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and more importantly, how you feel. I'm

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Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you

2:14

don't need a dictionary to understand. It's

2:17

time for some money rehab. When

2:20

I started my fertility

2:24

journey, when

2:26

I started my fertility journey, almost a decade

2:28

ago now, I froze my eggs and I

2:31

documented it for Good Morning America. So it

2:33

was all out there, the crying, the pinching

2:35

my stomach, the giving myself shots. It was

2:38

all very much out there and very much

2:40

public. I am currently eight months pregnant and

2:42

I have been keeping this moment in

2:45

my life, mostly private, maybe I'll talk about it

2:47

more, maybe I won't, I do not know. But

2:49

I do feel like I may talk about it

2:51

someday because there's a lot at the intersection of

2:53

money and fertility. And I've struggled with this a

2:55

lot. But fertility, parenting, women's health

2:57

is all top of mind for me now, both

3:00

because of what's going on in my personal life,

3:02

but also what's happening in the world. The election

3:04

is next week. And as we all think about

3:06

what it means to vote with our values on

3:08

Tuesday, we're also reflecting on the last couple of

3:11

months of the presidential campaigns. One of the issues

3:13

that has been front and center on the campaign

3:15

trail is reproductive healthcare. Of course,

3:17

there was the overturning of Roe v.

3:19

Wade in 2022, but in the time

3:21

since then, there's been more limitations placed

3:23

on reproductive healthcare from abortion to IVF,

3:26

pretty much everything in between. My process

3:28

of freezing my eggs was both empowering and

3:30

really intimidating. When a doctor hands you over

3:32

was pretty much a bucket full of needles

3:35

and hormones, you feel like you're in complete

3:37

control of your health and future, but also,

3:39

at least for me, I felt like I

3:41

needed a medical degree for all of this.

3:44

It is amazing that we have access

3:46

to this kind of medicine, but there

3:48

is certainly room for improvement to better

3:50

benefit people going through the IVF process.

3:52

And Jessica Schaeffer agrees with me. Jessica and

3:55

I talked before her startup, Leshy, officially launched,

3:57

and I actually knew I was pregnant during this

3:59

interview, but I wasn't telling anyone yet, which

4:01

is pretty perfect because my husband and I

4:03

revealed our pregnancy news to our friends by

4:06

telling them that we were launching a startup.

4:08

So Jessica and I were both kind of

4:10

undercover working on launches of different kinds during

4:12

this interview. Anyway, you'll hear at the end

4:14

of the episode that she gives us a

4:16

little sneak peek, but I can tell you

4:19

about it now. Lushy will offer treatments, clinics,

4:21

and wellness platforms tailored to their female patients

4:23

to help transform the IVF conception experience for

4:25

American women. But Jessica hasn't always been in

4:27

the healthcare space. Jessica is a

4:30

founder of Bevel, a tech and VCPR firm

4:32

that she built into an eight-figure revenue business

4:34

that was acquired in 2023. Today,

4:37

Jessica talks to me about her own experience

4:39

with IVF, the mistakes she made through the

4:41

process, and what resources are out there to

4:44

make IVF more affordable. Jessica

4:48

Schafer, welcome to Money Rehab. Thanks

4:50

for having me. All right, let's get right into

4:52

it, sister. How did you decide that you wanted

4:55

to freeze your eggs? I

4:57

had just sold my first baby,

4:59

Bevel, this

5:01

PR firm that I started and ran

5:03

for seven years and

5:06

had basically dedicated my

5:09

entire life to work. And

5:11

I had also just gone through a

5:14

divorce, and so it seemed

5:16

like something that was 100% necessary to

5:18

do, although

5:21

I wish I had done it 10 years prior. Yeah,

5:24

and what was the experience like for

5:27

you? The shots, the retrieval, all of

5:29

that, did anything surprise you in the

5:31

process? You've frozen your eggs, right?

