Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Is IVF actually right for you?

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Is IVF actually right for you? · Silver FM 100.6

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, we tell
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  Speaker 3: You know, people think about IVF as this sure thing,
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: and it's not a sure thing. And that kind of
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: topples people over when they're like, well, I was, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I was banking on IVF.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: People talk about it as a type of insurance policy,
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  Speaker 2: but it's really not a guarantee.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And it's not even necessarily the best choice for everyone
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: trying to start a family. Just listen to reproductive endocrinologist Dr.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Lucky Seacon. She's who we featured in our first story
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: on how.
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  Speaker 6: To get breastfed.
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  Speaker 7: There's a whole swath of women in my generation that
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  Speaker 7: feel blindsided and that feel they didn't have all of
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  Speaker 7: the correct information. And maybe with the advent of egg
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  Speaker 7: freezing and all this chatter and headlines about IVF, they
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  Speaker 7: actually had an overconfidence in how much science can overcome.
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  Speaker 7: And I see that every day.
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  Speaker 6: Well, we are going to set the record straight today.
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  Speaker 6: You're listening to Life Kit.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: By the way, I'm Mariel Segarra, and I am talking
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to Life Kit reporter Andy Tegel. about the things to
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  Speaker 2: know when you're considering getting pregnant with the help of
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  Speaker 2: reproductive technology like IVF.
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  Speaker 8: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: And it's not just IVF, by the way. The umbrella
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  Speaker 3: term here is ART. That stands for Assisted Reproductive Technology.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I'm going to apologize up front because that is not
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  Speaker 3: the last of the acronyms coming your way. What we're
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: going to do today is give you a lay of
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  Speaker 3: the land. So we'll break down some of the different
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  Speaker 3: options available, the general price of those options, timelines, some
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  Speaker 3: legal considerations. and how to deal with your feelings as
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: you go through it all.
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  Speaker 6: That's coming up after the break.
• 1:57
  Speaker 9: This week on Up First, we talk about the economy. Trucks, trains,
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  Speaker 5: Austin Tice is an American journalist who disappeared over a
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: decade ago while reporting in Syria. And for years, we've
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: been searching for him.
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  Speaker 10: This looks like a secret passage.
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  Speaker 9: I'm just pushing a.
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  Speaker 8: Door so he can get in.
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  Speaker 9: Go, go, go.
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  Speaker 10: Hey, it's me, Peter Sagal, host of Wait, Wait, Don't
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  Speaker 3: No matter your specific situation, I'd bet if you're listening
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  Speaker 3: to this episode, your list of potential worries is a
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  Speaker 3: long one. And on the top, a great big, where
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  Speaker 3: do I start? Or when do I start?
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  Speaker 11: Don't start with the paperwork. There'll be plenty of paperwork.
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  Speaker 11: Start with the family that you want to build in mind.
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  Speaker 3: This is Janine Oliaga, a family formation attorney and reproductive
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  Speaker 3: rights advocate. And she brings us Takeaway 1. To find
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  Speaker 3: the right fertility path for you, Start by defining the
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  Speaker 3: picture of your ideal future family, and then plan your runway.
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  Speaker 3: As in, what's your ideal family size? When you close
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  Speaker 3: your eyes and look at that future family portrait on
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  Speaker 3: the wall, how many little ones do you see? Is
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: it important to you that the children staring back at
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  Speaker 3: you actually look like you? Or your partner, if you
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  Speaker 3: have one? Do you feel strongly about experiencing pregnancy?
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  Speaker 8: I always recommend to start this process one or two
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  Speaker 8: years before you're actually ready to get pregnant.
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  Speaker 3: Maria Goodman is a licensed midwife and co-author of the book,
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  Speaker 3: Baby Making for Everybody, Family Building and Fertility for LGBTQ
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  Speaker 3: Plus and Solo Parents.
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  Speaker 8: And I focus a lot on empowering queer folks and
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  Speaker 8: solo parents throughout their family building journeys.
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  Speaker 3: Maria's top recommendation to all the people they work with,
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  Speaker 3: if the luxury is available, is, is to give yourself
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  Speaker 3: as much time as possible. Let's go through the motions
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  Speaker 3: of building that ideal family to better understand why that
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  Speaker 3: timeline is so important. Making a baby, we know, requires
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  Speaker 3: three ingredients. Egg cell, sperm cell, and a uterus. So
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  Speaker 3: if you don't have all those things ready to go,
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  Speaker 3: the next step in building that family portrait will be
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  Speaker 3: figuring out how you want to go about sourcing whatever
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  Speaker 3: components you're missing. For example, If you have two uteruses
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  Speaker 3: in your relationship or your partner has motility issues, you'll
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  Speaker 3: have to decide where your sperm is coming from.
