WEBVTT - Misconception: Great Expectations

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<v Speaker 1>It feels like there's not enough room in my body

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<v Speaker 1>for my ovaries right now, Like I can feel how

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<v Speaker 1>big they are every time I sit up, or laugh

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<v Speaker 1>or sneeze. It's a really weird feeling. After ten days

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<v Speaker 1>of injecting myself with hormones, my ovaries had swollen to

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<v Speaker 1>the size of two big, juicy lemons. This was to

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<v Speaker 1>be expected. The drugs had rebbed up my reproductive system

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<v Speaker 1>so that doctors could retrieve as many eggs as possible

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<v Speaker 1>from it. The days of hormones had made me bloated

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<v Speaker 1>and exhausted and cranky, but it was the trigger shots

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<v Speaker 1>that really got to me. After giving myself a final

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<v Speaker 1>two shots that would make the eggs, I was growing

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<v Speaker 1>all release at once. I felt almost like I had

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<v Speaker 1>the flu. The big day had arrived, the day of

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<v Speaker 1>my retrieval, or as I called it, the harvest. I

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<v Speaker 1>had fasted since midnight and arranged for my friend picked

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<v Speaker 1>me up after the procedure. Stub was still living in Scotland,

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<v Speaker 1>but had frozen his sperm a few weeks earlier after

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<v Speaker 1>we'd agreed to move forward. Now I was just taking

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<v Speaker 1>through the to do list i'd been given one last time.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's read through this sheet of paper. Assessors do not

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<v Speaker 1>eat after midnight. An estesiagists will review my medical and

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<v Speaker 1>surgical history and begin an intravenous line for sedation. The

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<v Speaker 1>egg rechieval procedure takes approximately fifteen minutes from start to finish,

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<v Speaker 1>so all this has been leading up to fifteen minutes.

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<v Speaker 1>I was feeling nervous. Nervous because I'd never had any

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<v Speaker 1>kind of surgery before, and at this point in the

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<v Speaker 1>process it was clear that freezing eggs or embryos is

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<v Speaker 1>a serious medical procedure. I was also nervous because I

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<v Speaker 1>didn't know if it would work. I know, I'm not

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<v Speaker 1>gonna get like twenty eggs because I don't even seem

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<v Speaker 1>to have twenty follicles. But I'm hoping that there's like

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<v Speaker 1>ten good mature ones. I think that's like a pretty

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<v Speaker 1>conservative hope. I think at the max, maybe I could

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<v Speaker 1>get like fifteen or sixteen. At my age, that would

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<v Speaker 1>be amazing. That's like you go, ovaries, you go. This

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<v Speaker 1>was one of those cases in which knowing a lot

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<v Speaker 1>about the topic did not make me feel any better.

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<v Speaker 1>Will my eggs be good quality and then even of

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<v Speaker 1>darker quality, will they mesh well with Stew's sperm. Because

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<v Speaker 1>there's a possibility that I get sixteen eggs and we

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<v Speaker 1>don't even get one embryo. That seems unlikely, but it's possible.

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<v Speaker 1>Or you know, if we only get one, then I'm

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<v Speaker 1>gonna have to go through this whole thing again. I'd

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<v Speaker 1>arrived at NYU's big, gleaming fertility center on fifty third Street.

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<v Speaker 1>The half hour cab ride had not settled my nerves,

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<v Speaker 1>so I'm just getting changed to go in. I can't

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<v Speaker 1>bring my phone or my recorder in there, so I

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<v Speaker 1>think this will be the last dispatch until after I

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<v Speaker 1>was about to find out whether this ridiculous gamble was

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<v Speaker 1>gonna pay off. Feeling nervous, really very nervous. Okay, if

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<v Speaker 1>you're an extremely type A control freak like me, The

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<v Speaker 1>next part of the whole process is the hardest. I'd

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<v Speaker 1>done everything I could to stack the odds in my favor.

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<v Speaker 1>I had researched clinics and picked one with a good reputation.

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<v Speaker 1>I'd improve my diet and cut out booze and caffeine.