5:33

You've been through the process. Yeah, so you

5:35

go into the clinic and

5:38

they don't really share the cost of

5:40

the variables, the fertility drugs, which can

5:42

be quite high depending on how your

5:44

body reacts to the stimulants, right? And

5:46

so they basically say, oh, it's a

5:48

fixed cost of $10,000, but

5:51

then the cost of the fertility drugs can

5:53

be anywhere from five to 10,000. And

5:57

then if you need to do it multiple times, then

5:59

you're sometimes... looking at close to 100,000 just to freeze

6:01

your eggs. And

6:04

what I thought was absolutely insane, we

6:06

have Botox and Fillers and IVs, but

6:08

for one of the most important things,

6:10

which is preserving your option to have

6:12

a family, you are

6:15

self-administering the shots, which

6:17

I just thought it was a little bit

6:19

insane. And then they send you to a

6:21

link to a video from the 80s and

6:24

you're kind of like, I have no idea what I'm

6:26

doing. Yeah, I had the same

6:28

experience too. I was like, how is it legal

6:31

to give me all of these

6:33

things, this accoutrement, even the tub,

6:35

that little red disposable thing. I

6:37

was like, oh, I am not

6:39

a hospital. What am I doing

6:41

right now? You know, this

6:43

could injure other people. I

6:45

live in New York City. You know, you bring

6:47

your trash out on the street. Who knows what

6:50

was happening after that? So yeah, it's not cheap

6:52

for sure. It can go from around 10,000, as

6:55

you mentioned with multiple rounds. And by the

6:57

way, it's like half of an IVF cycle.

6:59

So you still have to do something with

7:01

those eggs later. And that's not cheap. So

7:03

how much did you end up spending on the

7:05

process so far? I

7:08

would say my journey isn't

7:10

over. So I ended up

7:12

actually taking the trigger shot

7:15

early, which was

7:17

triggering, which means I was supposed

7:19

to have 28 eggs, but

7:22

then I only was able to retrieve

7:24

five and that's just not enough for

7:26

a live birth. And so I'm planning

7:29

to do it a couple more times.

7:31

Thankfully, my AMH levels,

7:34

basically you can test how fertile you are.

7:36

And my doctor's, oh, you have the fertility

7:38

of a 26 year old, you should just

7:40

go get pregnant. And I

7:42

said, that's not actually the point. It's not that

7:44

I can't get pregnant, it's that I haven't found

7:47

the person that I want to get pregnant yet

7:49

with. So the first egg

7:51

freezing, it was 15,000, but

7:54

again, I'll have to do it a few more times. Okay,

7:57

so for anyone who hasn't gone through this process, explain

8:00

what a trigger shot is, why

8:03

you took it early, like when you're supposed to

8:05

take it? Sure. So

8:07

when you're going through the process, you have

8:09

to take anywhere from one to three shots

8:12

a night. So it can be very confusing

8:14

and you have them all in your refrigerator.

8:16

And so I accidentally took the trigger shot,

8:18

which releases the eggs. And so basically I

8:21

had 28 eggs. And then when my doctor

8:26

figured out what had gone wrong, he basically

8:28

was like, okay, you can just do the

8:30

entire process all over again. And I

8:33

thought, that's crazy. One, I had spent a

8:35

lot of money, but two more importantly, it

8:37

was my body and my time. And so

8:40

it just felt like it was a bit

8:42

of a cattle call. Oh, well, let's just

8:44

go in for round two. They just

8:47

turn around and do it all over again.

