0:00

So if you have unprotected sex during

0:02

the days you're not ovulating. Sperm can

0:04

stay around, yeah. Towards the day. It just

0:06

chills there. Yeah, some sperm can last for

0:08

a long time. It's vile events and your

0:11

favorite meme queen in the big sit you didn't

0:13

ask for, but need a welcome

0:16

to Almost Adulting. Almost

0:18

Adulting. Almost Adulting.

0:22

Are you ready? Hello,

0:24

everyone, and welcome back to Almost

0:27

Adulting, the number one podcast for mental health

0:29

and dating with everything in between with

0:31

me, your big sister and your host,

0:33

Yoletta Benson. Today, we have

0:36

the privilege of speaking with Dr. Shaheen

0:38

Gadeer, a world renowned fertility

0:40

specialist with over 20 years of experience in

0:42

the field. He is the founder

0:45

of the Southern California Reproductive Center, which

0:47

has helped countless couples and individuals navigate

0:50

the often complex and emotional journey of

0:52

infertility. And he's also

0:55

has been recognized as a top

0:57

doctor by Castle Connelly and U.S.

0:59

News and World Report. I'm so

1:01

excited to have him on today because

1:04

he's not only a highly respected fertility

1:06

specialist, but he's also someone

1:08

who truly cares about his patients. I've done

1:10

a lot of research about this before he came

1:13

on. And he goes above and beyond

1:15

to help them achieve their dreams of starting

1:17

a family when they're ready. And he's

1:19

actually also currently helping me go through

1:21

the process of freezing my eggs,

1:24

which we are going to dive into that

1:26

today. So yeah, welcome.

1:28

Thank you so much for having me. And yes, we

1:31

are all excited about freezing

1:33

your eggs.

1:34

Yes, I'm very excited for that. So you guys, whoever's

1:36

listening, whether you're someone who's struggling

1:38

with infertility or you're just interested

1:41

in learning more about fertility

1:43

and reproductive health or my current

1:45

journey with freezing my eggs, which has

1:48

been really interesting. I know that you're going

1:51

to find his insights and

1:53

expertise incredibly valuable. So let's

1:56

get started. First, I thought we

1:58

could get started with one of biggest

2:00

myths when it comes to fertility, which

2:02

I think many of us are unfamiliar

2:04

with, unaware of this, is that we all think

2:07

fertility is only a woman's issue.

2:09

Well, in reality, it can be both men

2:11

and women that can experience fertility

2:13

issues. Is that correct?

2:14

Absolutely. So

2:17

in the past, people used to think it's a lot more

2:19

of a female issue, but now it's clearly

2:22

been documented in all kinds of research

2:24

that about 40% of fertility is male, 40% is and

2:29

there's still about 20% where we just

2:31

can't figure out what is going on. That's

2:34

called unexplained infertility. So, yep,

2:36

if the guys are listening out there, be careful

2:38

because it could be from your side as well.

2:40

Yeah, what are some of the most common reasons

2:42

for infertility in both men and women? I'll

2:45

tell you the most common reason in

2:47

women that has been there and is

2:49

happening and is continuing and is not changing

2:51

is advanced maternal age.

2:54

So women are just waiting too long

2:57

to use their fertility and and to

2:59

take advantage of having kids. Our parents

3:02

were having us in their 20s, and

3:04

now people are waiting until much,

3:07

much, much later in life. The average age

3:09

of a woman walking into my clinic is 39

3:11

years old. And that's sad, because

3:14

by the age of 39, many women have had significant

3:16

declines in their fertility, and it affects

3:19

their overall chances of having the family that

3:21

they want to if they have not frozen their

3:23

eggs in a younger age.

3:24

So what would you say the

3:27

proper age is when you're most fertile

3:29

as a woman? I

3:30

mean, your most fertile years are between 20

3:32

and 29, I'd say. Maybe

3:35

even like 27, because studies

3:38

have shown that at the age of like 27, 28, your fertility starts to

3:40

decline. Your

3:43

egg reserves starts to go down, quality

3:45

of eggs starts to go down as well.

3:46

Okay, what are other factors when it comes

3:48

to infertility for women?

3:50

So age is number one. The

3:53

other one is that we have a major problem with

3:56

obesity in our country, and being

3:58

overweight has a...

4:00

incredibly big impact on negative

4:02

egg quality. Being overweight also

4:04

sometimes goes along with polycystic ovary

4:06

syndrome. Then it causes a lack

4:08

of ovulation, then it causes poor

4:10

egg quality. So all of that kind

4:12

of goes together as one kind of area

4:15

of lack of ovulation and poor

4:18

egg quality, which I think is the

4:20

second biggest area.

4:21

One of my biggest concerns was

4:23

when I was finally getting off birth control is that I

4:25

won't be fertile because I've been on birth control

4:28

since I was 17. Is that

4:29

a myth? Big myth. So multiple

4:32

myths in the use of birth control. So

4:34

using birth control for long periods of time

4:37

does not decrease your fertility. And it

4:39

also does not save all your

4:41

eggs from being destroyed. Despite

4:43

being on birth control, your body

4:45

is still losing eggs on a regular basis

4:48

as they die. Every month when you ovulate,

4:50

about a thousand eggs die off in the process.

4:53

But while on birth control, about a thousand

4:55

eggs die off of just over

4:57

time as well. So being on birth

4:59

control

4:59

doesn't save your fertility

5:02

and in no way does it make your fertility

5:04

worse. However, sometimes

5:07

for some people, the first few months

5:09

after being on birth control for a long period

5:11

of time, actually they have trouble

5:14

ovulating for some people. Now it's not

5:16

true for everyone. Some people are incredibly fertile

5:18

the month they come off, but sometimes

5:20

people have a little bit of a challenge for

5:22

a couple of months to get back to normal ovulation.

5:25

Oh, wow, okay, that's really interesting. Okay,

5:28

what are some of the reasons

5:30

some men are infertile?

5:31

Men have infertility for a

5:33

lot of reasons, okay? And but the thing

5:35

is we can't pinpoint them as easily. By

5:38

the way, studies have shown that men after the age

5:40

of 40, again, their sperm

5:42

quality starts to decline and there's

5:44

increased chances of having kids with chromosomal

5:47

abnormalities. And there are some links

5:49

that have not been proven very clearly or well

5:51

that say that men over the age

5:53

of 40 have a higher chance

5:56

of having kids with autism. Now, it

5:59

hasn't been proven.

6:00

To me, that's enough to scare the hell out of me. I

6:02

think people should take it seriously. We're freezing a lot

6:04

of sperm for men in their 30s because

6:06

they don't want to even be in that category and

6:09

have to deal with those issues. Other

6:11

thing is that a lot of environmental

6:14

factors, smoking, drinking,

6:16

drugs, steam rooms, saunas,

6:19

jacuzzis, super tight underwear, all

6:23

of the things that are around us everywhere

6:25

can affect sperm in a negative way.

