Katrina’s Infertility Journey in Honor of National Infertility Awareness Week

This week is an especially important week to me personally, it’s National Infertility Awareness Week. In honor of NIAW, I’m here to share my rollercoaster of a journey with infertility that lasted six and a half years and ended with two incredible, beautiful humans making us a family. My goal in sharing my journey with you all is to help people feel seen, ignite out of the box thinking and above all give a seed of hope for those on their journeys today. I see you, amd I’m fighting with you.

#NIAW2026 #MoreThan #NationalInfertilityAwarenessWeek #InfertilityAwareness

https://www.infertilityawareness.org/

https://www.infertilityawareness.org/niaw-calendar

Music by: Matt McGrath https://www.instagram.com/matthewmcgrathmusic 

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And remember, after every breakdown, don't forget the bubbles!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello and welcome to Bubbles and Breakdowns, a space designed for you to show up as your beautifully imperfect self, where we dive into the good, the bad, and the bubbly.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I'm Ashley. And I'm Katrina. And this week is an especially important week to me personally. It's National Infertility Awareness Week. And in honor of NIAW, I'm here to share my personal journey and what a roller coaster ride it was that lasted six and a half years and ended up with two incredible, beautiful humans making us a family. My goal today and sharing my journey with you all is to help people feel seen, ignite maybe some out-of-the-box thinking as it pertains to fertility. And above all, give a seed of hope for those of you on your journeys today. I want you all to know that I see you and that I am fighting with you. Ah, National Infertility Awareness Week, it's here. What a special time to just focus on something that happens so frequently.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

So frequently. And I think, you know, even if you haven't had issues conceiving, this still hits, right? Because thinking of when you want to try, start trying. Like this is never not cross some woman's mind who has children.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, like is this gonna happen?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

And hearing these stories and being supportive friends too of people who have gone through such a journey to bear their own children is it breaks my heart, but it also likes lets me rejoice in these beautiful outcomes. And I'm so excited to hear your story.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

And I think, yeah, and if you want, I could share like a little bit about infertility for people who haven't experienced it. Absolutely. I think like it's a great place to start. Okay. So I mentioned that it's a National Infertility Awareness Week or NIAW. If you're not familiar with that, it's held every week around this time, and it's a way to bring focus and importance around infertility and what's happening to those struggling with infertility. So it's really an awareness week. And you'll see this a lot with advocacy organizations. They'll have a week dedicated to their cause. And this year, their theme is more than more than a diagnosis, more than a statistic, and more than a story left unheard. And I will be sharing my story that will hopefully be heard and continue to be heard. And I just also want to focus on like what is infertility? So the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, ASRM, classifies infertility by the inability to achieve a successful pregnancy based on a patient's medical, sexual, or reproductive history, age, physical findings, diagnostic testing, or any combination of those factors. Essentially, when they can't figure out what's going on, they just classify you as infertile. And also, it's important to note that the prevalence of this is relatively high. In the United States alone, um, it can be anywhere from one to six, one to eight, but the World Health Organization data from 1990 to 2020 uh classified it as one in six people experience infertility throughout their lifetime. So it could be first-time fertility, it could be second-time infertility, it could be an it could happen at any point. And then last, which I think is really uh important to understand, is that a lot of times infertility is tasked as like a woman's problem. But it's important to understand that malefactor infertility is the cause of approximately one third of the issues. So a lot of times, you know, we hear this talked about as women experience infertility, but men also have high contributing factors because they are half of the equation. It takes two to tango. It does. So that's just a little backdrop, and then we can definitely like turn the page now and I don't know, focus on our journey.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

I I love it. Well, I think let's start at the beginning. Um, when did you start trying to conceive?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah. So I got married in 2009, and we I was 25. And I said to myself, Ash, I was like, I just want to take it slow. Like, let's not rush these seasons of our lives. We can only be newlyweds once. Like, let's take some years to us. I don't know if you experience the same thing, but it was like, let's slow down a little. And then three years into it or so, so it was September of 2012, we finally made the decision. Like, I think we're ready to start trying to have a baby. And we lived in Minnesota at the time, and we had intentions of then moving back to Illinois as we were obviously going to be building this family. So, yeah, that's when we started was in 2012. It's hard to believe, as I said here, that was 14 years ago. Wow. It's 14 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