8:49

It's a little defeating. For

8:51

sure. So you did the process

8:53

after you got divorced, you have

8:55

said that the whole thing was

8:57

very lonely. Can you tell me a little

8:59

bit about that? Sure. I had a lot

9:01

of girlfriends who had done it and they were all,

9:03

oh, I'll come to your house and help you with

9:06

the shots. And I thought that was

9:08

just a little bit strange. Like

9:11

one, not that I didn't trust them. I

9:13

just felt like a doctor should be doing it. I shouldn't

9:15

be doing it. They shouldn't be doing it. So

9:17

that was a little bit strange, but also

9:20

you reach this peak of your career, but

9:22

then you think that you're

9:24

going to be married or you think that things

9:26

are going to be different and now you're freezing

9:28

your eggs. And so I think the

9:31

process, there's a lot of community around

9:33

it and there's so much opportunity to

9:35

just change the way that it is

9:37

now. Yeah, absolutely. I remember

9:39

the first time I got, I've done the

9:41

process twice and I got the shots the

9:44

first time, which was like the most expensive

9:46

package I've ever received in the mail. And

9:48

one of my girlfriends came over and it

9:50

took two hours to read through the instructions

9:53

and figure out what liquid

9:55

to put in, what powder, and the whole thing is

9:57

for sure wild. One time I jockeyed. I was really

9:59

public about it the second time I was really private

10:01

about it. But, you

10:04

know, as you know, this is a really intense process that you put your body

10:06

through. Some days I was

10:08

sick, as I'm sure you were, and tons of

10:10

doctors appointments throughout the process. It's really hard to work,

10:13

especially if you're a person who likes working 24 seven.

10:15

It can definitely make you unavailable during that time.

10:20

So I struggled really, let me know

10:22

if this was your experience, but I struggled

10:24

telling colleagues that I was going through

10:26

this process. How did you handle

10:28

that? Yeah, it was

10:30

an interesting time in my career because

10:32

I had just sold my company and

10:35

I had an earn out. So

10:37

basically you're expected to stay.

10:40

And that time when you sell a

10:42

company, it's very intense.

10:45

And now I had a boss for the first time

10:47

and I can't tell you how long. So I for

10:50

sure was not used to that. And

10:53

he didn't act, you know, he didn't

10:55

really understand the egg freezing process. So

10:57

it's not something that feels natural to

10:59

talk about, but I think that

11:02

as women, we should be able to talk about it. We should feel more comfortable

11:04

talking about it. And I

11:06

think the workplace should make it

11:08

so that it's not such a

11:10

stigma and potentially give time off

11:12

when you're going through this process,

11:14

because you're also not supposed to

11:16

be stressed. It decreases

11:18

the quality of the eggs. And it's

11:21

very hard to do this because

11:23

it's so time intensive and

11:25

to work as hard as you're used

11:27

to working. For sure. What advice would

11:29

you give someone on how to tell

11:32

their boss or our business partner that they're going

11:34

through this? I think

11:36

employers need to start actually, we need

11:38

to turn the conversation so that we

11:41

feel comfortable being able to go

11:43

to your employer with this. 50%

11:45

of companies now actually do offer

11:47

fertility benefits, but it's still

11:49

not the norm, I would say, especially

11:51

for smaller companies. Some of the larger

11:54

tech companies like Amazon and Google are

11:56

offering it. But actually, I

11:58

think it's one step further. When

12:00

you are going through this process, you should

12:02

be able to take time off. You should

12:04

be able to realign your schedule so that

12:06

you can go and do it

12:08

the appropriate way. Something that

12:11

I personally struggled with was

12:13

the fact that I was really anxious

12:15

that people, if they knew, especially in

12:17

the workplace, about the procedure, they would

12:19

ask me how it went. And when

12:21

I went through it the second time,

12:23

my husband and I tried to make

12:25

embryos and we weren't successful doing that.

12:28

So I was devastated and I just,

12:31

I didn't know how it would go. That was not

12:33

the outcome that I expected at all. But

12:36

if I had colleagues asking me how it

12:38

went and I'd have to keep that conversation

12:40

going over and over again, that would have

12:43

felt so difficult for me. Did people follow

12:45

up and say, Jessica, how did your procedure

12:48

go? It's a lot. Yeah, it's

12:50

a lot. How did you handle work when

12:52

you were going through this process?

12:54

Did you end up opening up to people?

12:57

Yeah, I shared that I was doing

12:59

it. I had a

13:01

lot of women at the company. We're

13:03

a majority women executive team. And so

13:05

I thought it was also

13:07

important that they freeze their eggs. There

13:09

are so many women I know who

13:11

have dedicated their life to their careers.

