Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / Egg Freezing: Everything You Need To Know with Colleen + Cassidy Coughlin (OVA Egg Freezing Specialty Center)

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Egg Freezing: Everything You Need To Know with Colleen + Cassidy Coughlin (OVA Egg Freezing Specialty Center) · QUESTION EVERYTHING

0:04
Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
0:08
Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
0:12
Speaker 1: and I have conversations that put a new spin on
0:15
Speaker 1: pretty This is pretty smart. Hello, the first Thursday of
0:23
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. I hope you're having a great start
0:26
Speaker 1: to the year, and I'm really excited about this episode
0:30
Speaker 1: today because it's all about egg freezing. Now, before I
0:35
Speaker 1: even really dig in and begin this episode, I want
0:38
Speaker 1: to note that fertility can be a tough subject to cover.
0:42
Speaker 1: I think that's why a lot of people avoid it
0:44
Speaker 1: in general, because everybody's journey is different and every person's
0:49
Speaker 1: physical body is different. So I'm only speaking from my
0:53
Speaker 1: experience what worked and didn't work for me. And that said,
0:58
Speaker 1: everything I am sharing comes from a place of deep
1:00
Speaker 1: research because I did not take the decision to freeze
1:04
Speaker 1: my eggs lightly. I actually went back and forth a
1:06
Speaker 1: few times until I finally landed on doing it. So
1:10
Speaker 1: today I'm going to share how it all started, why
1:13
Speaker 1: I decided to freeze my eggs, the pros and cons
1:15
Speaker 1: of doing so. It's not all roses things I wish
1:19
Speaker 1: I would have known. I'm diving into the facts, the myths,
1:22
Speaker 1: and then of course the results, how many eggs I got, etc.
1:27
Speaker 1: Then we're going to hear from fertility experts. We're doing
1:29
Speaker 1: an interview with fertility experts Colleen Wagner Coglin and her
1:34
Speaker 1: daughter Cassidy Coglin. They're the mother daughter duo behind OVA
1:38
Speaker 1: Egg Freezing Specialty Center, which is where I froze my eggs.
1:41
Speaker 1: Colleen is the founder and CEO who for over thirty
1:45
Speaker 1: years has been a prominent leader in the field of
1:47
Speaker 1: IVF and reproduction, helping thousands of patients become parents. Her daughter,
1:52
Speaker 1: Cassidy is the center's program manager and really shepherded me
1:57
Speaker 1: throughout the whole process. In our com they're going to
2:00
Speaker 1: answer all of the questions that feel so obtuse in
2:03
Speaker 1: any reading you do online, for instance, understanding peak fertility
2:08
Speaker 1: and the ideal timing for egg freezing, how to optimize
2:11
Speaker 1: your chances of getting pregnant later in life, tips for
2:15
Speaker 1: improving the quality and health of eggs, and how many
2:19
Speaker 1: eggs do you really need? And then after our interview,
2:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to share all of the things I wish
2:24
Speaker 1: someone would have told me before I started this, tips
2:27
Speaker 1: I learned throughout the process and then tips other women
2:29
Speaker 1: DMed me as I shared this whole journey on Instagram.
2:33
Speaker 1: I have to tell you other women who had been
2:35
Speaker 1: through it saved me. They totally upgraded my journey. And
2:39
Speaker 1: I feel like all of those tips need to be
2:41
Speaker 1: in one place also. And here's something important, Minna share
2:46
Speaker 1: what seven questions you need to ask any clinic to
2:49
Speaker 1: see if they're really a fit for you. There's a
2:52
Speaker 1: lot of clinics out here that say they do egg freezing,
2:55
Speaker 1: and they don't have great success rates. So there are
2:58
Speaker 1: seven questions. I'm going through all the tips at the
3:01
Speaker 1: end of the episode, but I also created graphics that
3:04
Speaker 1: I posted on Instagram and saved my egg freezing highlights.
3:08
Speaker 1: That's where the seven questions will be. And then of
3:10
Speaker 1: course the list of tips written out. I wanted them
3:13
Speaker 1: to live forever because if you or anyone you know
3:16
Speaker 1: needs them, I felt like we all shouldn't be reinventing
3:19
Speaker 1: the wheel. I kept googling and trying to find things
3:21
Speaker 1: in one place, and there just was so many sites
3:25
Speaker 1: that were not credible, not specific, and not helpful. So
3:30
Speaker 1: first things first, why did I want to do this?
3:33
Speaker 1: I started down this path because I went to my
3:35
Speaker 1: obgyn when I was thirty one, and he said, have
3:39
Speaker 1: you thought about freezing your eggs? I hadn't, but he
3:43
Speaker 1: peaked my curiosity, and so this whole journey began. I'm
3:47
Speaker 1: now about to turn thirty three in January on the fifteenth,
3:51
Speaker 1: and headed into OVA, which is the egg freezing clinic
3:55
Speaker 1: in Chicago, to begin the process mid December. I decided
3:59
Speaker 1: to my eggs because people say to you, thirty one,
4:03
Speaker 1: thirty two, you're still young, you have time, and then
4:06
Speaker 1: a few years pass and all of a sudden, you're
4:08
Speaker 1: not so young and you don't have that much time
4:12
Speaker 1: in fertility years. I mean, there's this very fine line
4:15
Speaker 1: that all of a sudden you cross, and no one
4:18
Speaker 1: wants to say it because it feels like it gives
4:22
Speaker 1: women an expiration date. But in my opinion, that expiration
4:25
Speaker 1: date comes whether we're thinking about it or not. My
4:29
Speaker 1: dad always says to me, time March is on, Time
4:33
Speaker 1: March is on. I heard his voice in my head
4:35
Speaker 1: when I was deciding if I wanted to do this
4:37
Speaker 1: or not. You're working and living and time March is on,
4:41
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to wake up one day and
4:43
Speaker 1: have the decision be made for me. So the first
4:47
Speaker 1: step to this, and this is the first step for
4:49
Speaker 1: any woman curious about their fertility, not just people freezing
4:52
Speaker 1: their eggs or embryos, is ask your obgyn to get
4:56
Speaker 1: your AMH levels. AMH testing is typically used as an
5:00
Speaker 1: indicator of your egg count. You can do it at
5:02
Speaker 1: your annual checkup as a part of your blood panel.
5:05
Speaker 1: It's no extra charge and you're doing your blood test anyway,
5:08
Speaker 1: so it's a number you should know. Then I asked
5:12
Speaker 1: my obgyn and my physician, who are both East West doctors,
5:17
Speaker 1: meaning they went to both Western Medical School and Eastern
5:21
Speaker 1: Medical School, about the implications of the hormones. You know,
5:25
Speaker 1: I like to live as cleanly as possible and the
5:28
Speaker 1: idea of putting hormones in my body terrified me. But
5:32
Speaker 1: both my obgyn and physician said that they flush out
5:35
Speaker 1: of you in two weeks and it was something that
5:38
Speaker 1: was worthwhile. So once I did a ton of research
5:41
Speaker 1: on my own as well, I felt confident, and you
5:44
Speaker 1: know what, I shared the rest of the steps of
5:46
Speaker 1: the whole egg freezing process, the shots and all of
5:49
Speaker 1: it very transparently on my Instagram. So if you're interested
5:52
Speaker 1: in the play by play head over there, I don't
5:54
Speaker 1: want to hold the episode up too much. Next, why
5:57
Speaker 1: did I decide to share it so publicly? Well, honestly,
6:00
Speaker 1: it didn't even feel like a decision. I was like,
6:03
Speaker 1: of course, I'm sharing this. Gloria Steinem says, the most
6:07
Speaker 1: feminist thing we can do is share our honest stories
6:10
Speaker 1: with other women, and I live by that. I also
6:13
Speaker 1: learn the best through other people's stories. I mean, my
6:15
Speaker 1: whole life goal is to help share women's stories, including
6:19
Speaker 1: my own, in case they're helpful to anybody. I don't
6:22
Speaker 1: think it should be something that we're ashamed of, and
6:25
Speaker 1: I think the more we see people doing it and
6:28
Speaker 1: hear people talking about it, the less mystified it all becomes.