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<v Speaker 1>I even took prenatal vitamins. I mean, it couldn't hurt. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>The fate of my frozen potential future children would be

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<v Speaker 1>in the hands of lab techs, the part of the

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<v Speaker 1>process patients don't get to see, but also maybe the

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<v Speaker 1>most important part. I'm Kristen B. Brown, and this is misconception.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, so this is umber number one. See how pretty

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<v Speaker 2>is this? So I'm gonna go in and suck it

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<v Speaker 2>up with my feet.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm in the lab of the Manhattan branch of CCRM,

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<v Speaker 1>a national fertility clinic chain. Manuela Mullinari is walking me

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<v Speaker 1>through her day to day. She's an embryologist and the

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<v Speaker 1>lab director.

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<v Speaker 3>So you've put.

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<v Speaker 2>The embryos into the.

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<v Speaker 3>Little wells there, smith, Nope, one of each, because I

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<v Speaker 3>need to know which one is what I'm doing genetic

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<v Speaker 3>testing to them.

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<v Speaker 1>What you're hearing is a Manuela very carefully sucking a

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<v Speaker 1>couple's embryos out of a Petri dish in order to

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<v Speaker 1>biopsy them and send them for genetic testing. I cannot

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<v Speaker 1>emphasize enough how tiny these things are. Barely visible to

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<v Speaker 1>the naked eye if you have really good eyesight, which

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<v Speaker 1>I do not.

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<v Speaker 3>Now I'm using a big magnification to see very well

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<v Speaker 3>all the structures of the embrassy This is the ICM,

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<v Speaker 3>the compacted cells that are going to make the baby.

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<v Speaker 3>And these are the traffecta themselves. These are the cells

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<v Speaker 3>that are going to make the placenta.

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<v Speaker 1>And you could not see anything with your naked eye

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<v Speaker 1>or not.

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<v Speaker 2>Nope, it's as big as a grain.

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<v Speaker 3>So we need to magnify it forty times to be

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<v Speaker 3>able to see it this way.

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<v Speaker 1>And Manuela had moved the embryos onto this crazy looking

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<v Speaker 1>microscope that was outfitted with a laser and these two

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<v Speaker 1>really fine needles that she could control. I was watching

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<v Speaker 1>what she was doing on a video screen, a grainy

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<v Speaker 1>gray mass of cells, all bubbly and lumpy.

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<v Speaker 2>So now I'm just gonna last night laser and I'm

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<v Speaker 2>going to zip it.

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<v Speaker 1>See this has to be one of the craziest things

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<v Speaker 1>I've seen in my reporting career. And Manuela uses this

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<v Speaker 1>tiny needle to poke a hole in the side of

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<v Speaker 1>the embryo and then suck out just a few cells.

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<v Speaker 2>I use this technique as called flicking technique. I don't

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<v Speaker 2>pull it. I don't like to. I'm not a puller.

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<v Speaker 1>And then with a laser, she just lops those cells

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<v Speaker 1>off to send them in for testing.

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<v Speaker 2>You understand it. It's a little bit like playing video games.

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<v Speaker 1>Right, yeah, totally, So that's the laser.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah and boom done.

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<v Speaker 1>Wow. This whole idea of assisted reproduction, it can feel

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<v Speaker 1>so high tech, but what I was realizing was that

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<v Speaker 1>it's extremely manual. It's a Manuela and our colleagues carrying

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<v Speaker 1>around embryos in a cramped lab with music pumping. They're

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<v Speaker 1>doing a lot of things by hand checking each other's work.

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<v Speaker 1>Is they move stuff around in a lab to make

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<v Speaker 1>sure there are no mix ups. This is a side

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<v Speaker 1>of the whole process. Most patients don't get to see.

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<v Speaker 1>They talk with their doctors, but they don't see the lab.

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<v Speaker 1>They probably don't even consider the role that people like

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<v Speaker 1>Manuela play in their quest for parenthood. And Manuela walked

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<v Speaker 1>me through some other parts of her day, like freezing embryos.

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<v Speaker 3>Concentration of water decreases and the cryprotectant gets into the embryo,

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<v Speaker 3>it will start to slowly sink down to the bottom.

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<v Speaker 2>And look how it looks now, all crunched up, looks

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<v Speaker 2>like a cookie.