6:27

Oh, right. I could have sworn I read

6:29

that a long time ago. Someone told me, maybe

6:32

when I was younger, this guy wasn't wearing underwear.

6:34

And then he said, oh, it's because super

6:36

tight underwear, take away some sperm, we're making

6:38

fur. And I was like, that is such a silly thing to say.

6:40

And he was right.

6:41

Yeah, super tight underwear is

6:44

gonna have lots of effects on testicular

6:47

temperature and sperm as well.

6:49

Okay, so then obviously I

6:52

exercise stress, all of that actually affects fertility.

6:54

All

6:54

of those things. All of those things affect fertility

6:56

for men and women. It's very, very true.

6:58

Being as healthy as you can be can help your fertility.

7:01

But then again, I get women coming into

7:03

my office at 43 and they

7:06

are incredibly healthy and they exercise

7:08

all the time and they don't eat one bad thing

7:10

under the perfect weight. It still is not

7:13

going to keep your fertility forever. It

7:15

may help you carry a healthy pregnancy, but

7:17

in no way is that saving your eggs.

7:19

God, okay. So for women, it's

7:22

around 29 that they

7:24

have more of a chance to have

7:27

issues.

7:32

The problem is this, it's very different

7:34

for different women. There are some people that

7:36

their fertility begins to decline at 23.

7:39

There are some women that their fertility does not

7:41

even decline at like 40. Right, well

7:43

I just wanted to kind of compare overall for women

7:45

around 29, for men around 40. That's

7:47

kind of ages. The things that studies

7:50

have shown, which we have to look at research always, because

7:52

that's the most important thing. For men, after 40

7:55

starts to become a problem, but

7:57

many, many people have sperm to the

7:59

day.

8:00

day they die. Yeah. Okay.

8:03

And for women, it's the average

8:05

age, 26 to 29, I'd say is when the decline for fertility

8:07

begins.

8:08

Yeah. Okay.

8:10

And my ex, he used to smoke a lot of weed like every day. And my head always

8:13

thought that that guy is probably going to be incredibly

8:15

infertile if that's the correct answer. But now he has two kids,

8:17

so it was never mind.

8:18

So there are some men that are

8:20

more sensitive and

8:22

weed and pot can affect

8:24

their sperm a lot. And then there are men, there

8:26

are the men that they don't get really that affected.

8:28

Got it. So I wanted to first

8:30

dive into the egg freezing

8:33

area when we're going to talk, especially

8:36

because I'm freezing my eggs. And it was,

8:38

it

8:38

took me a lot in my own brain

8:41

to find the courage to freeze

8:43

my eggs. It's the weirdest thing. It's

8:45

almost like you know you're supposed to, but if I

8:48

had these emotions of a feeling

8:52

like I failed somehow, that I'm going

8:54

through freezing my eggs versus just having a baby

8:56

with a partner because I didn't find my person. And

8:58

then B, I didn't even want to

9:00

have kids right now, which is another thing. Made

9:02

me feel like I'm failing because I'm in my 30s, don't

9:04

wanna have kids. And then C, I had

9:07

the biggest fear, which a lot of women have

9:08

this, I had the biggest fear to

9:10

find out that what if I'm not fertile? Because

9:13

of that fear, I kept prolonging,

9:15

not freezing my eggs,

9:16

which is so silly. I'm very glad you answered

9:19

those three reasons because I was about to turn

9:21

this interview around and say, why

9:23

would you have that fear? And

9:26

I hear this and deal with this all day long,

9:28

and it's complicated for many, many people. But

9:31

the world has changed, but the female

9:33

biology has not. So the

9:35

days when women got married

9:37

when there were 20 and then started to

9:39

have a family at 21, 22 have

9:42

really changed. That women are

9:44

as much of the workforce that

9:46

men are. Women have careers

9:49

just like men do. And it is a thing

9:51

of the past to sit there and wanna have babies

9:53

when you're 20 years old, when the men

9:55

are out there trying to learn to become something and have

9:57

a career. So for that reason.

10:00

because the female body has not changed,

10:03

women are not making eggs like

10:05

men are making sperm. We have to be

10:07

very smart about this process. I agree

10:10

for many, many women in their 30s, when they're

10:12

working at their prime with everything,

10:15

finding a relationship that works doesn't always work

10:17

out and having the time to have kids doesn't

10:19

always work out. I always

10:21

tell my wife her job is so much

10:24

harder than me because she does, she

10:26

works and runs our life, She runs

10:29

our house, she runs our kids to an

10:31

extent more than I do, and it's a lot

10:33

of work, a lot of work.

10:35

And I understand why for many women it's

10:37

a problem.

10:38

I think everyone when they think of kids, the

10:41

women are supposed to be happy when in reality, if

10:44

you are

10:45

very driven and independent woman, a

10:47

child sometimes kind of gets in

10:49

the way of you getting the promotion that you want and all that,

10:51

and sometimes you just want to push it. I

10:54

don't know, I'm just saying. So first

10:56

I want to debunk some egg

10:58

freezing myths, a few more. So

11:00

number one, one of the biggest myths when it comes to freezing

11:02

your eggs is that it's only for

11:05

women that want to delay motherhood.

11:07

Is that true? I'm not sure if that's true

11:10

because there are some women that right

11:12

now want to have a kid, but they're

11:14

freezing their eggs or their embryos because

11:17

by the time they are wanting to have baby number

11:19

two, three, or four, the problem

11:21

may be then and not necessarily

11:23

now. So you could come to my office

11:25

when you're 33 and probably have

11:28

no problem getting pregnant, but let's

11:30

say you deliver at 34, you don't wanna

11:32

have another kid till you're like 36, 37, 38. By

11:36

the time you wanna have baby number three and you're in your

11:38

40s, it'll probably be really hard. So if you

11:40

don't have those eggs from now, it may

11:43

be a major issue.

11:44

Okay, yeah. And then it's also actually,

11:46

it's also useful for people that wanna donate their eggs and

11:48

people that are going through, what is

11:50

it, undergoing cancer.

11:52

So there's an entire field

11:54

called onco fertility where we're

11:57

freezing eggs for people that are about to

11:59

undergo key. and

12:01

things that will harm their fertility for life and

12:04

never come back. So if you're about to do

12:06

anything like that, an immediate phone

12:08

call, we generally get those people into our

12:10

clinic within 24 hours and make sure that they

12:12

freeze their eggs right away because our

12:15

cancer treatments have become much, much, much

12:17

better. And in this day and age, many

12:19

people are trying to freeze their eggs because

12:21

they're going to survive and they're going to be great and we want

12:23

them to come back in five years and have a kid.

