Fruitful & Multiplying Jewish Fertility Foundation

In this raw, funny, and affirming episode, Elana talks with Leah McKendrick, writer, director, and star of Scrambled, a new movie about one woman's experience freezing her eggs as a single woman in her thirties. You don't want to miss hearing all about the way some women in Hollywood discover this as an option, Leah's take on her own experience with the egg freezing process, and much more.

In this episode that is both touching and laugh out loud funny, host Elana Frank chats with Jen, Maya, and Gina, who each have an embryo donation story (either as donors or recipients) and have created a platform to help simplify and streamline the often confusing and complex family building option that many still don't even know about! Empower does education, emotional support, and matching for people looking to donate their embryos or those looking to receive donor embryos.


Takeaways


Embryo donation organizations provide emotional and mental health support to both donors and recipients.
Children born through embryo donation may have relationships with their genetic siblings, and the language used to describe these relationships can vary.
Normalizing embryo donation as a family building option is crucial to reducing stigma and increasing awareness.
Educating the world about unique family building options, including embryo donation, is necessary to support children and families.

Join us for a captivating episode as Judy Simon, a devoted dietitian specializing in fertility nutrition, shares her inspiring journey and unravels the crucial link between food and fertility. Delve into the depths of nutrition's role in optimizing fertility, as Judy discusses the impact of inflammation, personalized nutrition plans, the myths around weight and IVF success, and the importance of community support. Discover the transformative power of Judy's book, 'Getting to Baby: A Food-First Fertility Plan to Improve Your Odds and Shorten Your Time To Pregnancy' . Don't miss this enriching conversation filled with practical insights, empowering advice, and the key ingredients to fueling your path to parenthood.

Fertility treatment is not cheap. On average, a round of IVF costs between $15,000-$30,000. We know the inaccessibility of ART well here at JFF: after all, we give Jewish Fertility Foundation grants to make fertility treatment more affordable. Angela Rastegar shares a similar mission. She is democratizing fertility treatment through finance. After working as
a Director of Circle Surrogacy and the leadership team of Northstar Fertility, Angela founded Sunfish, a company that connects intended parents to grants and loans for ART. Listen as Angela shares about why she founded Sunfish, her endometritis diagnosis and the stress and anxiety she feels about her own future family building, her take on the future of fertility, and the innovative approach Sunfish takes to helping people fund their fertility journeys.

Rachel Ginocchio is on a mission to make sex education about more than sex. As a puberty educator, Rachel teaches her students about the variety of paths parents take to have children, paths that many of us in the infertility community know well. Rachel has a Master’s Degree in Public Health with a specialization in maternal and child health. Before becoming a puberty educator, she directed two women’s health clinics, was a genetics community planner, and worked as a health communications specialist. Listen as Rachel and Elana discuss Rachel’s book that shares a name with her organization, Roads to Family, Rachel's own routes to parenthood (both IVF and international adoption), her fun and funny approaches to teaching reproduction to various ages from little kids to teens, and some hilarious questions she has received along the way.

After Joe Cody shares experienced a personal journey with infertility full of both emotional and logistical challenges, he used his background in healthcare IT and digital health policy to tackle the frustrating issue of coordinating between various members of a fertility care team. In this episode, Joe shares his story and introduces Grain Fertility, an application that allows patients to aggregate their health and financial information in one secure location (think of it as a very sophisticated 'digital three-ring binder'. He and Elana discuss the strains fertility journeys can put on a marriage, the response from the medical community to Grain Fertility and the benefits of using it for patients, and the future plans for the start up, including partnerships with other organizations.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Entry into the Infertility Space

01:39 Emotional Impact on Relationships

04:45 Challenges of Sharing Medical Information

07:12 Issues with Coordinating Medical Information

09:28 Introduction to Grain Fertility

11:12 Response from the Medical Community

12:26 Functionality of Grain Fertility

14:37 Joe Cody's Role and Future Plans for Grain Fertility

16:17 Pilot and Launch of Grain Fertility

17:41 Accessing Grain Fertility

19:48 Benefits of Grain Fertility

20:48 Future Goals for Grain Fertility

23:56 Collaboration with Other Organizations

24:14 Conclusion and Appreciation