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  Speaker 8: It can take a long time to understand your choices
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  Speaker 8: between a known or directed donor, someone in your community
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  Speaker 8: that you want to enter into a legal and relational
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  Speaker 8: contract to become the sperm donor or go through the bank.
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  Speaker 3: Let's quickly note for the record that The process of
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  Speaker 3: choosing a gamete donor, meaning someone who donates their egg
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  Speaker 3: or sperm cells, could probably have an episode all its own.
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  Speaker 3: Because Maria says a lot of people can get really
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  Speaker 3: stuck in this part of the process. But since we're
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: only dreaming for now, here's a way to start narrowing
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: down your options.
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  Speaker 8: Choose your five most compelling, rank them one through five,
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  Speaker 8: and then let your top three guide you.
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  Speaker 3: Once you have those sorted, you have to actually go
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  Speaker 3: and find that donor. If you go through a sperm
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  Speaker 3: or egg bank, the process can be quick once you've
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  Speaker 3: made a decision. Like three to five business days type quick.
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  Speaker 3: Going the fresh route can take much longer. Anywhere from
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  Speaker 3: a few weeks to half a year, depending on who
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  Speaker 3: or what you're looking for. Plus, getting all the necessary
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  Speaker 3: testing done... and contracts written up. And if you need
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  Speaker 3: a gestational surrogate, you can plan to tack on anywhere
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  Speaker 3: from a few more months to a few years to
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  Speaker 3: find the right match. And when you've made it through
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  Speaker 3: all of that, it's time to prepare physically. Let's note,
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  Speaker 3: this might be a more extensive process for some than
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  Speaker 3: simply tracking your cycle.
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  Speaker 8: So I work with a lot of trans men who
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  Speaker 8: are decide that they want to carry a pregnancy. And
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  Speaker 8: we know from some small but well-done studies that it
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  Speaker 8: takes about three to four months for people going off
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  Speaker 8: of gender-affirming hormone therapy to return to ovulation and be
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  Speaker 8: able to conceive. And before doing that, we strongly recommend
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  Speaker 8: setting up major support systems because it can be a
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  Speaker 8: big emotional undertaking.
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  Speaker 3: Now, we're only talking hypotheticals, but you can see how
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  Speaker 3: quickly the time can start to add up, right? And
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  Speaker 3: we haven't gotten to the procedures yet, which brings us
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  Speaker 3: to takeaway two, which A-R-T is right for Y-O-U.
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  Speaker 11: There's so many different paths to parenthood through all different means,
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  Speaker 11: gestational surrogacy, egg donation. So there is no one way
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  Speaker 11: to become a parent.
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  Speaker 3: Generally speaking, finding the right path will depend on a
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  Speaker 3: few different factors. Primarily, age, health, and budget. We'll start
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  Speaker 3: with age. Let's say you and your partner are both
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  Speaker 3: currently 38, and that future family portrait features two, maybe three, perfect,
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  Speaker 3: precocious little ones, all with matching PJs and one of
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  Speaker 3: their grandma's curly locks. Here's Dr. Lucky Seacon again.
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  Speaker 7: The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says, if you're 38
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  Speaker 7: and older and you know you want to have two
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  Speaker 7: children and you haven't started that journey yet, it's very
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  Speaker 7: reasonable to consider interventions like IVF to freeze embryos, given
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  Speaker 7: what we know about how fast the biological clock begins
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  Speaker 7: to tick.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, the biological clock. You might have heard that this
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  Speaker 3: clock starts ticking around age 35. Lucky says there's no
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  Speaker 3: on-off switch like that, but 35, for people with uteruses,
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  Speaker 3: is considered somewhat of a turning point. So if you
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  Speaker 3: were to map out on a chart the health of
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  Speaker 3: your egg cells through your lifespan, age 35 is when
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  Speaker 3: you start to see a downward slope because the proteins
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  Speaker 3: that keep the chromosomes in egg cells lined up correctly
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  Speaker 3: slowly begin to break down with age.
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  Speaker 7: But I want to say... that nobody has perfect eggs.
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  Speaker 7: Even in our 20s, 20 to 25% of embryos will
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  Speaker 7: have missing or extra DNA. And that increases to about
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  Speaker 7: maybe a third of.
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  Speaker 11: Them at 35.
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  Speaker 7: By 37 or 38, your odds are more like 50-50.