12:25

So at what age would you say it's optimal

12:27

for a woman a woman to start considering, really

12:29

considering freezing her eggs, whether she's in a relationship

12:32

or not, but she's just not ready. What do you

12:34

think is a good age to start thinking about it? So I

12:36

think that

12:37

every, the younger, the better. I say

12:39

that answer every time someone's asked me this question,

12:42

but there are women that are 24 years old and

12:44

are not really thinking about egg freezing.

12:46

We are not there yet in society and

12:48

with the education and with everything we

12:50

know about egg freezing, we're not quite there. So

12:53

what I tell people is if the day you

12:55

hit 30, you're not about to start having your kids,

12:58

you need to freeze your eggs.

12:59

Because at the age of 30, many, I have people

13:02

that come in their 20s, but it's very hard

13:04

to convince someone in their 20s when they really

13:06

should be doing this, that it's the time for them

13:08

to do it. So many, many people are coming

13:10

to us now when they hit 30. I just, I

13:13

get really concerned when I get a call from

13:15

someone and they're like 48

13:17

and they want to freeze their eggs. Because it makes me

13:19

think that unfortunately that person doesn't understand

13:21

what's going on with their female biology. The way

13:23

that everyone should look at this is they need to

13:25

have their own fertility assessed. It's

13:28

a simple, it's a blood test, you have

13:30

it assessed because in this day and age, everyone

13:33

is different. I have people that call me

13:35

at 31 to freeze their eggs and then when they come

13:37

in and they do their blood test, we see, oh my God, they've

13:39

had a major decline in fertility.

13:41

Did I? No. But

13:44

it has happened many, many times for

13:46

many patients. Yeah.

13:48

No, so we're going to discuss the process

13:50

of freezing eggs because another big myth

13:52

that people have aside from being

13:55

afraid to find out whether or not you're

13:57

fertile or or not is the fact that. I

14:00

always thought the process was going to be incredibly

14:02

long, painful, and I was really

14:05

scared of it until one of my friends in New York

14:07

froze her eggs and she's in a relationship and she still

14:09

froze her eggs because they weren't ready to have a child.

14:13

And she said, oh, it took me 10 days. It

14:15

was like in and out, like a whole month,

14:18

I would say a month max. And that was

14:20

really, and then I asked her, is it painful because she's a

14:22

big sissy. So I know, like you

14:24

just touch her and she's in pain. And she was like, no, it's so painless.

14:27

So that was really cool to see. And after that I did my research

14:29

and obviously found you. So I think

14:31

that's a, I'm happy everyone listening

14:33

to debunk that myth that it's long and painful because

14:36

I already started.

14:36

I think, you know, that's really important. I think everyone

14:38

should know the way that egg freezing works is

14:41

you do a consultation, you do some testing,

14:43

I give you feedback on how fertile you are. And

14:46

then after that, you call us with your

14:48

period. You come in on day two, three

14:51

or four of your period. Some women

14:53

we put on birth control for about a week to

14:55

stop their natural ovulation cycle.

14:58

And then we go into about 10 to 12 days

15:00

of injections that we teach them. The injections

15:02

go right into the belly. And then after those

15:04

injections are done, they're ready to

15:07

have the eggs out. So that's under a month. Some

15:09

people, we skip the birth control altogether.

15:11

They call us on day one, they come in on day two,

15:14

and by day three or four, you go into injections

15:17

and 10 to 12 days later, they're done again. So

15:19

it's like two weeks basically,

15:21

and they're all done with this whole process.

15:23

What's the difference

15:25

whether you take the birth control or not?

15:26

It's really for timing. So some people,

15:29

like, they haven't done all their paperwork, they're not

15:31

ready to start, or they may have to go out somewhere.

15:34

So we put them on birth control to stop the ovulation.

15:36

And other people are ready to go, their medications

15:38

are ordered, everything's taken care of. So

15:40

we have no issues. You come in, as long as

15:42

your ovaries are at rest, your blood levels are

15:45

nice and low, we go ahead and get started.

15:47

Got it. Yeah, so I started the process

15:49

basically, I filled out all the paperwork,

15:52

and then I went

15:54

in to do my blood work. And I remember

15:57

when I came in to do my blood work, it's when

15:59

I found out that I also...

16:00

to have to do the ovulation test, because

16:02

those are my periods. So it's when they put that thing

16:04

inside of you to take the pictures of

16:06

everything. No, that's not an ovulation test. Sorry, what is that?

16:08

It's an ultrasound. I'm so stupid, it's an ultrasound.

16:10

It is not an ovulation test. It's a

16:13

vaginal ultrasound that's done and the

16:15

vaginal ultrasound looks at your ovaries

16:18

because we do blood tests, the

16:20

most

16:21

important blood test that you need to have your OBGYN

16:23

do for you is called an AMH,

16:26

anti-molarion hormone,

16:28

AMH. You could do that any day of the month.

16:31

You don't have to be on your period. You don't have to be off your period.

16:33

It doesn't matter at all. So we do that test

16:35

and then we know kind of where the fertility

16:38

levels are. We also do an ultrasound

16:40

in the beginning of the month and we look at the little

16:42

follicles on everyone's ovaries. They're

16:45

little bubbles. And the

16:47

more of these bubbles you have, the more eggs

16:49

you have. Now, when you start to have a

16:51

lot of these, that means you have polycystic

16:54

ovary syndrome. But if you have like 10,

16:57

12 of these on each ovary, That's a very

16:59

healthy, healthy, healthy ovary.

17:02

And that's an antral follicle count. So

17:05

that's what we look at as well. And that tells us also

17:07

how fertile people are by doing that count.

17:09

Yeah, so when I came in, I didn't know

17:11

I was gonna do the ultrasound. And in that, I

17:13

did my blood test. And that moment I freaked out because

17:15

it was that me finally coming face

17:18

to face with the fact that I may be infertile.

17:20

And that was so scary. But then

17:23

I found out that I'm good, right? I don't

17:25

want anyone to think

17:26

of it that way. I just don't understand why

17:28

doing a transvaginal ultrasound

17:31

would make you think you're infertile.

17:34

It's giving us information, information is power.

17:36

I have had people with very, very low fertility

17:39

levels. Like people that, like

17:41

if they were you, they'd be crying and like freaking

17:43

out, but people that were proactive

17:45

and had low egg reserves and

17:47

froze their eggs and with very, very low,

17:50

I've had people make one egg and they had

17:52

a baby.

17:52

Wow, okay.

17:53

Okay, and that's someone with a very low fertility

17:56

with medications and everything, still can

17:58

only make one egg.