And especially knowing the ages of your children, yeah, that's really hard hitting.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah, they're six and four. And so you can do the quick math here. The time it took from the day that we started to plan for our family and and had intentions of building the family until we conceived our daughter was six and a half years. And throughout that six and a half years is that journey of what it looked like and felt like. And yeah, so it was a long one. So when did you start thinking something was wrong? It's so interesting because there's like these stats that they tell you if you are under the age of 35, you should conceive typically within the first six months of trying. If you're over the age of 35 or in, you know, advanced in age at all, it's give yourself at least one whole year of trying. So in my mind, I was like, I think a year seems reasonable, even though month after month, as you would take the test, you'd start to go, really? Like, what? I I did everything right. Like, I there's no way, you know, that every single month. But I gave myself a year, I gave myself maybe even more time than that. And then I was like to Matt, I said, I think we need to get a test. Like, we got to figure out what's going on. And instead of me jumping to hormones or anything like that, I was like, we're gonna start with your semen analysis. Like, let's make sure that you have healthy, you know, sperm who could fertilize my egg because I was my my period was on schedule. Like you could set, I I joke, but it's true, an egg timer, like to the day. It was like 26 days. Yeah, it was like 26 days on the dot. It never strayed. I didn't have any other symptoms. There was nothing that was obvious that would make me think it was anything to do with my hormones, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

So that was the first test we got. And how did that go? So um, this is a really important part of the story. So we got the test back, and everything was kind of like right in the middle. And it's so funny because both my husband and I, we joke that we're like the most average people. It's like, you know how you get like those annual physicals back, and you're like, oh, look, I'm right in the middle. Or like for me, I'm like, oh, my shoe size is exactly what the shoe size that everybody wants, and I can never get a deal. You know, like we're just the average people. And it came back pretty average. Um, however, you know, there was a note that said something around morphology, which is the way in which um a sperm is constructed. Like sometimes they can have an extra tail or too short of a tail or too big of a head or too small of a head. There's all these little characteristics they look for. And apparently there's some perfectly shaped sperm out there. And in his case, his morphology was higher. Um, but they sent a letter with that and they said nothing to worry about. Um, you know, this can there's still, because of the volume, there's plenty of healthy, like constructed sperm that like you will get a healthy sperm to fertilize. Like it basically was like nothing to see here. Don't worry, you got enough that by the laws of numbers, it will work out. And we were like, oh, okay, cool. However, I did analyze the results, and there was something called a round cell count that was way out of the threshold for normal. And I put an asterisk by it at the time and I said, hmm, this could be a possible infection. And I never thought about it again because the doctor had not made a comment and I filed the paperwork within my my fertility, you know, packet of documentation as I was now starting to build this documentation. And yeah, I didn't give it a second thought, but that's what the findings were.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Okay. And then, so where did that lead you to next? Was there more testing?

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Yeah. So then it was like, okay, let's just keep trying. You know, you kind of get into this, okay, we did one thing, let's give it some time. And I was very much like, I'm not in a huge rush. I'm still at this point, you know, 31-ish, 30. Uh, and I was like, let's just, you know, take our time. But then eventually in October of 2016, I decided to get hormone testing. And you go into this and you're like, what are they gonna do to me?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Seriously.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

And they took eight vials of blood, and I don't like getting my blood taken. So I'm like looking away and I'm like, how many vials are there? They're like, there's eight. And I'm like, that's insane, you know? And the weirdest part for me around the hormone testing was this was a new reproductive endocrinologist. I had never been to one before, and I was like, okay, well, I have to get a reproductive endocrinologist.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

So, quick question: Does this endocrinologist work closely with the doctor, or what's their relationship?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

They are a doctor.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

But I mean, with their own practice.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

This is the infertility doctor. A reproductive endocrinologist is the infertility doctor. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