6:31
Speaker 1: I mean, you know that phrase knowledge is power. In
6:34
Speaker 1: this case, it really is. Also, I saw a friend
6:38
Speaker 1: of mine do it, and seeing her do it helped
6:41
Speaker 1: me so much.
6:44
Speaker 2: You know, we hear.
6:44
Speaker 1: People talk about going through IVF or going through egg freezing,
6:50
Speaker 1: but we don't see it happening, and to actually see
6:53
Speaker 1: what the process is is so helpful, and I think
6:56
Speaker 1: comforting it comforted me, so I wanted to share it
7:00
Speaker 1: in case, in case, seeing those videos comforted someone else.
7:05
Speaker 1: The funny thing about this all is that when I
7:08
Speaker 1: get down to it, I shared to make other people
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Speaker 1: feel less alone, and in the whole process, everyone's comments
7:16
Speaker 1: and love and dms made me feel less alone. Women
7:20
Speaker 1: are amazing and our bodies are amazing. So whether you're
7:26
Speaker 1: interested in freezing your eggs, freezing embryos, doing IVF, or
7:30
Speaker 1: not interested in any of those at all, I think
7:33
Speaker 1: this episode is going to be really enlightening and interesting.
7:38
Speaker 1: So without further ado, Cassidy and Colleen.
7:45
Speaker 2: I think you're pretty smart because you liked it to
7:47
Speaker 2: freeze your eggs.
7:48
Speaker 3: I did.
7:49
Speaker 1: I'm in the process of freezing my eggs right now.
7:51
Speaker 1: I think we're on day seven. We're in your beautiful
7:56
Speaker 1: over office, which we're going to talk about because the
7:59
Speaker 1: beauty of this actually adds to my experience for sure.
8:02
Speaker 1: But this is a special day. This is my first
8:04
Speaker 1: mother daughter duo. I'm pretty smart, which is very cool.
8:08
Speaker 1: And also this is extra special because you made your
8:12
Speaker 1: daughter in your.
8:13
Speaker 2: Lab as a patient, and to get through that process,
8:18
Speaker 2: I had to go through exactly everything you're going through
8:21
Speaker 2: right now. So all the initial testing that we did
8:25
Speaker 2: with you first, the fertility drugs, coming in every few
8:30
Speaker 2: days to have my blood drawn and ultrasound to see
8:33
Speaker 2: how my follicles were cooking. Yeah, I did all of that.
8:36
Speaker 2: I was older than you going through that, which I
8:41
Speaker 2: wish I could have frozen my eggs back at your
8:43
Speaker 2: age at the time, but we couldn't back then. But anyway,
8:46
Speaker 2: I did exactly what you're doing now. The only difference
8:50
Speaker 2: is I had my partner, who you know, Cassie's dad.
8:55
Speaker 2: I had my partner that I was going through the
8:57
Speaker 2: process with. So at the egg retrieval, when we take
9:02
Speaker 2: the eggs out, instead of freezing them, we put sperm
9:06
Speaker 2: with the eggs right away, developed the embryos, froze the embryos,
9:11
Speaker 2: and then did a transfer right away, and that resulted
9:16
Speaker 2: in her and her brother. And then I had to
9:20
Speaker 2: do that whole process again a few years later because
9:24
Speaker 2: I wanted a third child, so I had to do
9:28
Speaker 2: that whole process again. But so I did in vitro
9:33
Speaker 2: twice and it worked right away for me and I
9:36
Speaker 2: have the three kids. However, if egg freezing was as
9:42
Speaker 2: advanced as it is now, I would have frozen my
9:45
Speaker 2: eggs at the start of my career and I probably
9:50
Speaker 2: then could have gotten enough eggs in that one cycle,
9:56
Speaker 2: freezing the eggs when I was at my peak fertility,
10:00
Speaker 2: which is late twenties.
10:02
Speaker 1: Well, so I'm learning through this process because I'm posting
10:05
Speaker 1: stories in real time. So many women are going through
10:10
Speaker 1: this and not talking about it. Yes, and I'm getting
10:13
Speaker 1: messages saying thank you for sharing this. I felt so
10:15
Speaker 1: alone in the process.
10:17
Speaker 3: One in six people are people, not just women. For
10:22
Speaker 3: all you men out there, one in six people experience infertility.
10:26
Speaker 3: That is why we've seen such a shift towards people
10:29
Speaker 3: becoming proactive with their fertility, meaning freezing their eggs or
10:33
Speaker 3: freezing embryos with a partner that they're not ready to
10:37
Speaker 3: have kids. Now, maybe you don't want kids. You just
10:41
Speaker 3: want to give yourself the highest chance to have a
10:44
Speaker 3: biological child in the future, should you wish to do that.
10:47
Speaker 1: So I'm thirty two, perfect age to be doing this,
10:50
Speaker 1: is it? So you mentioned what did you call it?
10:52
Speaker 1: Peak fertility? So what is peak fertility?
10:55
Speaker 3: So, as women, we are born with all the eggs
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Speaker 3: where ever going to have in our lifetime, it's a
10:58
Speaker 3: finite amount. By the time we've had our first period,
11:01
Speaker 3: we've already lost more than half of those eggs, which
11:03
Speaker 3: is just like beyond unfair because we wouldn't even use
11:06
Speaker 3: them by then. However, that is just the cards for DEALT.
11:09
Speaker 3: That's biology. So if you think about on a line
11:11
Speaker 3: graph with our age on the X axis, fertility on
11:13
Speaker 3: the y axis, as that age is always increasing, that
11:17
Speaker 3: fertility slope is slowly decreasing. It's never going to plateau,
11:20
Speaker 3: it's never going to jump up. It's slowly decreasing over time.
11:25
Speaker 3: Through studies and data and research throughout all these years,
11:29
Speaker 3: we see bigger dips in our fertility around the age
11:32
Speaker 3: of thirty and thirty five. That's not to say that
11:35
Speaker 3: there are women who have come in at the age
11:37
Speaker 3: of twenty eight who look like they have the fertility
11:39
Speaker 3: of a thirty eight year old, and we've seen a
11:43
Speaker 3: thirty eight year old come in who looks like she
11:45
Speaker 3: has the fertility of a thirty three year old. There's
11:47
Speaker 3: always going to be outliers. Whoever, it's we're slowly going
11:51
Speaker 3: too that like ground zero. That's menopause. We got nothing
11:55
Speaker 3: left to work with. Yeah, but between the ages of
11:57
Speaker 3: twenty five and thirty five, that's when we see that
12:01
Speaker 3: you can be efficient with your fertility. Preservation cycles, meaning
12:05
Speaker 3: you yield a good quantity of eggs as well as quality,
12:10
Speaker 3: because both factors are equally as important.
12:12
Speaker 2: So over the lifespan, it's the quantity and the quality
12:17
Speaker 2: of the eggs diminish. That's why we discuss age so much.
12:22
Speaker 2: And initially most of the women that were going in
12:27
Speaker 2: to freeze their eggs back, you know, ten years ago,
12:30
Speaker 2: eight years ago or so, it was the forty year old,
12:32
Speaker 2: the forty one year old, the forty two year old,
12:34
Speaker 2: which freezing your eggs at any age is better than
12:39
Speaker 2: not as long as there's things we look at and
12:42
Speaker 2: help you realize what your prognosis is. So whatever age
12:48
Speaker 2: you are at this point in time, your fertility is
12:53
Speaker 2: better there than the future.
12:56
Speaker 1: It's better today than it will ever be. Yes, you know,
12:59
Speaker 1: when I came in here and I had my first
13:01
Speaker 1: consultation with a nurse practitioner, she said to me that
13:06
Speaker 1: eighteen eggs gives you an eighty percent chance of one child?
13:11
Speaker 1: Did I say that correctly?
13:13
Speaker 3: You did? However, that was I believe about a year ago.
13:16
Speaker 3: Our stat has just changed ever so much, so much.
13:19
Speaker 3: How many you're going to need isn't the same for everybody?
13:22
Speaker 3: And The big question out there has been how many
13:26
Speaker 3: eggs do I.