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  Speaker 3: And by age 40, the split is 70-30, meaning up
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  Speaker 3: to 70% of the time, an egg cell will And
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  Speaker 3: by age 40, the split is 70-30, meaning up to
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  Speaker 3: 70% of the time, an egg cell will have missing
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  Speaker 3: or extra DNA. So it's going to be harder to
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  Speaker 3: have a viable pregnancy naturally. Your number of eggs also
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  Speaker 3: decreases with time and starts to decrease more rapidly around,
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  Speaker 3: you guessed it, age 35. And this can be true
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  Speaker 3: of sperm quality too, by the way. So you want
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  Speaker 3: to take all of this into consideration before choosing a
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  Speaker 3: treatment option. If you're on the younger side, like mid
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  Speaker 3: to late 20s, and you know you want to have
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  Speaker 3: a family, but maybe later down the line, Lucky says
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  Speaker 3: it might be worth exploring freezing eggs or embryos now,
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  Speaker 3: if you can, or sooner rather than later.
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  Speaker 7: It's kind of like giving yourself a head start should
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  Speaker 7: you ever need IVF because it's The egg count and
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  Speaker 7: quality decreasing can make it harder, even with the best
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  Speaker 7: of technology, to overcome infertility.
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  Speaker 3: If you're on the young side or somewhere in between,
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  Speaker 3: say early 30s, but you don't have a ton of
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  Speaker 3: disposable income or you don't like the idea of lots
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  Speaker 3: of needles.
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  Speaker 8: There are less medicalized ways to go about the process.
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  Speaker 3: Maria is a practitioner of at-home intrauterine insemination. or IUI,
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  Speaker 3: which is a far less involved, less invasive method of
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  Speaker 3: trying to conceive than IVF. With IUI, a sperm sample
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  Speaker 3: is collected and then washed, so only high-quality sperm are left.
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  Speaker 3: That sperm is then inserted into the uterus using a
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  Speaker 3: catheter during ovulation. It's a more budget-friendly option and is
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  Speaker 3: more likely to be covered by insurance. but it also
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  Speaker 3: has a lower success rate than IVF at any age.
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  Speaker 3: One study, for example, clocked the pregnancy rate for patients
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  Speaker 3: under 30 as 52.3% for IVF, while IUI yielded 39.2%.
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  Speaker 3: So if you're older than 35 and you've been trying
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  Speaker 3: for more than six months, or if budget isn't a
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  Speaker 3: concern and you want to go straight for the best odds,
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  Speaker 3: Maybe you do head straight to your nearest IVF doc.
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  Speaker 3: But you should know that there are trade-offs. In vitro
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  Speaker 3: fertilization involves surgical procedures, daily hormone injections, and monitoring over
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  Speaker 3: a period of four to six weeks per cycle. All
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  Speaker 3: of which come with separate price tags. And while it's
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: an effective option for many people, not everyone will be
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  Speaker 3: a candidate for IVF. If you suffer from certain high-risk
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  Speaker 3: health conditions, like severe heart or lung disease, for example,
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  Speaker 3: severe mental health disorders, or are past a certain age
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  Speaker 3: and unwilling to use donor gametes, you might not qualify
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  Speaker 3: for treatment. And with all of these options, it's important
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  Speaker 3: to note that many people don't get pregnant on the
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: first go. So it's important to build in buffer time.
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  Speaker 3: not to mention an emotional and financial buffer, for multiple tries.
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  Speaker 3: Maria says they often help their clients to come up
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: with a loose plan based on their ideal.
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  Speaker 8: And that usually involves three to four tries with a
• 13:28
  Speaker 8: certain method and then changing something. So changing either the
• 13:32
  Speaker 8: method of conception, the donor sperm. It can be a
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  Speaker 8: winding journey and we don't know what options are going
• 13:40
  Speaker 8: to make the most sense until we're there.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: After the break, let's talk that baby-making budget.
• 13:58
  Speaker 12: I haven't seen my son since 2012.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: This is Deborah Tice. The disappearance of her son, Austin,
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: is one of the biggest missing person cases in the world.
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: What do you want from me?
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: I should solve the mystery. I know that my son
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: is somewhere alive.
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: Listen to Where Is Austin Tice from NPR's Embedded and
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: BBC Radio 4 on the NPR app or wherever you
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: get your podcasts.