17:59

Which is I- It's actually one of the next

18:01

myths that I have for egg freezing. So there's some

18:03

myths that a lot of people believe. A, you need

18:05

to freeze a large amount of

18:07

eggs. So you're saying no. Well,

18:11

this is the thing. Efficiency of eggs

18:13

is really low. Many, many

18:15

eggs are abnormal for women.

18:17

Okay? Okay. So if you only get one

18:19

or two eggs, you have a very low chance that

18:22

that's gonna be enough. So I always tell

18:24

everyone, try to get as many

18:26

eggs as you can Because the

18:28

more eggs you have, the better are

18:30

gonna be your chances that you do well. So

18:32

the more eggs you have, the better the chances,

18:35

the more opportunities that each one of them can

18:37

make you one of your future kids.

18:38

Okay, when exactly do you know how many eggs

18:40

someone has?

18:42

You don't. But I can tell you when

18:44

you do the procedure, oh, you got 24 eggs, 20

18:48

of them are mature. We freeze only the mature

18:50

ones, so you have 20 eggs and that's 20

18:52

opportunities to have a baby.

18:53

Got it, so the ultrasound and

18:55

the blood tests are what tells you whether or not a person's

18:58

fertile, very fertile or lower chances.

19:01

So the ultrasound and also

19:03

the blood test are part

19:05

of what's called the fertility assessment. They

19:08

give me a guide that tell me she's

19:10

gonna do really well and do have a lot of good

19:12

eggs, hopefully, or she's gonna have very low

19:15

number of eggs. Now, if I

19:17

have patients that are at once in a while, we have a patient

19:19

that's like 44, 45 that makes a

19:21

bunch of eggs, but still quality

19:24

isn't also a big issue. So if you're

19:26

doing this at a younger age,

19:28

you're gonna have better quality eggs than if you're

19:30

doing it at an older age. So it's better to do

19:32

it younger, it's better to get as many eggs as possible.

19:35

Got it, okay, some other egg

19:37

freezing myths are that frozen

19:39

eggs last forever. Apparently that's not

19:41

a thing.

19:43

So they theoretically do. Oh,

19:45

okay. So I mean, when I say forever,

19:48

I tell patients, you know, you're 30 years

19:50

old now, please don't come back

19:52

in 30 years to use these eggs. I'm

19:54

not putting a 60 year old embryos.

19:57

Yeah. I encourage a 60 year

19:59

old. to even use a surrogate, because I just don't

20:01

think it's really that fair for

20:04

a kid to be born to a 60 year old. Now,

20:07

I say that with a lot of caution because

20:09

I have had some older parents that turned

20:11

out to be unbelievable parents, but in general,

20:14

when they say there is a time limit, there's

20:17

a time limit because we want you to come and use them

20:19

while your body's still healthy, and you can

20:21

still be a good parent. I'm not here to judge who's

20:23

a good parent and who's not, but so

20:25

that's a little bit of a, we

20:28

gotta be careful there, But with that being

20:30

said, the eggs

20:32

theoretically are supposed to be frozen in time.

20:35

Oh. Forever.

20:36

Okay, so what would you say the success

20:38

rate of egg freezing is and how likely

20:40

is it to, how likely

20:42

are you then to have a successful pregnancy after?

20:45

I love that question and

20:47

I can't answer it. Okay. Because

20:49

so many people have asked that. So there's no way

20:51

to say, okay, Violeta, your success

20:54

rate with your eggs is gonna be 43%. There's

20:57

just no way. Okay.

20:58

We have no idea

21:00

what your egg quality is. We don't know

21:02

in the future when you come to use them if

21:04

your future husband is gonna be 90 years old

21:07

with the worst sperm ever, or if he's gonna

21:09

be 25 year old with the best sperm ever and

21:12

make you beautiful embryos. So it's really impossible

21:14

to answer that question. So if

21:17

you make a genetically healthy

21:19

embryo, which is an egg and a sperm put together,

21:22

we let it grow, it grows beautifully, we test

21:24

it and it comes back genetically normal, in my

21:26

clinic your success rate is between like 76

21:28

and 84%, depending

21:31

on what month we look at. So it's really

21:33

high. And if you're 44 and make one

21:35

of them, your success rate is really high. And

21:38

if you're 33 and you make 10 of

21:40

them, the success rate is high for each of them.

21:42

Got it, but freezing your eggs doesn't guarantee

21:44

a pregnancy. That's still, you know,

21:47

like you said, you have to actually have the healthy eggs.

21:49

You have to then do the embryo

21:51

with the sperm.

21:52

Absolutely, so just freezing your

21:54

egg does not mean, but in general

21:57

speaking, It's important for everyone to understand.

22:00

that yes, if you freeze an

22:02

egg at a younger age, there's a much

22:04

higher chance that that embryo is gonna be healthy

22:07

and do well. What happens to the eggs

22:09

that you froze if

22:12

you, for whatever reason, decide not to use them or

22:14

the person passes away? You can

22:15

discard them, you can leave them

22:17

in your will. I have a patient of mine that called

22:19

me and said, Dr. Gedira, thank you so much for

22:22

helping me. My baby is born. I think I'm gonna

22:24

freeze some eggs now and leave it in my

22:26

will in case any of my

22:28

kids ever have problems, I

22:30

want them to have my biological tissue

22:32

to use. Whoa. Which I thought was incredibly,

22:35

incredibly interesting to be thinking

22:38

that far ahead, thinking of your kids like

22:40

that, but I thought that was incredible.

22:42

So if I'm not fertile,

22:45

and my sister still is, I can take her

22:48

eggs and put it inside of me with

22:50

my husband's sperm? Yes. That's called

22:52

egg donation. And for people that

22:55

don't have their sister to give them eggs, or

22:57

their cousin to give them eggs, or their

22:59

mother to leave them eggs on their will, there's

23:01

an entire program in this country

23:04

called egg donation.

23:06

When someone, and it's not really donation,

23:08

but it's they call it donation, it's

23:11

when you use a person who's usually

23:13

between the ages of 20 and 29, and

23:15

then they donate, they give their eggs,

23:17

they do get paid for it. Okay. A

23:20

good amount of money. Yeah, they get paid a good amount of money, and

23:22

then their eggs are made into embryos with

23:24

the sperm of your choice, your husband, for

23:26

example, and then the embryo goes in you.

23:29

I'm literally asking the most, I'm

23:31

sure to you,

23:33

a dummy questions, but I think including myself,

23:35

there's a lot of people who don't know this stuff because I didn't

23:37

even realize that

23:39

I just assume if you're not fertile, it means you can't

23:41

carry a baby. It's pretty cool to know that you can still carry

23:43

a baby if you're not fertile, because there's other things.

23:45

First of

23:45

all, I think these questions are excellent.