13:26
Speaker 2: Need to have?
13:28
Speaker 3: That is everybody's question.
13:29
Speaker 2: It's everybody's question, and it's something that the group's doing
13:33
Speaker 2: most of the freezing. That's something that we're looking at
13:36
Speaker 2: our own data. So much of what's been published as
13:38
Speaker 2: theoretical data.
13:39
Speaker 1: So do you have data on it? What does your
13:41
Speaker 1: data say?
13:42
Speaker 2: So we love double digits. Okay, so double digits just
13:47
Speaker 2: means ten or more. The number one thing to look
13:50
Speaker 2: at is the age of the patient and those initial
13:55
Speaker 2: tests we do.
13:56
Speaker 1: So genetics play a role.
13:57
Speaker 2: Genetics plays a big role. There's a lot of factors
14:01
Speaker 2: that play a role. But some thirty year olds are
14:05
Speaker 2: much closer to facing menopause than other thirty year olds.
14:10
Speaker 2: So why we emphasize age because the younger you are
14:13
Speaker 2: when you do this, you're going to have a higher
14:16
Speaker 2: chance that you're going to stimulate higher that you can
14:20
Speaker 2: probably only get by with just doing it one time
14:25
Speaker 2: more to work with.
14:26
Speaker 1: Because so when you defrost the eggs, that's when you
14:29
Speaker 1: determine if they're viable or not. And so the younger
14:32
Speaker 1: you are, the higher percentage or the higher your chances.
14:36
Speaker 3: So the younger you are the more eggs you likely
14:39
Speaker 3: have on your as you're resting follicle count. So when
14:41
Speaker 3: we're freezing your eggs, we are not taking away from
14:44
Speaker 3: your future fertility. That's a huge misconception.
14:47
Speaker 1: That's a really good myth. Huge It's only the eggs
14:50
Speaker 1: that I have this month, so they'd be going to waste,
14:52
Speaker 1: so to speak at netric. And it's also not sending
14:55
Speaker 1: me into menopause, which is another myth.
14:58
Speaker 3: Why do you think so many women would be freezing
15:00
Speaker 3: their eggs if it's all that's happening, right, and then
15:02
Speaker 3: we'd hear way more about like pre early menopause everything
15:06
Speaker 3: like that. No, those are huge myths. Think about it
15:08
Speaker 3: like a jar, So our jar that is all the
15:10
Speaker 3: eggs are going to have in our lifetime. And then
15:12
Speaker 3: we have our one or two ovaries most women have
15:15
Speaker 3: two unless they've lost one. Each month, a couple of
15:18
Speaker 3: those eggs will come down and rest on your ovaries
15:21
Speaker 3: those follicles. With a natural menstrual cycle, one or two
15:27
Speaker 3: will mature and then one or two will be ovulated,
15:31
Speaker 3: while the rest of them will just dissolve and disperse
15:33
Speaker 3: into your body. Whoever, when we're freezing your eggs, the
15:36
Speaker 3: hormones that you are injecting into are the same ones
15:40
Speaker 3: just a lot more than what you naturally do produce
15:43
Speaker 3: to mature one or two of those eggs and then
15:45
Speaker 3: just to opulate, we're.
15:46
Speaker 2: Gonna recruit some of those ones that we're just going
15:49
Speaker 2: to die off that month on their own. We're probably
15:52
Speaker 2: giving you the fertility drugs. We're recruiting those also.
15:55
Speaker 3: Yes, so we are actually saving all of those follicles
16:00
Speaker 3: one or two ovulated or just dissolved and dispersed into
16:03
Speaker 3: your body.
16:04
Speaker 1: So what does your data say in terms of how
16:06
Speaker 1: many eggs you need yeah to have a successful fertilization.
16:11
Speaker 3: Before you go into that, I think it's really important
16:13
Speaker 3: to note it's not only is there the clinical data,
16:16
Speaker 3: but also two major factors about with the patient. One,
16:21
Speaker 3: what is the age of the woman at time of
16:23
Speaker 3: freezing your eggs because age is the biggest correlation of
16:27
Speaker 3: our fertility. And secondly, what are your fertility hopes and dreams.
16:31
Speaker 3: If you just want to have one child, you will
16:33
Speaker 3: need less eggs to get that just one child. However,
16:38
Speaker 3: if you know you want two or three children, potentially
16:41
Speaker 3: you're going to need more eggs to work with because
16:44
Speaker 3: there's just naturally attrition at every step of the way. Yeah,
16:48
Speaker 3: because with freezing eggs, we're only looking at the eggs.
16:51
Speaker 3: Takes two to tango. We don't know what the sperm is.
16:54
Speaker 1: So how many eggs do we need?
16:55
Speaker 3: It's so hard because you can't compare apples to apples
16:58
Speaker 3: with this.
16:59
Speaker 1: Yes, it's really hard. So for my case, let's take
17:02
Speaker 1: me as an example. I'm thirty two, almost thirty three.
17:06
Speaker 1: All my metrics have been pretty average so far. How
17:09
Speaker 1: many eggs do I what is the goal number of
17:12
Speaker 1: eggs that I'm looking for in order to have a child?
17:14
Speaker 2: Okay, twelve to fifteen.
17:16
Speaker 3: You say that's for a thirty and eighty percent chance
17:19
Speaker 3: of one my birth.
17:19
Speaker 2: I think a little bit higher than eighty percent, but
17:22
Speaker 2: we'd rather think conservatively. That's assuming male partner is relatively normal, right, Okay,
17:30
Speaker 2: So that's kind of the biggie because if it's a
17:35
Speaker 2: male factor, a significant male factor, things like that, then
17:38
Speaker 2: it would be better to have a higher number of eggs.
17:40
Speaker 2: And then you know, about thirty five thirty six year old,
17:45
Speaker 2: we would say numbers should be you know, more like
17:48
Speaker 2: eighteen to twenty one or so would be great. Okay,
17:53
Speaker 2: and then thirty eight to forty mid twenties is what
17:58
Speaker 2: would be a great number to have moving forward forty
18:02
Speaker 2: and above. Irrespective of whatever number, you have to have
18:07
Speaker 2: an eighty percent chance you're gonna need quite a few eggs.
18:11
Speaker 2: It's more a matter of what about giving me a
18:15
Speaker 2: fifty percent chance that I'm gonna have a baby. So
18:19
Speaker 2: there's no test that we could do on the egg
18:22
Speaker 2: itself to see how good it is. We can predict
18:27
Speaker 2: that based on our large data set of women their
18:32
Speaker 2: age doing in vitro, because egg freezing is the whole
18:36
Speaker 2: first part of in vitro, okay. So the only way
18:40
Speaker 2: that you really are able to test how good the
18:45
Speaker 2: eggs are the functional ability of the eggs is by
18:49
Speaker 2: putting on with sperm, and so the in vitual process
18:53
Speaker 2: in each of the steps there's huge drop off.
18:56
Speaker 1: Well, I have a question about fertilization. So Courtney Cardian
19:00
Speaker 1: on the recent season of The Kardashians made this sort
19:04
Speaker 1: of part of the zeitgeist, and she was talking about
19:06
Speaker 1: how she had like seven or eight eggs frozen and
19:09
Speaker 1: then none of them made.
19:10
Speaker 3: It From when she was thirty eight years old. It's
19:13
Speaker 3: more likely you were going to get lesser amount of
19:14
Speaker 3: eggs the older You are right, because you can't make
19:17
Speaker 3: any more eggs beer. We can't make any more eggs beer.
19:19
Speaker 3: We could only work with what's there, right, So it
19:22
Speaker 3: was already the quality of those eggs were probably already
19:25
Speaker 3: a bit declined.
19:26
Speaker 2: And look at she has kids, so we know it's
19:28
Speaker 2: somebody who had proven fertility. Right, but it's a matter
19:33
Speaker 2: of if she froze her eggs to have in the
19:36
Speaker 2: event that she was going to thaw them and do
19:38
Speaker 2: that first and foremost we would have gotten ahead of
19:42
Speaker 2: that right away and.