• 14:22
  Speaker 13: Hi there, I'm Brittany Luce. And not to brag, but
• 14:25
  Speaker 13: I host a really fabulous podcast. It's called It's Been
• 14:29
  Speaker 13: a Minute. I love making it and I think you'll
• 14:31
  Speaker 13: love listening to it. Over the last year, hundreds of
• 14:34
  Speaker 13: thousands of listeners have been tuning in And I gotta say,
• 14:38
  Speaker 13: if you haven't yet, you're missing out. Listen to the
• 14:41
  Speaker 13: It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR today.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Okay, so maybe now we have an idea of what
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: the path ahead could look like. The dream is hazy
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: at the edges, but it's starting to take form. Now
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: it's time for an ice cold bucket of reality.
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  Speaker 4: So we typically say an average IVF baby costs $ 70, 000, 7-0.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: This is Angela Rastegar, the co-founder and CEO of Sunfish,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: a fertility financing company. Before starting her business, she worked
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: for another large fertility firm where she was tasked with
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: helping clients understand the full cost of becoming parents.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: People would cry to me on the phone or... you know,
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: sell their engagement rank or dip into their 401k. And
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: it was just really breaking my heart to see people
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: making these very difficult financial decisions.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Takeaway three, becoming a parent through ART can be a
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: big investment. Understand the full financial picture before you sign
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: on any dotted lines. The first bit, retrieving and freezing
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: the eggs is assuming they're your own.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: That's typically between $ 8, 000 to $ 15, 000 or so plus medication.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: You're going to need different medications just to retrieve them.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: If you're going to go through a full cycle, so
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: you're going to fertilize those eggs and sperm, test the embryos,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: and then transfer them to a uterus.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: We typically see an IVF cycle cost about $ 25, 000 plus medication,
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: which is typically another five to ten thousand dollars.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: And each time you do another embryo transfer.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: That usually costs another four to seven thousand dollars or
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: so so you have to pay for that each time
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: and it takes most people a few attempts to go
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: through that whole process.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: And if you don't have all your own ingredients don't
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: forget you'll have a few more things to add to
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: your shopping cart.
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: Donor sperm. $ 1, 500 to $ 2, 000 each.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: Don't forget to multiply by four to six attempts on
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: average for people with no known fertility issues. Donor egg.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: Anywhere from 6,000 to up to, I've seen, 50,000. And
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: if you need a surrogate. Anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: I know the numbers are scary to go into. Now,
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: at this point, you might be wondering, where does insurance
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: come in?
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: Insurance benefits are growing. Some employers have benefits. We currently
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: estimate about 42 percent of treatments are covered by some
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: sort of insurance or benefit. So 42 percent, that means
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: the other 58 percent are paying totally out of pocket.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: So that's, you know, not great in some cases. Insurers
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: might require you to start with certain procedures before covering others.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: For example, you might only get paid out for IVF
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: after trying IUI a certain number of times. So make
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: sure to read the fine print on your policy. And
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: then talk to your doctor about what makes the most
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: sense for you.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: For example, if you're older, if you're worried about timing,
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: do you want to stop and try that? for six
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: months or just go straight to IVF. That would probably
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: be a conversation your doctor would have with you.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: And when you go for that initial consultation, be sure
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: to ask for a complete bottom line picture of the costs.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: Including transfers, testing, any other costs that might be included,
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: not just your first step of the egg retrieval and
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: embryo creation.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: And while we're on the subject... Another big cost saver
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: is thoroughly vetting your clinic and making sure you have
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: a trustworthy provider that will treat you and your embryos
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: with the utmost care. Not all clinics are created equal.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: There's a ton of helpful information for every individual IVF
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: program in the U.S. via the CDC and the Society
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: for Assisted Reproductive Technology at art.cdc.gov. Now, you'll want to
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: be careful when looking at individual clinic numbers because they're
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: not all meaningful and not necessarily one-to-one, but you can
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: and should confirm that they're accredited and that they adhere
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: to the guidelines set forth by the American Society for
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: Reproductive Medicine. It's also not a bad idea to take
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: a look at and even ask about your clinic's live
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: birth rate. that information at least might be able to
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: make you feel more secure before handing over your.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: Credit card because a typical American family doesn't have that
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: much cash just sitting ready to go, especially a young couple.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: It's a very sizable amount of debt that people are
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: taking on to pursue this journey.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Remember, you're allowed to get creative.
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: I have a community member whose sibling started a family
• 20:05
  Speaker 8: building fund at their wedding to help cover the cost
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: of donor sperm or fertility treatments and help them feel
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: like they had support during that process.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: There are also a lot of different orgs out there
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: that offer cost-saving measures. One great resource to get you started,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: an organization called RESOLVE, the National Infertility and Family Building Association.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Whatever you decide to do about your finances and A
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: small silver lining here is the opportunity to have those
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: hard but necessary conversations early on. Which brings us to
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: takeaway four. Set expectations early, often, and in writing. It's
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: important to be aware upfront that the terms and conditions
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: of your fertility journey can vary a lot depending on
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: things like what you're planning to do, where you live,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: or both. One of Janine's big disclaimers for people just
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: starting out.