So they are involved with the hormones too. All the hormones. The only reason I'm asking is because if I go to a gynecologist, they send someone else. So this is the same person.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah. So OBGYNs focus on um fetal maternal health, which is in the essence of your reproduction stage, you know. So it's cancer, babies, surgery, like that's their. They don't do hormones. They can do some levels of hormone testing, but they don't interpret them with the lens of a reproductive endocrinologist. So you go to that specialist.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Gotcha. So that is the same thing as your infertility doctor.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yes. Okay. Exactly. That's just their specialty is reproductive endocrinology. Got it. Okay. So then I went to this reproductive endocrinologist, and I'll just tell you for anyone who's been through infertility, there's just such off-putting moments where you're like, gosh, I feel like kind of herded cattle or something. And they had me sign and Matt sign a documentation that says pursuing infertility treatments can result in a risk of multiples. And I was like, let's be clear. I'm not asking for you to put anything in me at this point. I just want to find out what is wrong. And I said to the woman who was just a an office worker at the front desk, I go, I'm sorry, I'm not signing up to do like Clomit or IUI or IVF or anything. I'm just, I want to find out the cause.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

You're like in the exploratory phase. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

And I was like, this is a weird waiver to be like basically they assume that anyone walking through there is going to elect to do IVF or IUI, which are both um assisted uh reproductive uh technologies that are available, which are fantastic, but I was nowhere at that stage. So then I get my hormone testing, and then another weird thing happened. That day that I get the blood pool, the doctor had said to me, Well, I'm gonna tell you already, Katrina, just by looking at you and your age, I'm thinking everything's probably gonna come back perfect and you're gonna be unexplained infertility. And I was like, oh, if that's not a losing mindset, I don't know what is. And then I learned that this doctor also conceived his children with IVF and has successful, you know, uh a twins, I think was was what he he got through his process. And so obviously, like a very firm believer in IVF. And and what happened in that moment is that I quickly identified this doctor was likely to not search for the root cause because he's such a strong believer in IVF. And I think that's honestly, Ashley, like part of the dismissive nature around infertility, particularly unexplained infertility, is that because IVF works for 40% of people, we don't need to look for all the underlying causes because 40% of them were gonna hit through that process.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Or maybe a lot of people don't care about the process and want the process. Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

So and that wasn't me. You know, I how I conceived was equally important to conceiving to me. And I wasn't a by any means necessary person. And this isn't a religious belief, this isn't a um cultural, societal, nothing, no judgment. It just wasn't what I wanted for me. So then did you have the same doctor for this six and a half years? It's a great question. So I did go on uh to more testing with him. I got a follicle count to make sure I was producing enough follicles, which by the way, if you don't know what that is, they are the little like egg homes in your ovaries that can eventually develop into a fully developed egg and then be released in your your menstrual cycle during your menstrual cycle or during your cycle period. And my follicle count was fine. I also ended up with him because I was like, well, I'm just gonna use, I'm just gonna use this doctor to get the tests that I was researching at home to be like, just do these tests because I need someone to do them. And even though I knew he was pushing me in a direction, I was like, I'm gonna push in another direction. So then I also had a Sano HSG SIS, which is a saline um injection. They make sure your fallopian tubes are open and that you're not having like a blockage because if your fallopian tubes are closed for any reason or twisted or or too small, your eggs can't travel into your cervix to be able to be uh fertilized, right? So I got those done, nothing came back, but even during that test, he was like, I can't see your your right one all the way, but nothing's backing up. So yeah, I think you're clear. And I was like, this is really like not that great, you know? Um, so anyway, very intimate test. I will say that. Um, and you're kind of so vulnerable, you know, with these doctors, and you're like, just I don't know what you're doing, but like you got your legs up in these stirrups, and you're just like, please figure this out. Like you're so desperate during these stages.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Kind of what you prefaced it a little bit is you you want to trust them.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

But you kind of don't, right? Because he's pushing you one way. Yeah. So talk about being vulnerable in a whole different state. Yeah. That is I can't even imagine that.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

And never at any point with that particular doctor did they say to me, How do you want this to go? What are your goals? You know, there was never an alignment of like what we desired. It was herding cattle is the best that I can, you know. And it is a bit of a numbers game when you're making profit off of people's infertility treatments. So I get that. You know, there's a business here, but it also was just like very turned me off. So to answer your question, no, I did not just have one doctor. I actually went through four different doctors in total across the span of six and a half years. And I also consulted with a Chinese herbalist and an acupuncturist along my journey as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