19:43
Speaker 1: It would have gotten you would have tried to get
19:45
Speaker 1: more eggs, right.
19:46
Speaker 2: But even before she did her very first stimulation to
19:50
Speaker 2: say okay, so at thirty eight, we're going to recommend
19:53
Speaker 2: that you do a few cycles and that you get
19:56
Speaker 2: your numbers at a minimum at this to have a
20:01
Speaker 2: good chance. So that's whole point. If you're going to
20:03
Speaker 2: freeze your eggs, then know how it looks for you
20:08
Speaker 2: and for the event that you are going to have
20:11
Speaker 2: to come back and use them. Right, goal isn't just
20:14
Speaker 2: to freeze your eggs and you have five eggs frozen
20:17
Speaker 2: and you go about your life.
20:18
Speaker 1: I read a New York Times article that said only
20:22
Speaker 1: three to six percent of women and this was twenty seventeen,
20:25
Speaker 1: so that's important to note, but only three to six
20:27
Speaker 1: percent of women who have frozen their eggs come back
20:30
Speaker 1: to retrieve them.
20:32
Speaker 3: Well, the biggest part of that one was that article
20:34
Speaker 3: from twenty seventeen, and that was at the time, because
20:37
Speaker 3: you've got to remember, elective egg freezing became non experimental
20:40
Speaker 3: just in twenty twelve, so at that time, that's three
20:43
Speaker 3: to six percent. And the ones freezing their eggs around
20:46
Speaker 3: that time, they were the go getters, the ones that
20:49
Speaker 3: ever thought, oh, like she prioritized her career, she's never
20:53
Speaker 3: going to find a man, so she's freezing her eggs
20:55
Speaker 3: as like a last ditch effort. The conversations have shifted
20:59
Speaker 3: so much because it's not just we know for a fact,
21:02
Speaker 3: it's not just women like that. We are doing it,
21:04
Speaker 3: whether you have a partner or not. And for so
21:06
Speaker 3: many reasons, they're freezing their eggs, okay, and because again
21:10
Speaker 3: of just the society that we're in and we're having
21:13
Speaker 3: babies later, it's increasingly harder to get pregnant naturally, so
21:18
Speaker 3: that's where the assisted intervention could help come into play.
21:22
Speaker 2: And the other things that aren't really talked about that
21:25
Speaker 2: much is that because certainly we know women get pregnant
21:30
Speaker 2: at advanced stages, but miscarriage rates go higher, abnormalities increase,
21:34
Speaker 2: but you weren't ready to start your family. It's about
21:38
Speaker 2: freezing your fertility at as young an age as possible.
21:43
Speaker 2: The limiting factor with reproductive health is the age of
21:48
Speaker 2: your eggs. Women who can't really produce good quality eggs anymore,
21:53
Speaker 2: they can carry pregnancies. So the uterus is amazing. So
21:58
Speaker 2: it's your hormones and your ability. If you're healthy, you
22:01
Speaker 2: can carry a pregnancy at much later ages. But the
22:06
Speaker 2: fertility potential of your eggs is highest the younger you are, okay,
22:13
Speaker 2: And so if and when you need to use them,
22:17
Speaker 2: your chances of getting pregnant is going to be higher,
22:20
Speaker 2: and the chance of having a healthy pregnancy and a
22:23
Speaker 2: healthy baby, it's going to be higher the younger you
22:27
Speaker 2: are when you freeze them.
22:30
Speaker 1: Part of that article said that the defrosting process the
22:36
Speaker 1: thigh works better for eggs that were frozen before thirty five?
22:41
Speaker 1: Is that still the research.
22:43
Speaker 2: Now disagree with that, and maybe it's it depends on
22:46
Speaker 2: how the article was written. And I love my patience
22:50
Speaker 2: to be informed, but sometimes you have to make sure
22:54
Speaker 2: you're really extrapolating the right information. It's more the pregnant
23:00
Speaker 2: and see results are going to be best if the
23:03
Speaker 2: egg is frozen.
23:04
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
23:05
Speaker 2: Freezing your eggs prior to thirty five? They stay thirty five,
23:09
Speaker 2: So it's not just the thawing piece, it's how many
23:13
Speaker 2: of those are going to go on and make healthy embryos.
23:16
Speaker 2: Is going to be higher for somebody who froze them
23:20
Speaker 2: younger than thirty five. However, thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight,
23:25
Speaker 2: if that's the age you are when you're first hearing
23:29
Speaker 2: about it and considering it, freeze your eggs, we're just
23:33
Speaker 2: talking about totally optimizing your chances. And the more advanced
23:38
Speaker 2: age you are, you're just going to need more to
23:42
Speaker 2: work with for the event that you're going to need
23:44
Speaker 2: to come back and work with them.
23:46
Speaker 1: I want to talk about preparation a little bit. I
23:49
Speaker 1: did absolutely nothing to prepare for freezing my eggs except
23:53
Speaker 1: for try to not be stressed out. I had some
23:58
Speaker 1: friends who have been through that process. One of them
24:01
Speaker 1: gave me an acupuncturist and said that she's done this
24:05
Speaker 1: a few times and when she started doing acupuncture, her
24:09
Speaker 1: amount of eggs went up tremendously. Is there anything you
24:13
Speaker 1: recommend in terms of preparation, so.
24:16
Speaker 3: Specifically with you know, supplemental add ons, right, acupuncture, fertility massages,
24:23
Speaker 3: supplements that's a egg, vitamins. Yeah, those are all great
24:28
Speaker 3: supplemental items. However, there's not enough data yet to attribute
24:33
Speaker 3: just acupuncture, just fertility massages to why a cycle was
24:38
Speaker 3: more successful compared to other ones. Right, And our approach
24:42
Speaker 3: it is mind, body, soul. And this is not something
24:45
Speaker 3: that you could just pencil into your Google calendar and say, Okay,
24:49
Speaker 3: I'm going to freeze my eggs now, because you know, yeah,
24:53
Speaker 3: ideally you would do this when you know you aren't
24:56
Speaker 3: moving houses or changing a job, but that oftentimes we
24:59
Speaker 3: have patients and that is just the reality of it. Yeah,
25:02
Speaker 3: and they still have very efficient cycles and freeze or
25:06
Speaker 3: yield a great number of eggs and are went and
25:09
Speaker 3: done with their cycles. Right. However, I think being in
25:12
Speaker 3: the place where you are all in on this at
25:15
Speaker 3: this current time, not one foot in, one foot out,
25:19
Speaker 3: because what you put into this is what you get
25:22
Speaker 3: out of it, meaning the research that you do, the
25:24
Speaker 3: clinic that you choose. Right, if you do research and
25:27
Speaker 3: you're choosing a clinic that has babies born from their
25:30
Speaker 3: laboratory from eggs that were frozen and then subsequently fertilize
25:34
Speaker 3: and thought, you know that is your biggest indicator that, Okay,
25:38
Speaker 3: this clinic successful with freezing eggs, because.
25:41
Speaker 1: That's a good thing to note.
25:43
Speaker 3: Yes, it's one thing, right, you are only doing half
25:46
Speaker 3: of the process right now, is just freezing them. You
25:48
Speaker 3: don't know if that is successful until if and when
25:50
Speaker 3: you come back to use them. So not only that part,
25:54
Speaker 3: but you know, doing your injections on time time as
25:58
Speaker 3: you know, right, it's like, okay, we want you to
26:00
Speaker 3: do your injections between six and ten pm, and then
26:03
Speaker 3: when you have your trigger shot that needs to be
26:05
Speaker 3: done it at exact time. So it's being fully attentive
26:09
Speaker 3: to this process and leaning in and understanding what you're
26:12
Speaker 3: going through rather than just being a patient going through
26:15
Speaker 3: who has no idea what's going on to them in
26:17
Speaker 3: their body.
26:18
Speaker 1: If I were to do this again, I think I
26:19
Speaker 1: would do acupuncture leading up. I kind of wish I
26:22
Speaker 1: would have known that.
26:22
Speaker 3: And there We've heard a lot of success stories with it,
26:25
Speaker 3: but again there's not enough data just to attribute success
26:28
Speaker 3: and optimization just with that.