23:48

Because I think 99% of the people out there,

23:51

all these questions are like, wow, I

23:53

didn't know that. Oh, I thought that, but I wasn't sure

23:56

of that. And I think hearing them from a

23:58

specialist that does this all day long. and

24:00

learning about this. And I love that

24:03

your audience is exactly

24:05

who needs to be hearing this. Right.

24:06

Another cool thing I will

24:08

say, okay, so when I started the process freezing my eggs,

24:11

he takes everything very seriously and

24:13

he really reprimanded me, but I love it because obviously

24:16

the doctor that you're working with, you

24:18

don't want them to be overly lenient

24:20

or eff around. So basically

24:23

I did my

24:24

blood work, I did my ultrasound, it

24:26

was on my second day of my period, and then

24:29

I had to pick up my birth control and I forgot.

24:31

So it was like a week or two weeks later, we're

24:34

on the phone and I told him, hey, I just want you

24:36

to know, I just picked up my birth control

24:38

and he was like,

24:39

stop. There's no point to use them

24:41

because you're behind. Violeta, you need to take this

24:43

seriously. And he was just literally felt like I was

24:45

the, but

24:48

I loved it.

24:48

I like to think that I'm

24:51

not that serious. And a lot

24:53

of my patients know that we

24:55

make this as fun as possible, But you

24:58

have to take this seriously. Like the day

25:00

we told you to start your birth control pill, I

25:03

don't know why you thought that you could

25:05

wait 10 days later and

25:07

randomly on a phone call with me say, oh,

25:09

I'm gonna start the birth control today. I didn't

25:11

say start the birth control 10 days later. I said,

25:14

you need to pick up the birth control and start it today.

25:16

Maybe we didn't communicate it with you well enough. I'm sure

25:18

we did, but well,

25:21

maybe we

25:21

didn't. So we have a learning moment there.

25:23

No, it's me. I blame myself.

25:25

So there's no blame involved. We're

25:28

here because I have a couple of,

25:30

I love my clinic, I absolutely

25:32

adore my staff, I have two

25:34

of my lead nurses are the

25:36

best I've ever had in my career, and

25:39

they're amazing, and they love

25:41

my patients and my patients love them, and

25:44

I love what I do. I love

25:46

to do this for you, so

25:48

when you wanna have baby number four and

25:50

it's not happening, we can use them and

25:52

we can make sure that you do so well.

25:54

No, of course, I think

25:56

I was so not educated.

25:58

with

26:00

understanding all this, that I didn't even understand the difference.

26:02

Because you then explained to me on the phone the difference of me waiting 10

26:04

days and the importance of getting my birth

26:06

control the day you told me. And also, yeah, I

26:09

want to have the best results. I didn't take it

26:11

seriously. And in that moment, I was like,

26:13

holy shit, okay, this is very serious. It's a big

26:15

deal. Let's get it over with. Well,

26:17

I think anything

26:18

that involves healthcare,

26:20

there's no leniency there. It needs to be done

26:23

the right way. No one

26:25

wants to be messing around with their health. Yeah. Whether

26:28

it's egg freezing, cancer treatment,

26:31

high cholesterol, mental

26:33

health. No matter what it is,

26:35

I think that people need to take it very seriously. So

26:37

I'm glad it came across now that you need to know

26:40

the importance of how to do this. No one

26:42

wants to give this much time, this much

26:44

effort and this much money into something

26:47

and then mess it up at the end of the day.

26:48

What is the cost of egg freezing? And does

26:50

insurance cover it or how does that

26:52

work? Many of our patients these days, it's actually,

26:55

I gotta say, I'm very happy about one thing. more

26:57

and more patients actually have coverage, which

27:00

is great. Not me. A lot

27:02

of the big employers, for example, like Disney,

27:05

Snapchat, Google,

27:07

Apple, a lot of these

27:09

plays, Amazon, a lot of these

27:12

companies are now offering fertility care. Netflix

27:15

has amazing fertility care. So

27:17

if you're looking for a job, make sure

27:19

you ask that question. So when you decide which

27:21

one to take, you take the one that also

27:23

has great fertility coverage that you could take advantage

27:26

of. So I have no patience

27:28

of mind that are like,

27:30

literally have taken jobs because of the fertility

27:32

coverage. Wow. Because it adds up

27:34

a lot. What would you say the average cost is

27:36

for egg freezing? Obviously everyone's

27:38

different. The average cost, I mean, we have specials

27:40

that bring it to like six and a half thousand. It

27:43

comes a couple of times a year we do those. Usually

27:46

it's in like the 7,000 range. I think that's kind

27:48

of true. If you find a place that's

27:51

doing them for like really, really cheap,

27:53

I'd be very, very weary. It's

27:55

like when they do ads for LASIK eye

27:57

surgery for like $3.99.

28:00

I get really worried. What quality

28:02

equipment, what quality of a lab,

28:05

all these things come to become very important

28:07

in a situation like that. So I think freezing

28:10

your eggs, eye surgery, a

28:12

couple other areas of medicine that I would

28:14

never cut quarters. You wanna do- Classic

28:17

surgery. Yeah, I mean, you gotta do these things under

28:20

the best hands ever because

28:22

you're gonna be in trouble if you don't. So

28:24

I think finding an excellent lab

28:26

like ours, Ours is recognized to be one

28:28

of the top IVF labs

28:30

in the country. I

28:32

think all the doctors at UCLA, all the

28:34

doctors at Cedars, 20-something

28:36

other doctors in LA County use

28:39

my lab. And I think we're excellent.

28:41

I'm not gonna lie. Our lab director, Dr.

28:43

Jason Barrett, is phenomenal. The

28:45

embryology team in my clinic is amazing.

28:48

So we do an excellent, excellent job

28:50

with what we do in the lab for eggs, embryos,

28:53

sperm, all of that.

28:53

So for freezing your eggs, there's the

28:56

fee for the testing,

28:58

then there's the fee for the actual

29:02

process of the freezing your eggs, storing

29:04

them, and then for the medication.

29:06

Correct. So the medications you buy

29:08

from a pharmacy, not from us. The

29:11

IV, the egg freezing or the IVF process

29:13

is that process. And then there's generally

29:15

some testing, diagnostic testing beforehand.

29:17

Right, okay, understood. And when you

29:20

go through the process, I did wanna go

29:22

back to that really quick. So the process of freezing eggs,

29:24

it's really simple and easy. A month

29:26

max, you wait till your period, you do

29:28

the blood work, then the ultrasound, then you either

29:30

get on birth control or you don't. And then you,

29:33

how many days do you inject yourself?

29:35

Usually on average, it's 10

29:37

to 12 days. Some people a little

29:40

less, some people a little more. 10 to 12

29:42

days, during those 10 to 12 days, what

29:45

are the side effects?

