The Journey of "Trying" to Start a Family & An Exposé on Fertility: If you’re like me and your "Why Not Now?" is to start a family or if you’re trying to decide when would be the best time, this episode can provide powerful information to you. Ellen Gustafson and I take a critical look at the topic of fertility, the current state of the industry, the science and research that’s been done, and hasn’t been done, and the powerful (and sometimes misleading conversations) around fertility.
Personally, this isn’t something I’ve talked about before but after my experience over the past few years and listening to many other’s like my friend
Ellen Gustafson, who’s shares her mind-boggling story in this episode, I thought it would be helpful. As I approach 39 years old, I've had two miscarriages and this conversation is very timely.
Ellen, who you’ll hear from, has an unprecedented experience over the course of four years that’s so hard to believe it feels like a movie script. One of my biggest takeaways is that Ellen realized her doctors simply didn’t know enough so she and her mother (who wrote hand written letters to any physicians they thought could help) took things into their own hands and uncovered answers that some of the best fertility doctors in the world hadn’t been able to find.
If you were to go online right now and start googling certain questions relative to fertility, you will find mixed answers and mixed signals from credible sources who have done scientific research! Also, we have the conversation around women choosing their careers or motherhood.
As the New York Times has reported: When women have their first child between age 25 and 35, their pay never recovers, relative to that of their husbands. Yet women who have their first baby either before 25 or after 35 — before their careers get started or once they’re established — eventually close the pay gap with their husbands. Age 25-35 prime career building years and also the time when most women want to have children. This leaves many questions and complexities.
For me, this episode is another Why Not Now? And that’s Why Not Now? open up a little more and share a glimpse into areas of my life that I haven’t shared before. I asked myself, what’s the worst thing that can happen and I couldn’t come up with a strong enough answer to not share. If this episode helps one person or couple, then it’s worth it.
About Ellen Gustafson: She’s the Co-Director of the Summit Institute, co-founder of FEED, co-founder of Food Tank and author of “We the Eaters”. She’s currently working on her
second book, “Trying”. She’s a proud Navy wife and equally proud mom.