26:30
Speaker 2: Yes, and often friends that mention things that they tried,
26:36
Speaker 2: it's usually people that tried things without it and then
26:42
Speaker 2: wanted to improve their results.
26:44
Speaker 3: By more reactive way rather than react right.
26:47
Speaker 2: And we love basically anything that's going to help you
26:53
Speaker 2: relax all of those things. But for somebody who's going
26:58
Speaker 2: to do fine as as they are, they're not going
27:03
Speaker 2: to see the same kind of benefit.
27:07
Speaker 1: It's a new year, and that means new opportunities to
27:10
Speaker 1: make connections. But when it comes to dating, it can
27:13
Speaker 1: be tough to put yourself out there and even know
27:16
Speaker 1: where to start. That's why I'm honestly excited to talk
27:20
Speaker 1: about Hinge, the dating app designed to be deleted.
27:23
Speaker 3: I'm starting.
27:24
Speaker 1: I decided this year I'm going to start to date now.
27:27
Speaker 1: I'm usually more of a meet in the wild, not
27:29
Speaker 1: on Wi Fi kind of girl. But it's twenty twenty
27:32
Speaker 1: four and I need to make some changes. My friends
27:34
Speaker 1: told me I did, so I'm signing up for Hinge.
27:38
Speaker 1: It really allows you to go beyond the surface of
27:40
Speaker 1: scrolling left or right on photos, express your personality and
27:44
Speaker 1: meet people who are on the same page. In the past,
27:47
Speaker 1: I slacked on my profile and I never even wrote prompts.
27:50
Speaker 1: But it's twenty twenty four and I'm promising to be
27:53
Speaker 1: more intentional. I'm going on Hinge and taking the time
27:56
Speaker 1: to invest in my profile. So if you're already on Hinge,
28:00
Speaker 1: you can reinvest in your profile, update those prompts, those
28:03
Speaker 1: photos and dating intentions, and make sure they reflect who
28:06
Speaker 1: you are and what you're looking for this year. It
28:09
Speaker 1: can be as easy as updating your profile to add
28:11
Speaker 1: the Hinge prompt This year, I really want to blink
28:15
Speaker 1: this year, I really want to get married. Just kidding,
28:18
Speaker 1: don't say that on your dating app. Buy a skincare fridge.
28:22
Speaker 1: Maybe don't say that either, Okay, for real? This year,
28:24
Speaker 1: I really want to do a half marathon, or master
28:27
Speaker 1: the art of cooking, win a pickleball tournament, read twenty
28:30
Speaker 1: five books, create the ultimate playlist for every celebration, explore
28:35
Speaker 1: two new countries, get my yoga certification, or sleep more.
28:39
Speaker 1: Whatever the answer is for you. Manifest the dating experience
28:42
Speaker 1: you want this year, Download Hinge and find someone worth
28:47
Speaker 1: deleting the app for Amanda En Callen, MD, Yale medicine,
28:55
Speaker 1: reproductive endercinologists and infertility specialists said this. I don't want
28:59
Speaker 1: them to them, meaning patients, to think of it as
29:02
Speaker 1: something they can do to delay starting a family more
29:04
Speaker 1: than they would otherwise. You aren't guaranteed that you'll be
29:07
Speaker 1: able to use those eggs when you freeze them. So
29:10
Speaker 1: people have said, do not use this as an insurance policy.
29:14
Speaker 1: I have to be honest. I am using this.
29:16
Speaker 2: As an insurance policy.
29:18
Speaker 1: So what are your thoughts on her words?
29:21
Speaker 2: Well, I disagree with the comment, okay, andew I disagree
29:25
Speaker 2: with the comment, but insurance policy can mean many different
29:30
Speaker 2: things to people, and very good physician I'm sure, but
29:34
Speaker 2: my approach is and it's not unique to me. Many
29:38
Speaker 2: physicians would say they don't agree with that comment.
29:42
Speaker 3: Right.
29:43
Speaker 2: It's great to be proactive instead of reactive.
29:47
Speaker 1: But isn't freezing your eggs proactive?
29:49
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, that's what you want instead of So she's
29:54
Speaker 2: saying that they might not be able to use them
29:57
Speaker 2: if they need to.
29:59
Speaker 3: I think her point is I think a big misconception
30:01
Speaker 3: out there is that people believe that by freezing your
30:04
Speaker 3: eggs you are guaranteed a child from it. You're not
30:07
Speaker 3: because again we're only looking at the egg. We don't
30:10
Speaker 3: know what the sperm picture is, and we don't know
30:13
Speaker 3: how that egg and the sperm are going to mix.
30:15
Speaker 3: When we get the most information about the quality of
30:18
Speaker 3: the egg is when you are trying to become an embryo, right,
30:22
Speaker 3: fertilize that egg with the sperm. So I think it's
30:25
Speaker 3: better to say you're giving yourself your highest chance in
30:28
Speaker 3: the future of having a biological child at whatever age
30:32
Speaker 3: that might be, rather than a full on insurance policy.
30:35
Speaker 1: Got it.
30:36
Speaker 2: I'd like to add something else, though, is that the
30:39
Speaker 2: more informed you are, so that statement is not taking
30:45
Speaker 2: into consideration how many eggs you've frozen, and so that
30:48
Speaker 2: is the whole point instead of and this is unique,
30:52
Speaker 2: how much we discuss this all ahead of time. So
30:55
Speaker 2: most of the negative articles. There's been some really good
30:59
Speaker 2: articles in New York Times and some articles that are
31:02
Speaker 2: coming out and where women talk about they froze their
31:06
Speaker 2: eggs and what they wish they would have realized. And
31:10
Speaker 2: that has been my message in terms of freeze intelligently,
31:17
Speaker 2: know what your chances are. There are so many women
31:20
Speaker 2: who froze their eggs and they have no idea that
31:25
Speaker 2: they don't have an appropriate number for their age. So
31:29
Speaker 2: it is an insurance policy. It is increasing your chances
31:36
Speaker 2: that you can be part of your decision instead of
31:40
Speaker 2: mother nature. So many physicians and people not doing it.
31:46
Speaker 2: They think women are freezing their eggs, oh, because they
31:50
Speaker 2: just haven't found their partner yet, and oh my god,
31:53
Speaker 2: I'm going to need these for baby number one. And
31:57
Speaker 2: I'm always saying, why is everybody assuming that's where these
32:01
Speaker 2: eggs are going to be the most beneficial. And I've
32:05
Speaker 2: always thought that when we get out here and more
32:09
Speaker 2: articles get written about it about women who have come
32:13
Speaker 2: back and use their eggs, it's talking about many of
32:17
Speaker 2: this when they use them, how many they thought at
32:20
Speaker 2: one time, all of those things.
32:21
Speaker 1: Well, when I spoke to my obg y n in La,
32:24
Speaker 1: who actually prompted me to even think about this, I'm
32:26
Speaker 1: grateful to him for that. It really is. And he
32:31
Speaker 1: was saying that the goal for many people, which it
32:34
Speaker 1: is for me, is that if you need these eggs,
32:37
Speaker 1: they're for baby number two or three exactly. You hope
32:40
Speaker 1: that you're at an age where you can have your
32:42
Speaker 1: first child naturally. If you can't, it's okay.
32:45
Speaker 3: But exactly, but you won't know until you start trying.
32:49
Speaker 2: That's the thing, exactly, and often having it the funnel
32:52
Speaker 2: fashion way. Yes, but even if you need just a
32:54
Speaker 2: little bit of assistance, you get that assistance. It's not
32:57
Speaker 2: full on in vitrol, right, little bit of assistance, that's
33:01
Speaker 2: number one.
33:02
Speaker 1: Okay, I want to talk through some rapid fires, all right, Okay,
33:07
Speaker 1: So hormones. This is one of my fears because I
33:11
Speaker 1: won't even wear perfume because of plates. So my OBGIM
33:15
Speaker 1: that I spoke about is an East West doctor UCLA,
33:19
Speaker 1: and I asked him and he said, these hormones flush
33:22
Speaker 1: out of your system within two weeks.