29:46

The biggest side effect that people

29:48

complain of is bloating. So

29:50

your ovaries are usually like two small little apricots

29:53

and then they start to become like two big grapefruits.

29:57

That's for someone who's responding really well. If

29:59

you put. two grapefruits inside of your body,

30:02

you're gonna feel some fullness

30:04

in your pelvis, and that's that bloatedness

30:06

that people feel, and it generally, within a

30:08

week or so afterwards, it's gone again.

30:11

Okay, got it, but that's one of the major side effects. Yeah,

30:13

the major side effects. And then after those 10

30:15

to 12 days

30:17

of injecting yourself, then

30:19

you go to extract your ovaries, yes? I

30:21

mean, oh, shit, the ovaries, sorry. You're not extracting

30:23

the ovaries, you're extracting the eggs. I don't know why you're so...

30:25

Yeah, so you come to our surgery center, You're

30:28

given some specific instructions on when

30:30

to give your final shot exactly 36

30:32

hours later under a

30:34

light sedation by my anesthesiologist.

30:37

We're doing what's called the egg retrieval, an

30:39

ultrasound that's placed vaginally. There's a

30:41

tiny little needle at the tip that helps go

30:43

through the vaginal wall right into the

30:45

ovary and helps retrieve the eggs.

30:47

And how long is that process? It takes

30:49

anywhere from maybe three minutes to 10

30:52

minutes. That's it? I mean, if you only

30:54

have like

30:55

three, four, five eggs and each one takes

30:58

like 10, 15 seconds.

31:01

Wow, okay, that's crazy. Okay,

31:03

and then the sedation, what does that mean

31:05

the minimal sedation is just that you can't feel

31:07

your body from the waist at

31:08

all? So you, no, you fall asleep and

31:11

then you fall asleep into deep sleep. It's

31:13

the propofol that goes into the IV. Propofol

31:16

makes you fall asleep when you wake up and you're all like, it's

31:18

all done.

31:19

Okay, wow, okay, I had no idea

31:21

it was so quick. Yeah, it's the same medication

31:24

people get for colonoscopies and other

31:26

minor procedures. Can you share some

31:29

success stories that you have from your practice

31:31

of women that successfully froze their eggs

31:34

and later gone on with healthy

31:35

pregnancies? I've had some 44 and

31:38

45-year-old patients freeze their eggs.

31:40

Specifically, I had a couple 44-year-olds

31:43

come back and thaw their eggs,

31:45

defrost them, they're called thaw. at

31:48

the age of like one came back at 45, one

31:51

came back at 46, we thawed

31:53

them and we made beautiful embryos that

31:55

genetically tested and were normal, put

31:57

them back in them and then they delivered, one of them delivered.

32:00

And one of my patients

32:02

that's talked about this a lot is MJ

32:04

from Shaws of Sunset.

32:06

Oh, wow, okay, yeah. She froze her eggs at 44

32:08

and a half.

32:10

And she came and told me, I met Tommy

32:12

at 46.

32:14

We've got a beautiful embryo. And

32:17

then she put the embryo back in her and delivered at 47.

32:19

Are there health issues for women to try to carry

32:21

their babies around in their 40s?

32:23

Yeah, there are. So for many women,

32:26

after the age of 35, they

32:29

are considered advanced maternal age, and

32:31

the risks of gestational diabetes, high

32:34

blood pressure, a lot of other

32:36

preterm labor and stuff, they all increase with

32:39

age. That's why it's important to keep your body

32:41

also as healthy as possible.

32:43

Got it. But the blood work would tell

32:45

you if your body wasn't that healthy. Well, there's

32:47

blood work for fertility and then there's overall

32:50

blood work. Let's say you're fertile and you've

32:52

got a lot of eggs, but you weigh 250 pounds,

32:55

you have high blood pressure and diabetes, that's

32:57

not gonna be a great candidate for carrying

32:59

a pregnancy.

33:00

Okay, got it. I wanted to kind of dive into

33:02

fertility now. What are some common

33:05

fertility treatments that are available to couples

33:07

who are struggling with infertility? IVF

33:09

is the number one that

33:11

has the highest success. There's artificial

33:14

insemination we call IUI or intrauterine

33:16

insemination, where we take the sperm at

33:18

the right time of the month and injecting it into

33:21

the patient. More and more of my

33:23

patients are choosing to skip that and

33:26

going to IVF because IVF, if you make

33:28

a good number of eggs, you get a good number of

33:30

embryos. Baby number two, three,

33:32

and four can be sitting there waiting for you while

33:34

we put the first embryo in you. Got it.

33:37

And that's like freezing eggs, but for a married

33:39

couple, you can make the embryo. And when

33:41

you freeze an embryo, the benefit is you're

33:43

able to know if it's genetically tested and

33:45

normal now versus when

33:48

you come back to me at 42 using your frozen

33:50

eggs to make embryos and we decide then,

33:53

okay, this is how many are normal. At 42

33:55

when you thaw your eggs, there's going

33:58

to be difficult making more embryos then.

34:00

Which couples would you say are good

34:02

candidates for IVF? Because I know I wanted to do IVF

34:04

because I want twins. Any woman

34:08

in her 30s who wants to

34:10

have more than one child needs

34:13

to be thinking about, okay, do I need to

34:15

know how fertile I am because I may not be

34:17

that fertile when I want baby number two or

34:20

three or four and I need to freeze my eggs

34:22

now. So anyone who's in their 30s and

34:24

thinking about more than one child should be

34:26

addressing their fertility and seeing if

34:28

they need to do that.

34:30

IVF. Yes, to freeze

34:32

embryos. What is IVF? IVF

34:35

is the word in vitro fertilization.

34:38

The word in vitro means outside

34:41

of the body,

34:42

fertilization. So we fertilize

34:44

the egg and the sperm in the laboratory.

34:47

That's why it's called in vitro, outside

34:50

of the body, fertilization. Egg

34:52

and sperm, instead of being fertilized inside the

34:54

fallopian tubes, are being fertilized

34:56

in the laboratory.

34:57

Instead of being cooked inside of you, it's cooked on

34:59

the outside.

34:59

Right, we can only cook an embryo

35:01

for five to seven days maximum

35:04

outside the body before it has to go

35:06

in your uterus. Wow, okay. Because at that point,

35:08

it needs to connect with the mom's uterus and

35:11

blood exchange needs to start to go to start

35:13

helping the baby grow. Do

35:14

you have an idea what the success rate is for

35:16

IVF? Yes,

35:18

as long as we are able to make a genetically

35:20

tested healthy embryo

35:23

with the egg and the sperm, whether it's a

35:25

frozen egg or not,

35:26

The success rate of that genetically tested embryo

35:28

is 76 to 84% for my clinic. The

35:32

national average is about 40 something

35:34

percent.