13:13

And I think at least my

13:16

generation, you were told, oh, you can

13:18

do it all. And I think

13:20

you can do it all, but you can't do it all at the

13:23

same time. And so really

13:25

analyzing, do I want to dedicate

13:27

my 20s to my career

13:29

and then 30s to my family

13:31

or flip it? But

13:34

these are things that people need to

13:36

think about because God forbid you

13:38

have the conversation, like I wanted to have kids

13:40

and I just didn't know that

13:42

you could freeze your eggs or I didn't know

13:44

that much about the process. And a lot of

13:46

women wait until it's too late. And

13:49

did you change the way you worked during

13:51

this process? I think you mentioned that stress

13:54

is obviously a big factor for all

13:56

fertility stuff. For me, we used to

13:58

tape this podcast. twice a week,

14:00

we changed it during that time to one

14:02

longer day so that I could take more

14:04

time and recover. Did you use any of

14:06

those strategies to optimize your work

14:08

for your home? I stopped traveling, which

14:10

is very rare for me. I was

14:12

supposed to speak at all these conferences

14:14

and travel on the weekends

14:16

or even I decreased the amount of movement

14:19

and kept my mornings open so that it

14:21

wasn't as stressful. But the doctors were like,

14:23

oh, you can still travel and do all

14:25

this stuff. And I'm like, it's just not

14:28

worth it. I think if you're going to

14:30

do this, you really need to focus on

14:32

it and invest the time and do it

14:34

the right way so you don't have to

14:36

do multiple cycles. I

14:40

ended up needing to work during the

14:42

first time I did it and got like

14:44

a doctor's note to go through with

14:46

all the shops and stuff. And I

14:48

remember like having the shots with the

14:50

ice and stuff like that, but also bringing

14:52

like yogurt and other snacks with me.

14:55

When I got through the conveyor belt, I

14:58

realized like that it was a bigger yogurt

15:00

and you're not supposed to take the bigger

15:02

sizes. And the guy just looked

15:04

in the bag and saw all the shots and

15:06

all the craziness and looked at the yogurt and

15:08

he's like, you're going through something. Enjoy the yogurt.

15:12

And it's never a good time. I remember when

15:15

I first did it, I happened to be on

15:17

the day of the cycle that you're supposed to start that day

15:19

that I went in. I'm like, whatever, we'll figure it out. I

15:21

figured out harder things in life. Might as well do it today.

15:24

But yeah, if you go through the process

15:26

and you're working full time, it's definitely taxing

15:28

a lot to juggle. You've worked with a

15:31

lot of startups, of course, and as you

15:33

were going through this or not process, I'm

15:35

sure it was really stressful. Are you seeing

15:37

startups more, letting the Googles and

15:39

the Amazons and stuff of the world give fertility leave?

15:41

I was surprised that you said 50% do. What

15:45

size companies are you seeing do this? Are

15:47

there any sectors that are giving more robust

15:49

fertility health care packages? So

15:52

it's the much larger companies and

15:54

those in the health care industries.