33:24
Speaker 3: So when you're on these hormone medications, you are on
33:27
Speaker 3: them for a finite period of time, right ten to
33:29
Speaker 3: fourteen days, and then when you have your retrieval procedure
33:33
Speaker 3: after that, you're likely not going to be having any
33:35
Speaker 3: more hormonal medications. You will be getting your period following
33:38
Speaker 3: that retrieval procedure about one to two weeks after that.
33:42
Speaker 3: By the time you get that period post retrieval procedure,
33:46
Speaker 3: that is an indication that your hormone levels are back
33:48
Speaker 3: to their natural baseline of because stimulation medications. It's the
33:52
Speaker 3: same hormones that your body has. We are just increasing
33:56
Speaker 3: them because instead of just maturing one or two of
33:59
Speaker 3: those follicles, we're hoping to mature all of them. That's
34:02
Speaker 3: really more of those hormones that come from the mets.
34:04
Speaker 1: How many eggs can you retrieve at one time?
34:07
Speaker 3: However many your body has, Remember, you can't make any
34:10
Speaker 3: more eggs, Apeer, we can't make any more eggs. Peer,
34:12
Speaker 3: We could only work with what's there. But that's why
34:14
Speaker 3: it's more so how many cycles do you think is
34:18
Speaker 3: recommended for me to get that goal number of eggs frozen?
34:21
Speaker 2: And that's why the younger you start, the processes are
34:26
Speaker 2: going to be much more responsive and recruit a whole
34:30
Speaker 2: lot more. You'll be able to nail on site them
34:34
Speaker 2: compared to what your ovaries would do ten years later.
34:40
Speaker 1: How long can the eggs be stored?
34:42
Speaker 2: Great question, that's more of a legal and show. But
34:47
Speaker 2: they can be stored indefinitely.
34:50
Speaker 3: They're maintained, yes.
34:51
Speaker 2: Right and so, and that's something you know. Programs are
34:56
Speaker 2: very different in terms of how they store the eggs
34:59
Speaker 2: and who takes care of the eggs. But that's something
35:03
Speaker 2: that is as important as what you need.
35:07
Speaker 3: To do, you work too hard to free create them.
35:09
Speaker 2: We have the very same embryologists that help find those
35:14
Speaker 2: eggs for you. We maintain them on site with a
35:17
Speaker 2: whole lot of monitoring equipment and redundancies built in to
35:21
Speaker 2: keep them safe. But as long as they are maintained properly,
35:25
Speaker 2: it's indefinite. People who freeze embryos, then they could be
35:32
Speaker 2: stored indefinitely. However, if and when those embryos are going
35:37
Speaker 2: to be used, both parties who created the embryos have
35:42
Speaker 2: to be in agreement to what gets done with those embryos.
35:46
Speaker 3: The Big Sophia Barbara case, right, they went through the
35:49
Speaker 3: divorce and who was going to get the ownership of
35:51
Speaker 3: the embryos? And that is a big reason why, like
35:55
Speaker 3: not just to create embryos for fertility preservation purposes for later,
36:00
Speaker 3: because you know, things happen and who knows if you're
36:03
Speaker 3: still going to be with that person. So by freezing eggs,
36:05
Speaker 3: you get the autonomy because that is just your self.
36:08
Speaker 1: But people will say, and I don't know if this
36:10
Speaker 1: is right, but what I've heard from people is they
36:12
Speaker 1: want to freeze embryos because the success level is higher.
36:16
Speaker 2: It's a huge myth misconception that I'm going to explain
36:20
Speaker 2: why it is true. Embryos are much easier to freeze.
36:25
Speaker 2: There's less variation between IVF programs and being able to
36:31
Speaker 2: freeze embryos. Right, okay, however, and the reason that is
36:36
Speaker 2: is because they're balanced out. They have all their chromosomes
36:38
Speaker 2: from the sperm in the egg, so they are much
36:40
Speaker 2: easier to freeze. The egg is very fragile because only
36:45
Speaker 2: half of the chromosomes are there. However, the techniques work
36:49
Speaker 2: really well. If the program does a lot of freezing,
36:53
Speaker 2: we can that the exact same chance for pregnancy. The
36:57
Speaker 2: big difference is by going through and making your embryos first,
37:02
Speaker 2: you know how many embryos you have to work with.
37:06
Speaker 3: Later, you're closer to your outcome with embryos because it's
37:10
Speaker 3: already made it past all those hurdles. Right, it's not
37:14
Speaker 3: just the soul sell on its own, right. It needs
37:17
Speaker 3: to go through all these various parts of attrition.
37:20
Speaker 2: You know how many you're working with, compared to having
37:23
Speaker 2: to wait to see how many of your eggs. But
37:25
Speaker 2: if you're working with the program that freezes a lot
37:27
Speaker 2: of eggs, your chance of pregnancy with an embryo resulting
37:32
Speaker 2: from thawing your embryos is the same as thawing your eggs.
37:37
Speaker 1: So I think you just touched on something huge. Is
37:40
Speaker 1: that when you're looking to do this, there's certain questions
37:43
Speaker 1: that you want to ask. Absolutely one seems to be
37:47
Speaker 1: what's the success rate in terms of egg freezing? How
37:50
Speaker 1: do you ask that? What do you ask the clinic?
37:53
Speaker 2: Number one thing is you find out how many egg
37:56
Speaker 2: freezing patients do you treat? How long if you've been
38:00
Speaker 2: doing it, how many babies do you have borne from
38:04
Speaker 2: eggs that you have frozen and thought in your lab?
38:07
Speaker 3: Right?
38:08
Speaker 2: Okay?
38:08
Speaker 3: The patient is subsequently at a later time came back
38:12
Speaker 3: to use those eggs and fertilize them and create embryos,
38:16
Speaker 3: and may be done pre implantation genetic testing. That is
38:20
Speaker 3: the number one question. Do you have babies born from
38:23
Speaker 3: eggs that were previously frozen in your laboratory and that's.
38:27
Speaker 2: Sawed and created embryos and did subsequent transfers?
38:31
Speaker 1: Is it important to have a lab on site? Do
38:33
Speaker 1: you ask that? So I did all this research before
38:36
Speaker 1: I did this, because you know, I'm a journal Yeah, yeah,
38:38
Speaker 1: And studies have demonstrated that the quality of an egg
38:41
Speaker 1: freezing lab can impact success rates dramatically, So a high
38:44
Speaker 1: quality lab can increase the success It's a fertility procedure.
38:48
Speaker 2: It's probably what's most significant and not talked about. So
38:52
Speaker 2: as we know. So I'm an embryologist, I've been doing this.
38:56
Speaker 2: This is egg freezing. It is one hundred percent correct.
38:59
Speaker 2: You need to trust your doctor. You need a doctor
39:01
Speaker 2: and a team that knows how to stimulate. But egg
39:05
Speaker 2: freezing it is one hundred percent a laboratory procedure. So
39:11
Speaker 2: this is laboratory founded and owned because it is what's
39:18
Speaker 2: most important in selecting the right lap.
39:22
Speaker 3: It's really at the end of the day, it's in
39:23
Speaker 3: the embryology laboratory where you're either going to have an
39:26
Speaker 3: embryo or not. Right. Fertility is so interesting because a
39:30
Speaker 3: doctor needs an IVF laboratory.
39:33
Speaker 2: It's an area of medicine where a physician cannot do
39:36
Speaker 2: on their own, so you need the scientists. So the
39:39
Speaker 2: laboratory director group of embryologists along with the physician. And
39:43
Speaker 2: so whether the laboratory is on site or the doctor
39:47
Speaker 2: needs to go to a very well established laboratory, they
39:51
Speaker 2: may own that and have it right on site, or
39:54
Speaker 2: they might collaborate with a laboratory. So it's the type
39:58
Speaker 2: of thing that is in Vitro has done many places
40:02
Speaker 2: egg freezing. It is a true specialty, and that was
40:06
Speaker 2: my main mission for doing this, not trying to convince
40:11
Speaker 2: women to freeze their eggs, because if they understand it,
40:14
Speaker 2: it's a no brainer. And if it's like just like
40:17
Speaker 2: you do pap smears and you do mammograms and you
40:19
Speaker 2: do all these things, it's something that is very powerful
40:24
Speaker 2: to keep your options open. However, if you are going
40:28
Speaker 2: to freeze them, it requires much more homework and understanding
40:33
Speaker 2: of how you pick your program. And not to say
40:36
Speaker 2: that OVA is the only place, because there's so many
40:39
Speaker 2: good programs across the country, but I.