35:35

Are there any risks that are associated

35:37

with IVF? Obviously with everything.

35:38

There are, with everything there's some risks. You

35:40

know, there's the risks of the procedure. There were

35:43

a lot of studies done years

35:45

ago, like over 25 years ago, when

35:48

IVF had started to see how healthy it

35:50

is and what happens. Unfortunately,

35:52

the studies were done really, really poorly. They

35:55

were done in countries with socialized

35:57

medicine, So it's all like record

35:59

keeping.

36:00

but they were really poorly done. Some

36:03

studies showed that instead of the 1-2% normal congenital

36:05

anomaly rate, it

36:08

was between 3-4% for IVF babies. I

36:11

don't see that at all anymore, or

36:13

even when I started off my career. So I think that those

36:15

numbers are really off and

36:18

I think some really new studies need to be done. I

36:21

personally think genetically testing an

36:23

embryo and being really healthy actually gives you

36:25

a healthier outcome than not genetically

36:28

testing.

36:28

So with IVF, how

36:32

long typically does it take to conceive

36:34

from the beginning of IVF to

36:36

then? So it takes about two

36:38

weeks to four weeks to get the eggs out, another

36:41

week for the egg and the sperm to grow as

36:43

an embryo, and then another week for

36:45

the genetic testing. So that's probably between

36:48

like five, six weeks. And then

36:50

once we get the genetic testing results, it

36:52

takes about a month to prepare the uterus to

36:54

put the embryo back. So this

36:57

whole process and sometimes we do an extra

36:59

month for a practice month. So it

37:01

takes something between two to three

37:03

months.

37:03

How do you prepare your uterus

37:06

for? We give pills for

37:08

the woman to take that are made of estrogen. Estrogen

37:11

makes the lining of your uterus stick.

37:13

Ready for an embryo to stick to it. What's

37:16

the success rate

37:20

to get pregnant, the first try of IVF?

37:23

76 to 84%. Okay,

37:26

what about when people do IVF and they really

37:28

want twins, sometimes they tell them, okay, we'll put three

37:30

in you. No, we never do that. We never ever do

37:32

that. If any clinic puts three

37:34

embryos in you, you need to run away from that clinic

37:37

because that means that they're not practicing good medicine.

37:39

I've been watching too much SVA. There are also

37:41

some clinics that have a rule that they only put one

37:43

embryo in. We don't do that either

37:45

because if

37:47

you are aware of all of the risks of putting

37:49

two embryos in and having twins and

37:51

you're healthy and you're in good shape and your body

37:53

is healthy and you really, really want to go for

37:55

twins, I have personally no problem against

37:58

that. So we're happy to put two each. embryo

38:00

has 76 to 84 percent. So

38:02

it's not guaranteed just because you put two embryos

38:05

in that you're going to have twins,

38:07

but it is a very high likelihood.

38:09

Okay, got it. So for couples

38:11

out there that struggle with infertility,

38:14

if one of the partners is unable

38:16

to

38:18

be fertile, can they still do IVF?

38:20

Yeah. So we have patients, for example, that the

38:22

husband has zero sperm. Right. So

38:25

we have our urology colleagues that specialize

38:27

in male fertility. They'll even come and

38:29

get sperm out of the testicle

38:31

and they'll give it to our lab and then we'll take the eggs

38:34

out of the woman and put them Together and then

38:36

they can have a kid which they normally would have had

38:38

zero

38:39

Is there any other ways that couples can optimize

38:42

their chances of getting pregnant? I mean, I think

38:44

being healthy. I think being in normal weight.

38:47

I think doing it younger I

38:49

think all these things help you get pregnant earlier and

38:51

better

38:51

So what exactly are other way other

38:53

reasons why couples turn to IVFSI

38:55

from potentially not being fertile Great

38:57

question.

39:01

So people who have recurrent miscarriages and we

39:03

figure out maybe the problem is just poor embryo quality. So

39:06

then we check and find the healthiest embryo to put that one back. People

39:10

that have a child with a disease that was inherited

39:13

from the mom and dad. So if both the mom

39:15

and dad are carriers of a certain disease,

39:18

they have a chance of giving the

39:20

disease to the child. that

39:25

disease.

39:26

Right. So that kind of brings me to my next

39:28

point is why do you think

39:31

some people seem to view IVF

39:33

as unethical?

39:34

I don't hear that often at all.

39:37

But what I do hear from some

39:39

very religious patients is they don't want their embryo

39:41

left there.

39:43

So they want to make like one embryo and put the embryo

39:45

in them

39:46

and have the baby.

39:47

And then so they'll freeze eggs because

39:49

they don't consider that as a human being. But

39:52

they want an embryo could be the beginning of a human being.

39:54

So some of my patients prefer just to go

39:56

a little bit, like one at a time, two

39:58

at a time, so they don't have.

40:00

I think it probably has to do with the fact that why would you want

40:02

to know whether or not your

40:04

child has certain types of diseases, everyone is special,

40:06

everyone's perfect the way they are. I

40:09

think the benefit of this world is that you can choose what's

40:11

appropriate for you and then

40:14

not appropriate for you.

40:15

Right. And if that's not appropriate

40:18

for you, then you shouldn't do it. I

40:20

like that, exactly. It's whatever works for you in

40:22

your life. Absolutely. Versus

40:24

telling your child, you know, what's appropriate for

40:25

you. It's whatever

40:28

works for you in your life. Absolutely. Versus

40:30

telling other people what works. Okay, I like that. Can

40:32

you kind of talk really quick about the emotional

40:34

impact that infertility and IVF can have

40:36

on patients and their partners? Yeah, you know, I think

40:38

that when people are

40:39

doing like the egg freezing at a young age, they

40:41

feel great. They're empowered. They

40:44

feel good about themselves. I feel

40:46

when young couples are freezing their embryos because

40:48

they want to have kids later and they're

40:50

working on their careers now, they feel

40:52

good. I do feel that sometimes when people

40:55

have waited a long time, their fertility

40:57

has declined, they've been through a lot,

40:59

they've postponed this for a really long

41:01

time, there comes along with it some level

41:04

of guilt that causes some emotional

41:06

distress for them. And for that

41:08

reason, I think it's sad. And unfortunately,

41:11

we are there for our patients tremendously. I

41:14

have a background in psychology, so I think that helps

41:16

me a lot as well. But I think it's

41:18

also really, really important at that

41:20

time to support your patient, get them

41:22

to the nice and appropriate therapist

41:24

to get the support they need.

41:26

Okay, yeah, I was gonna ask if there was any

41:28

type of support for these couples.