So I quickly fired that doctor after I got the um sonogram, and I went to another doctor who was highly um thought of in the Chicagoland area. And I the traveled into Chicago, into the city, which was not in my backyard, and uh found her office with with Matt. And we were getting just a standard examination to start the process, and that was when she told me I was pregnant. This was not a successful pregnancy. I didn't know that at the time, but I found out in my initial exam that I was pregnant, and we were floored, and it was like I couldn't even believe it was happening, right? We were like, oh my gosh, our pursuit is over. And this was in May of 2017. So May of 2017, I found out the day after Mother's Day, and I thought this was the universe delivering me, my baby, and like it's I'm now a mother, and like this is all coming together. Now, um, that doctor was a lovely doctor. Um, however, I was it's far away, so then I was consulting with my local OBGYN still. I always had the same OBGYN throughout my first pregnancies. Um, and then in July I had spotting. So it was May, I found out I was pregnant. July I had spotting right after I had told all of my friends, like rejoicing on a 4th of July party, we are pregnant and my friend was pregnant too. And I'm like, we get to have these babies together and we're gonna have the best lives, and da-da-da-da-da. And then I went home that same night that I had announced it to my friends and I was spotting, and then I found out a few days later I had lost that baby, and it was determined, you know, via ultrasound. It was a very anyone experienced infertility knows the moment when your ultrasound tech or your doctor is looking on an ultrasound and they're not talking, and it's like the silence is deafening, and then they go, I'll be back. And then they come back and it's the ultrasound tech, and then they go, We can't find a heartbeat. And we were devastated, and then we had to call the people that we had told, and it was like a whole day of just complete reliving the loss the whole time. So I elected to get the fetal remains tested to find out like what is going on, right? Get some answers, try and get some answers. So I went through a DNC, which is a dilation and curatage, I forget how to say it. Um, but essentially they go in and they remove um the failed pregnancy, and then it was analyzed and it came back with a fetal chromosome abnormality, which is a tetraploid, which just basically means I have way too many chromosome chromosomes. They typically are not viable. If they do make it to full birth, they don't live very long. So essentially it's like just a non-viable pregnancy due to a chromosomal abnormality. And I thought, gosh, aren't we unlucky? I just kept thinking, like, gosh, we're the most unlucky people. But we had a moment we were like, Ashley, we can get pregnant. This is great. We thought, oh my gosh, after now, okay, so here we are. It's 2017, right? Five years. We're five years in. And we're like, we finally got pregnant. But then it failed. But again, like it re-energized us. But then we kept trying, kept trying. Three months went by, we failed to conceive again. Continued to get hormone testing, follicle counts, had another sonogram with a new doctor. And that's the doctor that I think broke my spirit, but also like changed the trajectory for me. She sat next to me across the table, and she knew I was, I think at the time I was 34. And she said, knowing how old you are and the fact that you're unexplained, I'm now I based on your test, your anti-malarian hormone, which is how many eggs they determine by how much of this hormones in your body, how many eggs you have, or how fertile you are. It's going down. So now I'm gonna classify you as diminished ovarian reserve. And I'm sitting here thinking, eye roll, like, hey, of course it's diminishing. I'm getting older, it's not gonna grow. You're almost geriatric. Yeah, I know. And but she looked at me and she put her fingers to maybe like a foot and a half, and she goes, You maybe only have this much time. We need to act fast. And it was to push me towards, you know, reproductive technology such as IVF. And I was like, Thank you for your consult. We have a lot to think about. And then from what followed from there was just like, I can't explain it other than clinical depression. Like, I literally grieved that I was never going to become a mother, at least not biologically. And then we were like, oh, maybe we'll adopt one day if we feel like we want to do that. You know, you kind of adopt the person and their trauma, and there's a lot of considerations to adoption. But again, I I just didn't see IVF. Like I wanted, I wanted to know that if it was gonna happen, it was meant to happen. I didn't want to force it. And as I'm a very woo-woo person, you probably know this by now. Like, let the universe guide you. Right. If it's meant to be, it'll be has been my way I operate.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Well, and it's it's your journey. You get to write the story as much as you can. Right. And, you know, I applaud you for staying true to yourself and Figuring out what worked for you guys, you know. So we did get there eventually. So is this doctor number three?

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Yeah, this is number three.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Okay, so then do we go to number four now?