15:56

I actually haven't seen many smaller

15:58

tech companies. stage

16:00

companies where they have the ability

16:02

to, but I also think it's

16:04

not that much

16:06

more to add it on to

16:09

your employment policies. So I think

16:11

we'll start to see a lot

16:14

more employers offer this and the

16:16

younger generation, they're expecting it. One

16:18

other thing that people can do

16:20

is you can actually take your HSA and

16:23

your savings and you can contribute. It

16:26

rolls over. Let's say you're

16:28

21 and you're getting your first job

16:30

in tech. I would just recommend that

16:32

women start to contribute to that and

16:34

think about it almost as their family

16:36

planning and not just focusing on

16:38

your 401k. And then it's not

16:40

as cost prohibitive as many people

16:42

think. There are a lot

16:44

of startups that are trying to make

16:47

it more affordable. I'm a little concerned

16:49

with how much VC or PE has

16:51

gone into this space to make it

16:53

more affordable. I wonder, are they cutting

16:55

costs around some of the healthcare that

16:58

is required that is costly ORs and

17:00

whatnot in order to hit those growth

17:03

KPIs that as you'll forget more than I will

17:05

ever know about those are really, really intense when

17:07

you start taking on growth capital. And

17:10

we are starting to see that. I've spoken

17:12

with a lot of doctors who have left

17:14

some of the players you might be thinking

17:16

about. And the reason is they're seeing 30

17:19

to 50 patients a day, which

17:22

is just insane. You don't have enough time

17:24

with your doctor. And then

17:26

right now the process is you take the

17:28

stress at night, you have to call. Let's

17:30

say you have a question. Your doctor is

17:32

not available. There's no one to speak to

17:35

at night. And so I think

17:37

the process is fundamentally flawed right

17:40

now. And to your point, there

17:42

are some VC backed fertility companies

17:44

that are cutting corners basically to

17:47

reach their growth targets. And you'll

17:50

see in their success outcomes

17:52

and what has led to a

17:54

live birth. They're just not

17:56

hitting where they need to be. Hold

18:04

onto your wallets, money rehab will be

18:06

right back. So

18:09

recently I started looking at my wellness

18:11

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18:13

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18:15

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18:17

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18:19

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18:22

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18:24

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18:26

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18:28

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18:30

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19:25

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19:28

now for some more money rehab. As

19:34

an entrepreneur it means you're a problem solver by

19:37

nature. So how do you think we fix

19:40

this process as it is right now

19:42

where there is interest from investors

19:44

which could be a good thing but

19:46

in a space where you can and

19:48

you shouldn't cut corners but still ideally

19:50

make it more affordable? Yeah,

19:53

I think there are opportunities to

19:55

use technology to help. There is

19:57

no reason that someone like myself.

19:59

should have taken the trigger shot

20:02

accidentally. You could get updates on

20:04

your app or you could get

20:06

basically be meeting with a nurse

20:08

or a fertility specialist more often

20:11

via telehealth, which is not happening

20:13

right now. I think there's also ways to

20:16

incorporate AI into the process. There are so

20:18

many questions that you have just because you're

20:20

anxious, right? You said you were suffering from

20:22

a lot of anxiety. I was suffering from

20:25

a lot of anxiety during this process and

20:27

I would want to know just answers to

20:29

the most basic things to make sure I

20:31

was doing it correctly. So you can actually

20:33

program AI based

20:36

on the doctor's responses so that at

20:38

night if you have questions, they can

20:40

be answered. And so there

20:42

are ways where we could provide a

20:45

concierge, really custom high-level

20:47

model to this industry without cutting corners

20:49

and make it so that it's profitable.

20:51

And I don't think that a lot

20:54

of the fertility companies out there right

20:56

now are doing that. So most of

20:58

them are started by doctors and I

21:01

think doctors, they're used to being around

21:03

needles. They're used to being around these

21:05

like ugly red bins with the crazy,

21:08

you know, danger sign on them. We're

21:10

not. And so I think if someone

21:12

were to come in from outside of

21:15

the industry who has gone through the

21:17

process, who was a patient, who has

21:19

a focus on marketing

21:21

technology and can apply some of

21:24

those resources, we could provide a

21:26

much different experience. And you're

21:28

putting your money where your mouth is, right? Your

21:31

next move is investing in this space.

21:33

Where are you seeing the opportunities? Are

21:35

there specific companies that you're liking? Yeah.

21:37

So I'm investing in this space and

21:40

I'm also working on a company in

21:42

stealth in this area, but we're

21:45

basically investing in AI, a technology

21:47

platform that will transform the industry

21:49

in the way that is being

21:52

done now so that someone

21:54

like me never has the experience that

21:56

I had before. But at

21:58

this point, I've spoken to close

22:01

to 200 women just through customer

22:03

research to make sure we get

22:05

the product right. And every single

22:07

person has the same experience. I

22:10

have not met one person who

22:12

had done the cycle one time,

22:14

who didn't experience anxiety, who didn't

22:16

feel alone, not one person. Yeah.