• 21:13
  Speaker 11: Before you commit to a path, make sure you know,
• 21:15
  Speaker 11: will this result in the recognition of my legal parenthood?
• 21:19
  Speaker 11: Don't spend money, time, effort, emotion to find out that
• 21:23
  Speaker 11: a door is closed because the state that you plan
• 21:26
  Speaker 11: to move forward in no longer has that or has
• 21:28
  Speaker 11: never had that as an option for you.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Currently, for instance, There's proposed legislation in several states around
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: the idea of personhood. Very briefly, these personhood bills would
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: establish legal rights for embryos by defining life as beginning
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: at conception or fertilization. What that means is, in the future,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: depending on where you live, you might not be able
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: to access embryos you've already frozen or find access to
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: an IVF center or fertility treatments available at all. Some
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: paperwork you definitely want to think about upfront, contract language
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: for any kind of donor or surrogate. The example Janine
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: gave me here is a gay couple. If two men
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: want to have a baby that is genetically related to
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: one of them, they'll need to first find an egg
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: donor and then a gestational surrogate. Contracts will be required
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: for both the donation and the surrogacy process. And then
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: once baby is born, Both partners can be the legal parents,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: but one person will neither share genetics nor gestate the pregnancy.
• 22:39
  Speaker 11: The law needs to recognize the intended parents, not simply
• 22:43
  Speaker 11: assume that the person giving birth is the intended parent.
• 22:46
  Speaker 11: So there's just so much extra planning for anyone who's
• 22:51
  Speaker 11: having a child through assisted reproductive technology, but specifically for
• 22:54
  Speaker 11: LGBTQ individuals.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: One idea that was novel to me is but that
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: Janine says is growing in popularity and relevance, adding a
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: fertility clause to your prenup.
• 23:07
  Speaker 11: I don't think there's a better time to discuss it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 11: I mean, when you are getting married to someone, you're
• 23:12
  Speaker 11: thinking about building a life with them. Why not talk about, hey,
• 23:16
  Speaker 11: if we have to go through IVF or if we
• 23:18
  Speaker 11: are going through IVF, what do we want to happen
• 23:20
  Speaker 11: to our embryos? There is so much litigation, specifically in
• 23:24
  Speaker 11: New York where I practice, over IVF. Embryos in the
• 23:28
  Speaker 11: context of a divorce. Who gets them and who's a
• 23:30
  Speaker 11: legal parent of children born from those embryos?
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Before I let you go, let's check in. That was
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: a whole lot of information at once. How are we feeling?
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: If the answer is closer to overwhelmed than over the
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: moon excited, no one could blame you. I.
• 23:52
  Speaker 8: think it's really important to normalize grief as part of
• 23:56
  Speaker 8: the family building journey.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: Maria has helped thousands of people through this process and
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: they say they don't think they've seen anyone go through
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: it without some form of grief. Be it the anxiety
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: of not knowing what will happen or the frustration of
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: not being able to get pregnant within the confines of
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: your own relationship. But even though your pregnancy journey might
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: not look the same as your cousin's or that friend
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: from high school on social media, Maria says the uniquely
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: wonderful part about baby making in this way is how
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: purposeful you can be as you build a life for
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: your future family.
• 24:36
  Speaker 8: I think it's a beautiful gift that we give our
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: children of them knowing that they were so wanted.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: All right, let's recap. Takeaway one, to find the right
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: fertility path, picture your future family and give yourself as
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: much runway as you can. A few years in advance,
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: if possible. Takeaway two, fertility treatments are not one size
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: fits all. Consider your age, your health, your budget before
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: moving forward. Takeaway three, are you willing to go into
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: debt to become a daddie? Becoming a parent through ART
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: can be a BIG investment. Make sure you understand the
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: full cost before jumping in. Finally, takeaway four, IVF, IUI,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: finding donor gametes, they're all complicated processes that come with
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: equally complicated decision making. Setting expectations up front and in
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: writing will save you heartache, Later down the line.
• 25:49
  Speaker 6: That was LifeKit reporter Andy Tegel. And that's our show.
• 25:53
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  Speaker 2: This episode of LifeKit was produced by Margaret Cerino. Our
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  Speaker 2: digital editor is Malika Garib and our visuals editor is
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  Speaker 2: support comes from Tiffany Vera Castro. Fact-checking by Tyler Jones.
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  Speaker 2: I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.
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