Episode 150: Experiencing Both Sides – Sasha Swift
Sasha became a mom at the age of 19 and a single mother at age 23 after leaving a toxic situation. She met the love of her life in 2018 and is now happily married. Sasha and her husband have been struggling to grow their family for a few years and her daughter is impatient, asking for a sibling. Their family of three humans and two dogs enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants, and spending time with family. Her fertility journey includes everything from teen pregnancy to egg donation, and now infertility.
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Episode 149: You Can Donate Your Uterus?! – Nikki Wehmeir
Born and raised in Texas, Nikki Wehmeir now lives in California -- though is very eager to move back closer to her family at some point! Nikki is an incredibly proud mother of two (an almost 22 year old daughter, Hayli, and a 13 year old son, Kaden). Nikki is completely obsessed with animals -- especially dogs. Her career has been built around the infertility field, specifically egg donation and surrogacy. She truly can't imagine doing anything else.
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Episode 148: Surrogacy Changes Lives (and Careers) – Courtney Johnson
Courtney Johnson is a surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology attorney practicing in Jacksonville, Florida. Courtney’s and her husband Matt’s son was delivered by a gestational surrogate after their 6-year journey with infertility and multiple miscarriages. After three transfers with their amazing surrogate, their son was born in March 2020. Going through surrogacy inspired Courtney to make that the focus of her law practice, as she knows firsthand the struggles, heartbreak, and also immense joy that comes to parents building their families in this way. Courtney and her family remain very close with their surrogate Kayla, who lives in Las Vegas.
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Episode 147: Influencer IVF Illuminations – Liliana Vazquez
Emmy-winning host and TV personality Lilliana Vazquez is a trailblazing interviewer, style expert, and author. Capturing an audience’s attention behind the microphone, the enterprising star has curated a career that began from a small blog to being seen by millions daily on numerous platforms.
Liliana opens up about her fertility experience and the struggles through IVF while navigating work, life, family, and everything in between. After years of her life going towards fertility treatments, she achieved her dream of becoming a mother. Now she prioritizes moments with her son and continues to feed her audience and entrepreneurial spirit by collaborating with select media and brand partners.
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Episode 146: Surprise Siblings – Larry Bruck
Larry lived in Philadelphia for most of his life before moving down to Florida in 2018. He graduated from Rider College (later Rider University) in 1967 with a BS in Commerce in Accounting. Larry was a practicing CPA from 1970-2015. He is currently living in Bradenton, Florida with his partner.
While in his later years, he came across the unexpected discovery that his biological father was not who he expected. Without his parents to turn to, he sought support from his newly discovered half-brothers and sisters, finding a true family along the way.
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Episode 145: The Trying Game – Amy Klein
Amy Klein is the author of The Trying Game: Get Through Infertility Treatment Without Losing Your Mind, based on her New York Times "Fertility Diary" column. It took her four years, ten doctors, nine rounds of IVF and three miscarriages to have their daughter.
Don't feel bad about "baby envy," or more accurately, "pregnancy envy," that ugly green monster of jealousy that rears its ugly head every time you hear that another friend, frenemy, or family member is pregnant. Amy has gone to every baby shower, every baby naming party so that you don't have to. She discusses how to set boundaries with others and for yourself, and how not to feel bad about not feeling good for everyone else.
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Episode 144: Misbehaving Uterus – Megan Hanson
Megan's professional experience includes health care marketing and non-profit management. She left her most recent role with Baxter Healthcare to focus full-time on the Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Association (RPLA). She holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. She blogs about her personal experience of recurrent miscarriage at MisbehavingUterus.com. Megan lives in Seattle with her husband and her daughter who was born via gestational surrogacy.
RPLA is dedicated to eliminating recurrent pregnancy loss through the advancement of research into causes and treatments; to providing support and resources to those affected; and to increasing awareness of the impact of miscarriage and fertility challenges on women and families.
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Episode 143: Infertile Blessings – Maureen Nowak
Maureen and Adam have been together for 19 years and married for 13. They were both born and raised in Northeast Ohio. They have 2 daughters, Brennan (8) and Blake (5) and live in Greenville, South Carolina. Maureen is a Certified Nurse Midwife.
She is sharing her journey through infertility, IUI, domestic adoption, embryo adoption, IVF/FET and surrogacy!
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Episode 142: Rockstar REI Reflections – Dr. Eve C. Feinberg
Dr. Feinberg is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and serves as the REI Fellowship Program Director as well as the Medical Director for Northwestern Fertility and Reproductive Medicine. She is the Past-President of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and is an Editorial Editor for Fertility and Sterility and the creator and co-host of Fertility and Sterility On-Air podcast. Dr. Feinberg is a fierce advocate for women’s health and reproductive choice and has written opinion pieces have been published in the Washington Post, STATnews, Rewire, The Hill and Time magazine and she sits on the National Medical Committee of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Dr Feinberg is the founder and president of the Chicago Coalition for Family Building, a not for profit that awards grants for fertility treatment and adoption. She is passionate about her Peloton, running, reading fiction, playing Wordle and finding joy.