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Well, we did do an IUI cycle. I finally did concede and say, okay, I'm willing to take the Clomid pill and like boost my chances of having a healthy egg. And then I jokingly call it the turkey baster. Like, I will take the turkey baster of Matt Semen. We're like, we'll see what happens. Um, and there was another very off-putting experience as a patient where the woman was about to insert, you know, Matt Semen, and she goes, Yeah, I'm a father to many babies. And I was like, This isn't time for jokes. And no, you're not the father.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

That is the most inappropriate thing I've done. Such an inappropriate comment.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Yes. Yes. And it was like, in no world is that funny, like let alone like this is your profession, and people are coming to you hopeless, broken, desperate, sad. Like, this is not the time to make those jokes. And both my husband and I, even still to this day, is like, what the hell was that? Um so yeah, you know, we did the whole thing. You take these pills, you do the trigger shot at home. Um, it forces a uh egg to release, and then you go to the office and they manually, you know, um put the semen in to increase your chances so they get it in the right spot and da-da-da-da. But it didn't work.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

So then what was different about the doctor that finally helped you conceive? Because are we there now in the story?

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Yeah. So what I haven't shared is the insanity of this whole six years at this point. So now we're in the IUI we did was in 2018. So we're now six years almost into this journey. And throughout this, I mean, I did it all. I did acupuncture almost every single week. And I I enjoyed it, but it was also like expensive, and I had to deal with like filing my own claims, and it was kind of a mess. But I was like, if it works, we're gonna do it. And then upon a friend's recommendation, they were like, hey, I know this Chinese herbalist in Chicago. You could go there and she's got this magic concoction. We know three or four people who have conceived after going. I'm like, I will do anything. So I go in to this random, you know, herbalist, this old Chinese woman, lovely woman. I get these huge packets of these literally like tree bark and just random things that you're supposed to boil until you get turns into this brownish, blackish sludge, and then you drink it twice a day. It's disgusting. And I did that for three months. I drank and boiled Chinese herbs. I even brought them on my work trips. Like I was so committed to trying. And I'm like, well, this might be it. And then I did whole 30 on and off for nine months. I lost 16 pounds in the process, but um, and also during there, that's when we had our one pregnancy that failed. And I thought, oh gosh, it's whole 30. I gotta keep doing it. And so I kept putting pressure on myself to like do whole 30. And then I would even like I was a long distance runner and had run like seven, you know, half marathons, six half marathons at the time. And I was like, I can't run any more half marathons because I can't over-exercise. And so I wasn't even doing that. So like here I am robbing myself of joy, um, whether it's not eating certain foods by being highly restricted, by the way. Whole 30 is highly restrictive. Um, I think it's great, you know, for like an 80-20 rule, but mine was like 100% of the time. And then um not doing my long distance running and having to like jump out when I could to get these acupuncture appointments, and then having to go down to the city and get these herbs. You're like a shell of yourself. I was a shell of myself. I would spend my nights, you know, scrolling through feeds and different forums and groups of trying to find the answer and trying to find someone who sounded like me. I did then stumble, and this is why I talk through what I'm talking through, is that I did stumble on a book called Making Babies by Dr. Sammy David. And his approach, first of all, he was uh uh claim his claim is that he was the first doctor in the United States to successfully do IVF back in the 70s, 80s, maybe. And he also believes in trying to find root cause, and he takes a blended approach of Eastern and Western medic medica medicine approach, which is to me, I'm like, oh, I love the holistic path. I love I love this, you know. And I read his book voraciously from cover to cover, and there was like four different types of um archetypes of infer infertile people, particularly a lot of focus on women, but there was also equal focus on men. And so for me, it was like the first time was like, oh, I was like, oh my gosh, Matt, you need to start wearing boxer shorts. You need to start taking selenium and you take Coke CoQ10, and like we started upping our vitamins, we did all these things, and then a year and a half later, after reading that book, maybe it was about it, it was like eight months after that book, I was like, I think I need to go and see this doctor in New York City because that's where he was. And my mother-in-law at the time was like, Well, then you should do it. And I was like, I don't know. I waited another year, year and a half, and then I finally said, I'm gonna go see this doctor. I think it was after um that last doctor was uh telling me my window was so short we had to act fast. So I was like, okay, I'm just gonna send them a note. And I said, Does Dr. Sammy David take patients? And I'm saying his name. Um, I have had conversations with their office, and they said that I could say his name with Fifth Avenue Fertility Clinic. And he wrote the book Making Babies for those who are interested. Um, and you know, he may not figure out everybody or whatever, but he figured us out. Um they did a virtual Skype. I sent him my, of course, OCD managed documentation. I mean the folder. The folder. And so, like every test, I also made a cover sheet Excel file of dates and timing of every test in a summary format to guide as much as possible. And they didn't work with insurance, but they had a fee. We went on Skype, and for the first time, Ashley, I was met by a doctor with a smile on their face, and he was like, Oh, look at that smile. He said to me, Look at that smile. He was like, I see nothing but a whole lot of hope here. Let's talk about it. And I talk to him, I'm crying and I'm talking to him, and I'm like, this guy is feels different. It felt so different.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Like that is the approach that should be taken.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yes. And hope, give hope, and give a pathway. Don't just tell me sign off on multiples. Don't just tell me we have to act fast.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