40:41
Speaker 1: Don't know if there's so many. No, there's a few, No, no.
40:45
Speaker 2: There are. But the number one reason why when things
40:49
Speaker 2: haven't worked that most of the women say I had
40:53
Speaker 2: no idea that I should have frozen more eggs, or
40:56
Speaker 2: I just wasn't prepared for what to expect if and
41:00
Speaker 2: when I come back, I would have made my decisions differently.
41:05
Speaker 2: And so so many women are walking around thinking, you know,
41:07
Speaker 2: they checked the box. Yes, I froze my eggs. I did.
41:10
Speaker 2: Number one thing I always ask is how many do
41:12
Speaker 2: you have frozen? Where did you go? And so that's
41:16
Speaker 2: an advocacy thing. Something I'm involved with is I'll I
41:19
Speaker 2: help people who've already gone through the process because it's
41:22
Speaker 2: never too late to inform yourself. And so it's get
41:27
Speaker 2: an opinion on I froze my eggs. What do you think?
41:30
Speaker 2: Is this a good number? And so there's questions that
41:33
Speaker 2: could be asked.
41:34
Speaker 1: Okay, right, I'm going to put a checklist together for
41:37
Speaker 1: people of questions to ask, because I wish somebody would
41:40
Speaker 1: have just handed me that. So the number one question is.
41:43
Speaker 2: How long have they been freezing eggs? And how many
41:47
Speaker 2: babies do you have from eggs that your laboratory froze
41:54
Speaker 2: and then subsequently thowed to create embryos?
41:57
Speaker 3: Third question, where are my eggs be stored?
42:00
Speaker 1: Yes?
42:01
Speaker 2: Are they sent to another facility to maintain the eggs
42:07
Speaker 2: or are they stored on site?
42:09
Speaker 3: Okay, and I think you know, as women who are
42:12
Speaker 3: electively choosing to freeze your eggs, this process can be intimidating,
42:16
Speaker 3: It can be emotional, It can be scary because you're
42:19
Speaker 3: learning things about your body. You want to feel comfortable
42:22
Speaker 3: and confident with the clinic that you're proceeding with in
42:24
Speaker 3: all realms clinically, lab wise, and also support wise from
42:28
Speaker 3: the team as well.
42:31
Speaker 1: So with some of the new laws controlling women's bodies
42:34
Speaker 1: in certain states, does that affect egg freezing at all?
42:38
Speaker 2: Egg freezing less than embryo freezing, of course, but you
42:43
Speaker 2: never know where you know where things go. But certainly
42:47
Speaker 2: egg freezing is one that will not have, yeah, will
42:53
Speaker 2: not have as many problems as embryo freezing. And we
42:57
Speaker 2: constantly have a lot of patient is calling us from
43:01
Speaker 2: trigger states where they have embryos.
43:04
Speaker 3: It was really shocking when you know, with the overturning
43:07
Speaker 3: of Rob Wade, the unbelievable happened. Right, we don't know
43:10
Speaker 3: what this means for so much. However, I think an
43:13
Speaker 3: important thing to note is you know what are the
43:15
Speaker 3: trigger states and if you have frozen tissue in any
43:19
Speaker 3: of them, you know considering that as well. After that
43:23
Speaker 3: decision was made, we got so many phone calls about
43:26
Speaker 3: people wanting to transport frozen tissue from other states because
43:30
Speaker 3: we don't know what it means to your lab right,
43:34
Speaker 3: because we're in a very friendly state such as Illinois
43:36
Speaker 3: is right, but.
43:37
Speaker 2: Things can always change, and that is a big part
43:41
Speaker 2: of It's like, when you pick your program, you're going
43:43
Speaker 2: to work with that your program should be very actively
43:47
Speaker 2: involved with keeping you educated right with wherever you are
43:50
Speaker 2: in the process. And that was a big goal.
43:53
Speaker 3: But with an egg freezing specifically that I'm sorry to
43:55
Speaker 3: cut you off. It's you. This is just your cell.
43:59
Speaker 3: It is not an so for it to trickle all
44:02
Speaker 3: the way down to just eggs, it would have a
44:04
Speaker 3: lot to go through part of getting there.
44:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, but if it does will be notifying.
44:09
Speaker 1: Yes, how can people get in touch with OVA if
44:13
Speaker 1: they're interested in learning more?
44:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, you could give us a call at our office
44:18
Speaker 3: a love you know, any if you just want to
44:20
Speaker 3: become more educated. Right, Obviously we would love to treat
44:23
Speaker 3: every patient because we can control the care that you have. Right. However,
44:27
Speaker 3: it's just becoming informed, learning about your body.
44:31
Speaker 2: And learning what to ask for, what to look into
44:35
Speaker 2: if you are considering it, don't just shop around based
44:39
Speaker 2: on cost. Yeah, know what the prices are, what the
44:42
Speaker 2: costs are, but you need to ask And ironically, some
44:47
Speaker 2: of the program that have the highest results aren't the
44:50
Speaker 2: highest price. Because that's the point. We want so many
44:54
Speaker 2: more women to do it, So don't think cost is
44:58
Speaker 2: a measure of success rates.
45:01
Speaker 1: Huge.
45:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's huge.
45:03
Speaker 1: That's good to know that.
45:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
45:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's something we get right in front of right away.
45:06
Speaker 3: Yes, people, and you know, anytime, like you could check
45:10
Speaker 3: us out on our website or thee egg freezing dot com.
45:12
Speaker 3: Although our name is egg Freezing and we specialize infertility preservation,
45:16
Speaker 3: we offer full IBF services. That's really important to note,
45:20
Speaker 3: and you know, give us a call, you could dm
45:22
Speaker 3: us on Instagram and just we're really just trying to
45:25
Speaker 3: help raise awareness about what us as women can do
45:28
Speaker 3: with our bodies and take control over some.
45:31
Speaker 1: Pretty smart questions. Okay, what is a book you've read
45:34
Speaker 1: that changed your life, something you think everybody should read?
45:36
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I would love everybody to read this, but
45:40
Speaker 2: I don't know if they will. Really significant it's called
45:44
Speaker 2: how They Do It. It was so fascinating and I read that,
45:49
Speaker 2: you know, end of grade school going into high school,
45:52
Speaker 2: and I knew I was going to specialize in reproduction.
45:56
Speaker 2: And I still have that book. I'm sure people could
45:58
Speaker 2: find it, but it's an old book, but it is
46:01
Speaker 2: really significant to.
46:03
Speaker 1: Me, what's the smartest decision you've ever made?
46:05
Speaker 3: The smartest decision I've ever made was as cliche as
46:09
Speaker 3: it sounds, coming and working in this field, and it
46:13
Speaker 3: honestly has taught me so many things just about us
46:16
Speaker 3: as women in general, and what we can do and
46:19
Speaker 3: what we are capable of doing, and how amazing our
46:23
Speaker 3: bodies are, and that we can have it all. We
46:27
Speaker 3: can have our careers, we can you know, have our
46:31
Speaker 3: families too, but if that's what we want, and we
46:33
Speaker 3: can't be single mothers on our own too. One of
46:35
Speaker 3: my favorite things to tell women is that us as women,
46:38
Speaker 3: we don't need a man to get pregnant. We just
46:40
Speaker 3: need sperm. Man they need a woman to have a baby.
46:44
Speaker 3: So I love that and just reminding people of that too.