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Episode 141: EM•POWERing Embryo Donation – Maya, Gina, and Jen
EM•POWER with Moxi is an organization dedicated to empowering choice and fostering understanding for all stakeholders involved in embryo donation.
Maya is a California Licensed Clinical Social Worker and psychotherapist who specializes in supporting individuals and couples struggling to conceive or building their family in alternative ways. Additionally, her background in child welfare allows her to have a keen understanding of not only the needs of patients/parents but also the needs of children born through third party reproduction. Maya is also a documentary filmmaker and co-producer of One More Shot, a feature length film she produced with her husband documenting their tumultuous journey to parenthood.
Gina has been a genetic counselor in the field of reproductive medicine for over 17 years. Her company, Advocate Genetics, provides genetic counseling for fertility patients and those connected to third-party reproduction. She had been working in the field of infertility for 6 years before her own 3-1/2 year fertility journey began. Her story involved multiple surgeries and a heartbreaking miscarriage, but also resulted in the birth of her two amazing children via IVF. After she felt her family was complete, she also had 16 remaining embryos and some big decisions to make. Years later, she has donated her remaining embryos to two families, one of whom now has a beautiful and spunky daughter.
Jennifer is a Nationally Certified Counselor who founded Embryo Donation Support, a web-based community for embryo donors. Through facilitation of pre- and post-donation online support groups to women with frozen embryos, Jennifer has built a solid understanding of the questions, needs, fears, and challenges that patients face when considering embryo donation. Jennifer also advocates for embryo donation and donor support through podcasts, live events, social media outlets, and blog contributions. Jennifer is a proud mother of twins conceived through IVF, and proud donor of one embryo who is now a healthy boy.
These three women created EM•POWER to support the various complex elements of embryo donation and simplify the process for both patients and clinics. They created an education platform and a community platform that includes Moxi Matching, a private space where embryo donors can connect and match.
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Episode 140: Israeli Surrogacy – Attorney Victoria Gelfand
Where do Israeli intended parents go to for surrogacy? What specific hurdles do they have to overcome? Is surrogacy widely available within Israel? And what is so drastically different between the Israeli approach to genetic parentage -- whether through surrogacy or through reproduction technologies -- and the American one?
Victoria Gelfand (born and raised in Moscow, immigrated to Israel in her teens, educated in Tel Aviv and admitted to the Israeli bar in 2003) was the first attorney to provide legal assistance to Israeli couples and singles with respect to surrogacy procedures abroad back in 2006. In 2007, she achieved first recognition of surrogacy procedures carried out in India by the Israeli Ministry of Internal Affairs, creating a process that has since been used for all – well over two thousand – babies born to Israeli intended parents via surrogacy abroad. In 2008 she started her own practice which specializes exclusively on family formation and fertility law, and has won various precedential cases related to foreign surrogacy for Israeli intended parents. Victoria Gelfand, Law Offices is the only law firm outside North America which is a member of all three major US-based professional groups and societies in the field: the ABA, the AAAA, and SEEDS.
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Episode 139: Embryo Art – Roxy Jenkins
A year after getting married, Roxy Jenkins and her husband decided to grow their family. Little did they know, the next five years would be a bumpy, winding path navigating infertility. It took seven medicated cycles, two IUIs, three retrievals and fresh transfers, and one twin miscarriage until their little Coco finally made her way into the world.
The quest for a sibling has proven to be as difficult. For the past two and a half years, they have endured two retrievals, three miscarriages, one ectopic pregnancy, uterine testing, both tubes being removed, a Lupron Depot flare, and three back-to-back cycles being cancelled. Add to that a exploratory laparotomy with a resulting endo diagnosis. They have one tested embryo left on ice and that’s where their story pauses for now.
Inspired by her own family’s story and her love of art, Roxy decided to give color to a dark and painful journey. Each painting she does makes her feel less alone while navigating infertility. Every story shared of how each embryo came into existence is as unique as the embryo itself. All paths to parenthood are valid and worthy of sharing. Roxy feels honored that so many have entrusted the sweetest, most special part of their journey to her.
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Episode 138: Plan A - Aden Kadri
Aden is founder of the Plan A podcast. Plan A follows Aden’s journey into becoming an independent parent. She talks with experts about everything from choosing a donor and navigating insurance to whether you really need to take prenatal vitamins and the difference between IUI and IVF. Along the way Aden shares her actual experience from asking questions and preparing to, hopefully, pregnancy and beyond. She explores how choosing independent parenthood can be your Plan A.
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Episode 137: The Biggest Ask – MaryJane Carnahan
MaryJane is a business professor and creator of The Biggest Ask, an educational website and blog dedicated to surrogacy.