And for someone who's not who, you know, has not been down this path, that is shocking to me.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

That this was your experience.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

And I'm going to people who had a good reputation too. You know, like I wasn't going to some doctor in the back of an alley. And so anyway, I, you know, I'm telling him what's going on. He gave me a protocol. He said, first we're going to start with a bacterial full analysis bacterial panel. We're going to see what comes back. My bacterial panels are different. You have to send the specimen to my office. We are the ones that will do the lab testing. It's it's not commonly known by a lot of people. You could also get your vaginal bacteria panel at your OBGYN. They may not check for all of it, but please send your husband's sample in and we'll test it. Okay, great. So we did that, and it took us a little while to figure out how do you send this? Like we figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

I like would have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

And I'm like, we need insurance on this package. So literally, no. So he they receive it, uh, they analyze it. Maybe a week goes by, and um, Matt and I, you know, trying to live our best lives still, are sitting at uh Kuma's Corner for those of us in Chicago. We were having a burger listening to some heavy metal, as as good young folks do. And we were the next day we were supposed to be leaving for a trip up to Door County, Wisconsin, which was an annual trip that we established before we had children. And we get the results, and it's the office saying, like, we have results for you, and there's one finding, and it was a staph infection, and I pulled it up, I'm like, what the hell is this? And it said staphylococcus, whatever it was, and then it said heavy growth. And I was like, Is this our smoking gun? Is this the answer? And both of us felt it in that moment. We were like, this is what is wrong with us. And by the way, if you don't know what staph is, I'd be shocked because it's very well known. Staph is everywhere. It's something that is a very common infection to get in many orphices, places in our bodies.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

I feel like people get it in hospitals a lot, right? All the time. Everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Well, and when you're immunocompromised or you have another infection, you're more susceptible to it. It also can develop into MERSA. And we didn't really have a lot of reasons to think we had an infection. Like maybe my husband had some things going on that were different, but nothing that was a red light for us of like, oh, a red flag rather. Um, and so I was like, okay, what do we do? And she was like, Well, you're both gonna go on this antibiotic, and you have to abstain from intercourse, and then we're gonna test you again. I was like, Okay, let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

You have a plan.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

We have a plan. So we did the course after we got back from our trip. Like, we gave the timing, we wanted to make sure, you know, whatever. And um two months later, we conceived our daughter. And it we didn't after taking an antibiotic. After an antibiotic. Um, and for those of you, I mean, it makes complete sense, even with this this little fact, you're not supposed to have sex when you're on antibiotics if you're on birth control, because they rule them to be less effective. Yes. Antibiotics are a little bit of a fertility juicer, okay? Like to for lack of a better word. But I started digging into this, Ashley, because of course my inquisitive mind at that time was like what happens with staph infections and the reproductive process. Right. And what I was able to ascertain from one document at that time was that staff can demobilize sperm. So and harm the egg.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Looking back at that semen nope. The semen analysis. Yep, I was gonna say some different word, I don't even know. Yeah. Is that what you flagged?