46:47
Speaker 2: Smartest decision, well, of course, you know, like many of
46:51
Speaker 2: my patients, I didn't even know if I wanted to
46:54
Speaker 2: be a mother, right, I'm not, you know, I grew
46:57
Speaker 2: up liking to breed things and watch that and have
47:01
Speaker 2: all of those babies. I didn't have this thing that
47:05
Speaker 2: I had to be a mother, but which kind of
47:07
Speaker 2: freaks me out because as a mother, it's I love
47:12
Speaker 2: it and it's been the most rewarding thing, and I
47:15
Speaker 2: couldn't imagine not being a mother, So that's the smartest.
47:18
Speaker 2: But really, truly, I think the smartest decision was the
47:23
Speaker 2: decision to own my laboratory. This was two thousand and one,
47:28
Speaker 2: and to do the things that we do that I'm
47:31
Speaker 2: really proud of.
47:35
Speaker 1: I really hope we broke everything down in a digestible way.
47:38
Speaker 1: But if we didn't, feel free to message me. And
47:41
Speaker 1: now I want to go through the tip list, and
47:43
Speaker 1: this is compiled of things that I learned or wish
47:46
Speaker 1: I would have known throughout the process, and then things
47:48
Speaker 1: that other women shared with me along the way too.
47:51
Speaker 1: So I used to be four shots. It takes all
47:54
Speaker 1: of the stinging away, or a lot of it away,
47:56
Speaker 1: and other women told me to do that, and I
47:59
Speaker 1: was so great because the shots can sting a little bit.
48:02
Speaker 1: It's not terrible, but it's worth icing thirty seconds at
48:05
Speaker 1: least before the shot. Electrolytes, electrolytes, electrolytes. You get thirsty
48:11
Speaker 1: and a little dry from this, so you need to
48:13
Speaker 1: keep drinking water and the electrolytes really help. I love
48:16
Speaker 1: the brand Noon and you un but any brand you
48:19
Speaker 1: like will do. So you cannot work out during this process,
48:22
Speaker 1: but I think taking walks was really helpful. I didn't
48:25
Speaker 1: get to do it every day, but it's always good
48:28
Speaker 1: to move your body and just kind of walk slowly.
48:30
Speaker 1: There was one day where I took a walk and
48:32
Speaker 1: I was a little like I went a little faster
48:34
Speaker 1: and I got kind of anxious for some reason. I
48:37
Speaker 1: don't know why, but if that happens to you, just
48:40
Speaker 1: know that it can happen, and slow down and take
48:44
Speaker 1: a breath. I didn't try this, but other women told
48:47
Speaker 1: me that arnaka kreame for bruising when you're doing your
48:50
Speaker 1: shots is really helpful. Also, if you are given big
48:54
Speaker 1: needles for your injections, you can ask to see if
48:56
Speaker 1: the clinic has smaller ones for you. I had a
48:59
Speaker 1: few friends tell me that acupuncture for two months leading
49:02
Speaker 1: up to the process increase their egg count. I didn't
49:05
Speaker 1: do this, but I wish that I would have known
49:07
Speaker 1: this earlier. I think I would have tried it. I
49:10
Speaker 1: think also think about the things going on your body
49:13
Speaker 1: before you do this and during it, lotion, nail polish,
49:17
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I think you would want to try
49:20
Speaker 1: and use products with the least amount of toxins and
49:22
Speaker 1: palates as possible. Okay, this is one I don't like.
49:27
Speaker 1: Bathroom dog So this is one that's hard for me
49:29
Speaker 1: to say, but it's probably the most important. A few
49:33
Speaker 1: days before your egg retrieval, start taking a stool softener,
49:37
Speaker 1: and then the night of your retrieval, drink half a
49:42
Speaker 1: bottle of magnesium site trait. You can get it at CBS. Apparently,
49:48
Speaker 1: your first bowel movement, which everybody in my DMS was
49:52
Speaker 1: calling a BM, can be really painful if you don't
49:55
Speaker 1: pay close attention to this stuff. And nobody told me
49:59
Speaker 1: that for the women in my DM, so that was
50:02
Speaker 1: amazing advice. Okay, more tips nutrition. Nobody talks about nutrition,
50:08
Speaker 1: and I think it's actually really important to think about
50:11
Speaker 1: how you're supporting your body during this time. The number
50:14
Speaker 1: one thing I think is controlling your blood sugar. Your
50:17
Speaker 1: ovaries are really sensitive to sugar. Secondly, and this was
50:22
Speaker 1: a tip from Paleo Chef on Instagram, stick to a
50:25
Speaker 1: whole foods diet. So she says particularly fatty fish like salmon,
50:30
Speaker 1: sea bass, organ, meat, eggs meaning soft yolk, beef, hempseeds,
50:35
Speaker 1: pumpkin seeds, leafy greens, not kale and bone broth daily.
50:40
Speaker 1: Now after your procedure, after the retrieval, the clinics tell
50:44
Speaker 1: you to eat foods that are high in sodium. So
50:46
Speaker 1: most likely they're going to recommend cereal McDonald's French fries,
50:50
Speaker 1: and if that's what makes you comfortable, and that's what
50:52
Speaker 1: you're craving, by all means, but I felt like I
50:55
Speaker 1: really wanted to follow. Of course they're high sodium instructions,
50:58
Speaker 1: but I wanted to support my body with foods that
51:01
Speaker 1: were more nutritious. So sodium rich foods that I ate
51:05
Speaker 1: were vegetable and chicken stir fry with soy sauce. The
51:08
Speaker 1: soy sauce is obviously high in sodium. Any vegetable juices,
51:12
Speaker 1: cold cuts, hamburger with cheese, cottage cheese, tomato soup. Also
51:16
Speaker 1: they say eat high fiber foods, so oatmeal, apples, pears, avocados,
51:21
Speaker 1: leafy greens, broccoli, bokchoi, Brussels sprouts. And you really want
51:26
Speaker 1: to flush the hormones out of your system, so drinking
51:30
Speaker 1: water with electrolytes is really important. Again, and I had
51:34
Speaker 1: some people say to me to do like an infrared sauna.
51:37
Speaker 1: I didn't have one. Near me, so I didn't do it,
51:39
Speaker 1: but it's a good tip if you can access one.
51:42
Speaker 1: Here are some tips for aftercare. Okay, First, I really
51:45
Speaker 1: underestimated the intensity of the retrieval. The anesthesia knocked me
51:50
Speaker 1: out and I felt nauseous the whole day and night.
51:53
Speaker 1: It was bearable nausea, but uncomfortable. And so if you're
51:56
Speaker 1: able to, I would try to take two days off
51:58
Speaker 1: of work, the one day of the retrieve and the
52:00
Speaker 1: day after, because I just feel like you're going to
52:04
Speaker 1: want more than one day to rest if you're able to,
52:07
Speaker 1: and drink drink, drink, drink electrolytes all day. At night
52:10
Speaker 1: you can make hot water with lemon and add me
52:13
Speaker 1: relax to it. I woke up the day after feeling
52:15
Speaker 1: a lot better, but very bloated, and apparently that doesn't
52:18
Speaker 1: go away until after your first period, so I think
52:21
Speaker 1: it's just important to know that and know that it's normal.
52:25
Speaker 1: And Okay, seven questions to ask any clinic you need
52:29
Speaker 1: to talk about in terms of egg freezing. I think
52:32
Speaker 1: these are a lot to go through on the pod,
52:33
Speaker 1: so I'm going to put these on my Instagram. Cassidy
52:37
Speaker 1: and Colleen touched on it a bit, and I just
52:40
Speaker 1: want to put them in writing in a place that's
52:42
Speaker 1: really clear. Okay, that was a lot for me to record.
52:46
Speaker 1: It was probably a lot for you to hear, too,
52:48
Speaker 1: But I really hope it's helpful if you decide to
52:51
Speaker 1: go and embark on this or have a friend who's
52:54
Speaker 1: doing so. We're coming back next week with very very
52:59
Speaker 1: interesting episode about money and relationships. How do we talk
53:04
Speaker 1: about money and relationships? I don't know, so I called
53:06
Speaker 1: an expert. Okay, you know what time it is. Today's
53:15
Speaker 1: a good day. To have a good day. I'll see
53:17
Speaker 1: you next week.