22:18

After my last round, I did

22:21

get some cards too. There was

22:23

like a special, I think it

22:25

was like an Etsy fertility card

22:27

company where it says,

22:30

I'm sorry for everything I said to

22:32

you while I was going through fertility

22:34

treatments or something like that. Anyway, no,

22:36

there's definitely a lot to be done.

22:38

And there is a lot of money to

22:41

be made if it's done right. Do you

22:43

think it's more difficult to raise money for

22:45

women's health issues than it would be for

22:48

gender neutral health issues, female

22:50

focused startups? On the

22:52

VC funding, I come from a

22:55

different seat mostly because the PR

22:57

for my bill, we worked with a lot

23:00

of venture capital funds, but we were primarily

23:02

focused in FinTech. It wasn't until the last

23:04

two years of the company that we started

23:06

to see this shift. And there was so

23:09

much more capital flowing into healthcare, flowing into

23:11

femtech. And from my perspective,

23:13

it made sense to transfer into

23:15

those industry. I really believe that

23:17

you need to be able to

23:19

spot waves and know when to

23:22

get off. And so Bevel was always

23:24

focused in FinTech and crypto. And then

23:26

we just started to see the doors

23:28

open here on

23:30

the funding specifically for women's healthcare companies.

23:32

Even this year, women's rights are certainly

23:35

top of mind on the ballot. And

23:37

so I think that

23:39

it's not just our issue,

23:41

it's everyone's issue. And so I

23:43

think communicating to VCs in the

23:46

way that they would understand that,

23:48

hey, listen, the US growth rate

23:50

and birth rate is the lowest

23:52

it has ever been. And third

23:55

world countries are outpacing our growth

23:57

rate faster than ever. That's

23:59

a conversation. that anyone can digest

24:02

because it'll have huge economic impacts.

24:04

And so it's not just a

24:06

woman's issue. I think it's an

24:08

issue for everyone. Like

24:10

a population issue for sure. It's a

24:13

population issue. Yeah. We're not having enough

24:15

babies. Yeah, definitely a lot more questions

24:17

and answers. I do see tech helping

24:20

in some personalized medicine as well because

24:22

everyone's fertility picture is different. You just

24:24

go for example had egg yolk sac

24:27

cancer. First of all, can you share

24:29

what that is for any listeners who

24:31

might not know? I think

24:33

most people don't know because one

24:35

in four billion people get egg

24:38

yolk sac tumors. And when

24:40

I had it, there wasn't a cure but

24:42

an egg yolk sac tumors. So it reached

24:45

stage four and I was treated

24:47

at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.

24:50

And when it graduates, a new graduate from

24:52

medical school, Dr. He

24:54

actually was able to find a

24:57

cure and treat it very aggressively

24:59

through chemotherapy. But

25:01

my fertility was always like from a very

25:04

young age. I was two and a half

25:06

years old and then I was in the

25:08

hospital for two years because I had chemo

25:10

and because I had radiation. They were like,

25:12

you're probably not going to be able to

25:14

have kids. That's actually not

25:17

true. But it's certainly when someone

25:19

says that to you and then

25:21

your parents are always talking about

25:23

it. It's just something that carries

25:25

on with you over

25:27

the years. You're on a mission. I'm

25:29

on a mission. Yes. Well,

25:32

thank you for doing that. And do

25:34

you think that technology can also help

25:36

with the success in

25:38

going back to get

25:41

the frozen eggs? I do think that

25:43

there is a lot of rhetoric that

25:45

this is a complete insurance policy and

25:48

oftentimes it's not foolproof. You

25:50

can go back and there

25:52

could be a thousand issues of thawing

25:54

and the partner that you chose not

25:56

working. Can you talk a little bit

25:59

more about how? these startups are

26:01

freezing the chances of success? Yeah,

26:04

so I mean on that to

26:06

your point, there's even more issues

26:08

than just the thawing. There's issues

26:10

of climate change and

26:12

let's say you have your ice

26:14

person in a brownstone on the Upper East Side

26:16

or you have them in a

26:19

storage facility and then the power

26:21

goes out or there's a flood or

26:23

there's so many different things. And I

26:25

think there's been a lot of

26:27

advances in terms of some people are

26:30

suggesting store your eggs in multiple places

26:32

so diversify where your eggs are stored.