41:31

We have referrals that we make out all

41:33

the time based on patient requests

41:35

or if we think someone could use it. Can you share

41:37

then a specific amazing story

41:39

that has touched you in some type of way with your

41:42

patients when there became a challenge

41:44

to

41:45

success with IVF? Absolutely,

41:46

I had a patient not too

41:48

long ago, She had originally come

41:50

to me to freeze her eggs and

41:52

then she got married and then she

41:55

and her husband were trying and she got diagnosed with breast

41:57

cancer And she came back last

41:59

year after.

42:00

going through all her chemo and her

42:02

radiation and everything saying they told me

42:04

I'm cancer free and I'm safe and we

42:06

made a beautiful embryo and then this year she

42:08

delivered. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, it was a beautiful

42:10

story. I mean, really like

42:12

beautiful. What else

42:14

except egg freezing and IVF

42:16

do you guys do at your clinic?

42:18

We freeze sperm. Right, and

42:20

sperm. Right, we freeze sperm. We help people

42:22

that don't ovulate ovulate. We

42:25

freeze eggs, of course. We freeze embryos

42:27

for couples. but everything we do is

42:29

fertility related, but I'm also

42:32

a reproductive endocrinologist. So if

42:34

someone's hormones that are related to their

42:36

fertility, like polycystic

42:39

ovary syndrome, where someone needs management just

42:41

to improve how they feel and how

42:43

they're doing, we do that as well. Polycystic.

42:45

So we also

42:47

manage hormones

42:49

that have to do with reproduction. Polycystic

42:51

ovary syndrome is different than just a random cyst

42:54

on your ovary, But polycystic ovary

42:56

syndrome, about 6 to 8%

42:59

of the population have it.

43:00

And then what about the cysts in your

43:02

ovaries? I mean, women get cysts.

43:04

It's impossible to say someone's

43:06

never had a cyst. If you have an egg left over

43:08

from the month before, it's called a cyst. I

43:11

didn't know that's what it was. Yeah, or there's

43:13

different kinds of cysts. There's cysts that are cancer. There's

43:15

cysts that have different parts to it

43:17

and hair to it and teeth to it. There's many

43:19

kinds of cysts. Do

43:21

they ever go away by themselves? Some

43:23

kind of cysts go away on their own and some have

43:26

to be surgically removed. So I may have

43:28

had a cyst and not even know. Exactly.

43:30

Right, until it becomes a real

43:32

issue which I've seen some women have that where suddenly

43:35

their belly is very bloated and they realize

43:37

it's a cyst.

43:37

Correct. Okay, got

43:39

it. And then you say you help women ovulate when they're

43:41

not ovulating, what does that mean? We can give pills

43:44

and medications to people to help them ovulate

43:46

when they're not ovulating.

43:48

Right, okay. That's called Clomid.

43:50

ovulating, that's another thing people get confused.

43:53

Women only ovulate a couple of days in

43:55

the month.

43:56

They ovulate one egg and it takes

43:59

about a day or two.

44:00

when it's out and done. So

44:02

if you miss the ovulation, then

44:04

you missed your chance of getting pregnant that month.

44:06

Right, so all the other days, you can have unprotected

44:08

sex, I'm kidding. Sorry.

44:11

I don't know if I should answer that question. I'm kidding,

44:14

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. You

44:16

have protected sex to protect you from SCDs

44:19

and a lot of other things, but most

44:21

of the other days of the month, if you were to have sex,

44:23

you wouldn't get pregnant.

44:24

Right, except my sister who did.

44:27

Some people don't know when they're ovulating. Yeah,

44:29

my sister was so shocked when she was pregnant

44:31

with her third baby and she's telling me how shocked

44:34

she is and she goes, I don't get it. I looked at the

44:36

schedule and I said, okay, did you guys use a condom?

44:38

She goes, no. I'm like, okay, there you go. There's the

44:40

problem is that sperm can

44:42

last up to one week in the body.

44:44

So let's say you had sex and you're like, okay, I'm not

44:46

going to have sex anymore for this week because I'm ovulating

44:49

next week. The sperm, there are some sperm

44:51

that can stick around for a week.

44:53

So if you have unprotected sex during

44:55

the days, you're not ovulating. It stays in

44:57

your body. The sperm can stay around, yeah. Towards

45:01

the day. It just chills there. Yeah. The

45:04

sperm can last for a long time.

45:07

Wow. Okay, that's really interesting.

45:09

To be ovulating, that means when you get your period

45:11

regularly? Well, most people that ovulate

45:14

in the middle of the month, they get a period in the beginning

45:16

of the month.

45:17

Right. So it's very hard to be ovulating regularly

45:20

if you don't get a period regularly. Right.

45:23

They kind of go hand

45:23

in hand. Okay, understood. If

45:26

you, as a woman, you're having trouble getting your period

45:28

or you're not getting it regularly, it means that

45:31

you may have issues then with ovulating

45:33

and fertility?

45:34

Yes. Okay, that's good to know. Is

45:36

there anything else that I didn't ask you

45:39

that you want to add? I think you

45:41

asked amazing questions. I really do. I

45:43

think you were, I loved how prepared you were with excellent

45:45

questions. Really? I'll be honest,

45:47

I felt very stupid because I'm just so familiar with some of the

45:49

information. No, you shouldn't because I think these questions are there

45:52

for everyone. Yeah, that's

45:54

true. Yeah.

45:55

I mean, honestly, I will say I'm

45:58

so happy I'm going through the process.

46:00

with freezing my eggs. And I think a lot of

46:02

women are in my position in their 30s that are really

46:04

scared, especially finding out whether or not you're

46:06

fertile. But I think it's better to find

46:08

out because then you can figure out what

46:10

to do next.

46:11

So where

46:13

can people find you? So I work at

46:15

Southern California Reproductive Center in

46:18

Beverly Hills. It's S-C-R-C-I-V-F.com.

46:22

But I also have my own website, which is drgadir.com.

46:26

D-R-G-H-A-D-I-R.

46:30

And on Instagram, I'm Dr. Shaheen Gadeer

46:33

and on Facebook. So it's Dr. Shaheen Gadeer

46:35

on Instagram and in Facebook. It's the verified

46:38

page, so make sure you look for that one. And I

46:40

also have my own podcast called The Fertilife,

46:42

where you can hear me talk about these things with a lot

46:44

of my guests.

46:45

Yes, and he also interviewed me in the past.

46:47

So you guys can check out that episode. And

46:49

I'll obviously will leave everything in the description,

46:52

bio of this episode. And I will

46:55

keep you guys updated about what's

46:57

going on with my egg freezing. but

47:00

I think I guess it should be done by next month. So

47:03

cheers, right?

47:04

That's right, she will be done. Okay, thank

47:06

you so much for coming on and I hope you guys have a

47:08

beautiful rest of your week. Bye.