it that you have within your heart that um you hope the readers have?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_04: So with um the children, the beautifully illustrated children's book, Sticky Pineapple, um, and The Little Precious Gems, How I Came Into This World.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_04: So that is targeted at uh young children and for parents to be able to have a conversation with them in a warm and gentle way to explain how they came into this world.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: As I said earlier, um it's not just for IVF kids, just because of the way that I've written it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_04: And it's really to break the stigma and make it really normalize it and make it okay for future generations, that it doesn't matter how you came into this world, you know, it's still just a beautiful and amazing, um, incredible thing that we are we are alive and in this world.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so that's really why I wrote that and you know who that's targeted at.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_04: The adults' book, Sticky Pineapple and a Powerful Mind, Waiting for a Heartbeat, um, is really for people who um are about to navigate the RVF journey and and want some tips and and ideas and and you know about what it could possibly be.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's for people who are already navigating it and might be finding some real challenges or want to um share with someone else, you know, that it's like it's okay.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like we've all gone through some real challenges and and you will come out the other side, regardless of whether or not you are successful, you will come out the other side.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: And also for friends and family members and and colleagues who need to be educated on what some of their loved ones or or their um colleagues are actually going through.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_04: And again, uh I had lots of people come up to me um since writing the book, but even when they heard I was writing the book and say to me, Can you please put a chapter in there about how others can help?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: Because one lady in particular said, I don't know how to help my daughter.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_04: Beautiful.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_04: And so my messages in the book around that are just very simple and they're very akin to dealing with mental health, which is always ask someone if they're okay.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_04: And they may not be able to communicate to you just exactly how they're feeling.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I at different times I wasn't a great communicator with my partner or my my friends or family or colleagues because I I didn't I didn't really know um what to do or what to say.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: And I at different times I found that really difficult.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I certainly appreciated when people just said, How are you going?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_04: Are you okay?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's so true.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now, what else would you like to share?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: about your books that we can, you know, we can have here on this conversation as we're sort of closing up here.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: What else do you feel you'd like to share?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: I just um would love people to um hop on my website, stickypinepal.com and just learn a little bit more about them and think about, you know, the networks and the and the people that might benefit from from receiving these and and reading them.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_04: Because again, you know, just last week I had a woman come up to me in the workplace and she said, I have your books.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_04: My mum gave them to me.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_04: We weren't successful, but I am so, you know, I'm so privileged and and grateful for for you being so open and vulnerable and sharing your story.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I just think we've we've got to be way more open and accepting as a community that that there are millions of people navigating this journey.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: And we need to wrap our arms around people and support them and make it okay to to share and talk about um at home or in the workplace.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely and of course this would be a great book as a as a gift when you know someone has gone through IBF um you know to bring to family or friends.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it's such a really good support uh tool in you know because you've got for the adults and for the kids and um again I I think what's also good is I know I've spoken to few people like oh how do how am I going to say you know my children were IVF and I I love going I have a way you can do that.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a book for you.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I love being able to to share that.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: So where else can us where else can we find you on socials?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: How can people connect?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: I will obviously have this in all of the show notes but let's let's share this as well.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got the website stickypineapple.com.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah um so my books are also available on thousands of online channels worldwide so um specifically Amazon um booktopia barns and noble um to name a few i've also done uh other podcasts that are uh streaming globally around the world on Spotify um in particular as well uh I'm also regularly talking um about my books on Instagram I have um sticky pineapple 2025 is one handle or otherwise under my name stephanie.bogue.1 um Facebook uh LinkedIn and TikTok so um look for stickypineapolanie bogue and uh I'm sure it'll come up and you'll hear all about my multi-award winning books.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yes I like it I like it I think actually before we go um explain why sticky pineapple explain that yeah so sticky pineapple has a couple of different meanings when it comes to IVF and and infertility um so the first which is in the children's book which my children really gravitated to and just absolutely loved was um I ate a lot of sticky pineapple while I was pregnant because there is this um view not scientifically proven but there is a view out there that um eating pineapple helps with um embryo implantation so as I spoke about I was prepared to do anything and everything whether it was true or not um that it would make a difference and so that was one of the cognitive health benefits and it just generally is anyway for your own body.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_04: And so that that's one of the meanings.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_04: The other is um pineapple has become a real symbol for infertility in IVF.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: So for people who are navigating through it it won't be uncommon for you to be in a clinic and you might see someone wearing a pineapple symbol on their shirt or or on their dress or or whatever or pineapple pins symbolizing that they are navigating infertility in IVF.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_04: And it's the shape the reason why is it's the shape of the pineapple reminding women to stand tall and be proud and you know bold and resilient with everything that they're navigating.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_04: So I love the symbolism of that and I just thought I'm I'm gonna use that for my sticky pineapple book series.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yes I love it too and I remember hearing that and eating quite a lot of pineapple and um yes I love pineapple and then when I heard that it is like the symbol for infertility I I just thought that was magical.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: So brilliant I'm glad you shared that well done.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: So what would be your top uh bit of information or advice that you would like to leave everybody with today um my advice is just try and be as open as you possibly can um with people that you know will help and support you on your journey.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: I talk a lot about the fact that I didn't actually um utilize a psychologist on my way through which I regret um you know I subsequently did uh which you know here's the again the genesis in a way it opened it removed some blockers and out came my books.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: So really just try and it's such a difficult and can be a very long emotional physical and financially draining journey.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I think everyone just needs to be eyes wide open and accepting that um you know you're gonna have times where it's gonna feel impossible and you're gonna lose hope and you know it's gonna feel like you've really hit rock bottom.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah and you really just need a a network around you to help you get out of that and and up and out the other side whether or not you're successful or not.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah yeah I love that.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes we have to have our crew that helps us because it is as I said a bumpy ride.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: But I I like that it's about having that person that you can speak to and heal with because it's it look it's full on so full on with the deep emotional part and I had um unexplained infertility so I I totally resonate with all of that and um thank you Stephanie for being here today and sharing about your journey your books and the support that you have put out there for both kids and for adults well thank you so much for having me and it's been a pleasure oh thank you and the pleasure is mine.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so with that beautiful people um do if you know anyone that's on a fertility journey or if it's yourself go do seek out these books the sticky pineapple waiting for a heartbeat and the you know and also the the little gems and have a think about when you're on this journey make sure you have support and help physically as well as emotionally it's so important.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you and sending you lots of love and you take care too Stephanie thank you very much take care Liz thanks for joining us at the Home of Fertility we hope today's episode brought you clarity comfort and connection if this podcast resonated please share it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Leave a review or subscribe this helps us support more people that are on this path.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: And if you'd like to connect or share your story find us on Instagram and Facebook at Australian Fertility Summit.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Remember the missing piece might be waiting in a story your body's wisdom or something new just made for you.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Take care and we'll see you next time