26:34

There are some women who are going

26:37

to Europe to get this

26:39

done just because it's much more affordable

26:41

there. But I think

26:44

here to your point, I do

26:47

fundamentally believe it comes back to

26:49

education and if you

26:51

freeze your eggs earlier, the quality of the

26:54

eggs will be much better. So right now,

26:56

the average age women are freezing their eggs

26:58

is 35. You should freeze your eggs at 25

27:01

and you shouldn't wait. And so the

27:04

quality decreases basically every single year

27:06

and so that is what is

27:08

affecting not just the thawing, but

27:10

when you have the eggs,

27:13

your success of actually creating embryos.

27:16

Yeah, I think one of the most popular

27:18

modern love articles of

27:20

the New York Times is don't put

27:22

all your frozen eggs in one basket.

27:24

This story that's been shared as you've

27:27

probably seen through fertility circles around this

27:29

woman going back and not finding anything

27:31

and being devastated by this promise of

27:33

okay, if you spend 10,000 or 15,000

27:36

or more dollars, then you'll for sure

27:38

have a baby later on. Maybe, maybe,

27:41

asterisk, there's other stuff that can happen.

27:43

But I think that's also where technology

27:46

can come in to play

27:48

and some of these startups can

27:51

get more clear. Well, and

27:53

that's why the trigger shot is so important

27:55

because it's actually timed to the size of

27:57

the eggs. And if you have the procedures,

28:00

done too soon and the eggs are too

28:02

small or if you take the

28:04

trigger shot too late and then the eggs

28:06

are too big, all of this affects your

28:08

chances of actually creating a successful embryo. And

28:11

so that's part of that as

28:13

well. Yeah, for sure. The

28:15

one thing that I never ended up sharing

28:17

was like how many eggs I got because

28:19

I just think that sometimes women can get

28:22

competitive and not everybody's

28:24

egg quality is the same. So somebody can have

28:26

50 but they're whatever, they

28:29

don't work. And somebody could have

28:31

five and they can do that

28:33

all you need. And it's just so personal

28:35

and so individual. It is a

28:37

weird thing. I remember that was always

28:39

the first question after, like how many

28:42

eggs did you get? As if it's

28:44

a competition. It's not a competition. It's

28:46

definitely not a good one. Let's focus

28:48

on if we had a baby. Yeah.

28:51

We end our episodes, Jessica, by asking our

28:53

guests for a tip listeners can take straight

28:55

to the bank. What advice would you give

28:57

someone who's listening and thinking about going through

29:00

the fertility process, curious about time off or

29:02

is worried that this might not be the

29:04

right time or how to pay for it?

29:07

The one thing I would say is

29:10

don't base it on whether

29:12

you've had success dating. I

29:14

have a lot of girlfriends

29:16

who later in life,

29:18

they for whatever reason, they didn't

29:21

find love until their

29:23

late thirties or forties or fifties.

29:25

I think you can find love

29:27

at any time. And I remember

29:29

having conversations with them when they

29:31

were in their twenties and them

29:33

saying, I might not have kids.

29:36

And now they're with a

29:38

partner who they actually would want to have

29:40

kids with and it's too late. So I

29:42

would say freeze your eggs now,

29:45

whether you're in a happy relationship

29:48

or not, because it doesn't hurt to have

29:50

the option later. Money

29:53

Rehab is a production of Money News

29:55

Network. I'm your host, Nicole Laffin. Money

29:58

Rehab's executive producer is Morgan LaVoy. Our

30:00

researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money

30:02

rehab? And let's be honest, we all

30:04

do. So email us your

30:06

money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially

30:08

have your questions answered on the show

30:11

or even have a one-on-one intervention with me.

30:14

And follow us on Instagram, at

30:16

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30:18

News Network for exclusive video content.

30:21

And lastly, thank you. No,

30:23

seriously, thank you. Thank you

30:25

for listening and for investing in yourself,

30:28

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30:30

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