SPEAKER_01 33:12

The round cell count was high, and round cell counts can be high in the presence of an infection.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Stop. So it was there the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

It was there from the moment of that first semen analysis back in 2014. So here we are, six and a half years later. We did a round of antibiotics, we conceived naturally, full-term, healthy pregnancy. Mind you, I skipped one thing. Like I did some heavy charting with this woman and progesterone and tons of other stuff to try and get, and I ended up taking progesterone shots, giving admit self-administered for the first like 28 weeks I was pregnant with my daughter, um, to make sure I didn't lose this pregnancy, because I was like, anything could happen, right? Right. Um, but that's what it was. And now, as I look back and I look at publications now, there's a ton more, not just on how bacteria in general, bacterias can inflect uh infertility negatively, but also it is now being linked to the cause of endometriosis because endometriosis is an expression of chronic inflammation. Inflammation occurs with the presence of bacteria and many other things too, but cytokines go up, and there's a whole scientific backing on this. So, like a lot of people be like, oh, she's infertile, she has endometriosis. I would wonder how many of them maybe had an infection that went under diagnosis, not diagnosed, overlooked, and now they have these fibroids or endometriosis that are an expression of consistent inflammation in the reproductive system that could have been prevented. Right. And so there's a lot more research now. You know, I just said like at the beginning, this has been 14 years since this happened, and thank God there is. But what hasn't changed is protocols. And what hasn't changed is, you know, maybe step therapy to IVF and you know, consistent guidelines. When we look at the scientific space, guidelines inform how physicians operate. And so until we have a guideline established or we have a protocol or a pair step therapy, a lot of people will and couples will still continue to highly index on IVF, which is extremely costly and emotional. And it also is very difficult on a woman's body because you're sending your hormones, you know. So I look at this as like my my hopeful gift with sharing this today. And I'm also in the process of writing something that I hope to have published about this in the future, is to give people hope, but also to give a voice to people who have been overlooked and underserved, and to be able to really hold our clinicians accountable to find root causes. Because if it could be fixed for somebody else with something simple, then we owe it to society, I think, to do that.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yes, and Katrina, thank you for sharing this story. I think I it's so powerful to hear, and I think the biggest thing that I admire about you so much is not only your tenacity, but your dedication and being your own self-advocate. I think that goes so underlooked, and people just take the word of physicians or take the word for something they don't know enough about.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

So to hear you fight this fight and continue to figure out the insurance system and to like all these red tape areas that people give up because it's difficult to navigate is so admirable. And what a powerful, powerful story.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Thank you. Yeah, and I will also say that we went back and consulted with the same doctor before we got pregnant with my son. There was a different bacteria that is normally found in the GI tract. And just as a healthy measure, I went on antibiotics again and had a very successful pregnancy. Now, this was my story. There's many causes of infertility. I'm not sitting here saying everybody has, you know, what I had or anything even closer. Like there's many, many causes. But what I am saying very, very strongly, Ashley, is that you deserve answers. And there is the technology to get you many, many answers. Are we fully there? No. I hope we continue to evolve over time. But I mean, at the end of the day, it is 2026. And even in that 14 years, now looking back, there's been huge research in these interdependencies with bacteria and fertility that I think have will continue to grow in other aspects too. So I'm excited. And I just want to say, like, as a reminder, like of the all the people, the one in six that experience infertility, only 44% of them tend to go and seek medical assistance. Many people just give up. And sometimes you have to, you know, mental health, financial stability, your relationship struggles, there's so many things that happen when when a couple experience infertility. But think about that. Of the one in six, only 44% can seek medical assistance. And of those who seek medical intervention, approximately 65% give birth. Okay. So fertility is a really big topic. It affects many couples, many people. And it's something that is an underserved area that I hope in the future will continue to be vocalized more and share more. And I that's why I want to end with the callback to the National Infertility Awareness Week, the theme of more than. I believe everyone experiencing infertility, I love this theme, is more than a diagnosis. You're more than a statistic, and you're more than a story that's left unheard. And if you've experienced infertility, I would ask you, what does more than mean to you? You are more than that, but also you expect more. So here's my heart on my sleeve to all of you impacted by infertility during this week of awareness. Share your story. It's important. It can move us forward in a beautiful direction. And I hope that you found my story to be uplifting in some way. There is light at the end of the tunnel. And remember, after every breakdown, there's always those bubbles. And sometimes they're in the form of these cute little babies. And if you guys are enjoying us, please make sure to follow us on Instagram. Share this with someone that you care about. If you know someone who's experienced infertility, do them a favor. Let them know they're not alone. And yeah, we just look forward to catching up with y'all soon. Thank you.