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Episode 136: Terminating A Wanted Pregnancy – Dr. Julie Bindeman
Dr. Julie Bindeman graduated from the George Washington University and is the co-owner of Integrative Therapy of Greater Washington in Rockville, Maryland. Her specialty is in the field of Reproductive Psychology, where she actively writes, lectures, and presents. She is a consultant in training in EMDR through EMDRIA. She has served on several committees within the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and was recently elected to its Executive Committee. She served as a Board Member of the Maryland Psychological Association for over 10 years. Dr. Bindeman is a member of multiple organizations focused on Maternal and Reproductive Mental Health and was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve on its Maternal Mental Health Task Force. She was recently awarded the Karl Heiser Award for her legislative efforts on behalf of psychology. Dr. Bindeman has published several chapters and articles pertaining to Reproductive Psychology.
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Episode 135: Success and Science – Carol Lynn Curchoe
Dr. Carol Lynn Curchoe, TS (ABB) is a reproductive physiologist. Her PhD research focused on animal cloning and her postdoctoral fellowship focused on human embryonic stem cell research. Her previous startup experience includes being the founder and CEO of 32ATPs, where she applied her knowledge of biochemistry and biotechnology to the field of renewable energy, creating a patented biological supercapacitor. She is the founder of ART Compass, www.artcompass.io, a software platform for IVF lab management and staff related quality assurance. She is the author of numerous publications and The Thin Pink Line (Nova Science publishers, 2021), a critical exploration of historical perspectives and controversial topics in modern gynecology from birth control to sterilization, to episiotomies and the “husband stitch,” to “educational” pelvic exams, shackling laboring convicts, gender affirming surgery, human embryo research, assisted reproduction and more.
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Episode 134: How We Do Family – Trystan Reese
Trystan Reese is a transgender parent and educator based out of Portland, Oregon. He is the author of How We Do Family: From Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, What We Learned about Love and LGBTQ Parenthood, as well as co-author of the children’s book, The Light Of You.
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Episode 133: Male-Factor Infertility & Mental Health – Steven Miller
Steven J. Miller obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology at Northern Michigan University and is currently in the part-time MSW program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He’s been in social work since 2009, working with youth and families. Steven is an advocate for more discussion among social workers and other helping professionals about the impact of infertility on one’s mental health. Steven and his wife struggled with infertility for seven years before being successful using IVF, resulting in now three-year-old twin boys. After his MSW, Steven plans to work in Reproductive Mental Health and continue advocacy for discussion about this topic in the classroom to help better prepare students and clinicians to support those coming to them for support.
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Episode 132: Post-Mortem Sperm Retrieval – Casey DiPaola and Joe Williams
Kathleen (“Casey”) Copps DiPaola, Esq. is a partner of Copps DiPaola Silverman, PLLC in Albany, New York where she focuses her practice on Adoption, Assisted Reproduction and Estate Planning & Probate. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, the President of New York Attorneys for Adoption & Family Formation and also an active member of various bar associations. She has worked tirelessly over the last several years to help draft the New York Child Parent Security Act and advocate for its enactment by the legislature. She is also a frequent lecturer to attorneys, judges, fertility clinics and other organizations on the topics of adoption, assisted reproduction/surrogacy and the intersection of estate planning and family formation. Ms. DiPaola is also the founder of the New York Surrogacy Center, a licensed surrogacy matching program that operates primarily in New York, Vermont and New Jersey. She is licensed to practice in state courts in New York, New Jersey and Vermont as well as various federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Ms. DiPaola is also an active volunteer in her community in both a legal and non-legal capacity. She previously graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with highest honors and as the salutatorian from Albany Law School in 2009. She lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children.
Joseph R. Williams practices primarily in the fields of matrimonial, family, and adoption law. Joe represents individuals in the negotiation and litigation of separation, divorce, child custody, support and domestic violence matters, as well as all areas of adoption law, including private adoptions, voluntary agency adoptions, foster care adoptions and step/second parent adoptions. Joe also practices in the related area of assisted reproductive technology law (egg/sperm/embryo donation and surrogacy/gestational carrier agreements) and kinship guardianship (kinGAP).
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Episode 131: Faith, Cancer, and Surrogacy – Paige McCoy
Paige is a cancer survivor turned cancer advocate and mother to an energetic two-year-old son. Married in 2012, she never anticipated having to overcome a variety of obstacles to have a family. When unexplained infertility forced her to undergo multiple rounds of IVF, she never wavered. When leukemia unexpectedly struck three weeks before an embryo transfer, she kept her eye on recovering so she could one day pursue parenthood. And when the cancer treatments eliminated her ability to carry a child, she matched with a selfless surrogate to carry the embryo she dreamed about for years.
Today, Paige dedicates her life to helping other young adult cancer patients fight their diagnoses, knowing that a caring support system and documented bucket list are as strong as any medicine. In her spare time, she and her family alternate completing her personal bucket list created in the hospital with typical two-year-old activities like digging in dirt and memorizing construction vehicles. She lives in Denver with her husband, Jeff, and son, Bradley, whom she named after the bone marrow donor that gave her a second chance at life, and given the opportunity, she would love to grow their family by one more through another surrogacy journey.
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