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<v Speaker 1>At the end of the day, I was struck by

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<v Speaker 1>how much skill and finesse her job requires. Manuela isn't

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<v Speaker 1>just a scientist. She's an artist. It talked to Williams. Schoolcraft,

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<v Speaker 1>the founder and chief medical officer of CCRM, about the

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<v Speaker 1>role the lab plays in a patient's success.

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<v Speaker 4>A friend of mine made a list of all the

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<v Speaker 4>variables in the IVA flab in one IV of cycle.

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<v Speaker 4>There's two hundred different variables. There's thirty five five ingredients

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<v Speaker 4>just in the culture media. Then the media, which is

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<v Speaker 4>the liquid the embro's grown and is overlaid with oil.

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<v Speaker 4>There's protein in the media. There's the Petrie dish. There's

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<v Speaker 4>the instruments called the pipe pets that handle the embros.

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<v Speaker 4>There's the quality of the air, the settings of the incubator,

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<v Speaker 4>on and on the list goes, and any of those factors.

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<v Speaker 4>Let's say a Petrie dish that had toxicity to an embro.

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<v Speaker 4>If you put good media, good protein, good oil in

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<v Speaker 4>and you put an inmbro in but the dish is bad,

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<v Speaker 4>the embro will get killed.

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<v Speaker 1>The finesse of an embryologist isn't even the only variable

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<v Speaker 1>in the lab that matters. Another fertility doctor I spoke

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<v Speaker 1>with Setis Clinic discovered the oil on the door hinges

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<v Speaker 1>was impacting their success rates, and so now they use

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<v Speaker 1>plastic hinges. Embryos are so fragile keeping them alive outside

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<v Speaker 1>of a human womb. It's hard.

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<v Speaker 4>It's a game of perfection, and I would say it's

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<v Speaker 4>just being very careful to not induce stress to the embro.

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<v Speaker 4>So the less we can stress them, the more we

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<v Speaker 4>can make the inbro think it's in the human Filippian tube,

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<v Speaker 4>growing in nature, even though it's outside the body, in

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<v Speaker 4>a petri dish, in an artificial incubator with different pH

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<v Speaker 4>and CO two and osmilarity. The better we're going to do.

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<v Speaker 1>I was feeling stressed about my embrew. As being stressed,

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<v Speaker 1>it was starting to feel like it's a miracle that

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<v Speaker 1>this ever works at all. We'll be right back. As

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<v Speaker 1>I was waiting to hear how all my microscopic eggs

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<v Speaker 1>had fared after my retrieval, I started thinking about what

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<v Speaker 1>had brought me here in the first place. The time

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<v Speaker 1>on my biological clock was running out, and I was

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<v Speaker 1>in no position to start a family. It's not an

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<v Speaker 1>uncommon story these days. It's a big part of why

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<v Speaker 1>both egg freezing and IVF are booming. But neither of

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<v Speaker 1>those things can really stop your biological clock existing. Reproductive

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<v Speaker 1>technologies can press pause on your fertility or give it

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<v Speaker 1>a little boost, but once your eggs are too old

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<v Speaker 1>or gone, that's it. When I looked at success rate

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<v Speaker 1>data on IVF over the past twenty years, I was

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<v Speaker 1>shocked to see that rates had barely improved for women

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<v Speaker 1>over forty two. The number hadn't really changed at all.

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<v Speaker 1>A doctor who had been involved in the data analysis

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<v Speaker 1>explained why to me. She said that if you're infertile,

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<v Speaker 1>there's just only so much technology can do for you.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a limit to how successful IVF an egg freezing

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<v Speaker 1>can be. I wondered, then, if anyone was trying to

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<v Speaker 1>address the root cause here, the rapid aging of human ovaries.

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<v Speaker 1>That's when I met Daisy Robinson.

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<v Speaker 5>Our ovaries undergo rapid decline, you know, after age thirty

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<v Speaker 5>thirty five, and so I became obsessed with this idea

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<v Speaker 5>of how our ovaries age at an accelerated pace.

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<v Speaker 1>Daisy is a Harvard PhD. And she teamed up with

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<v Speaker 1>two other scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, David Peppin and

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<v Speaker 1>Pat Donaho. They started a company that is actually trying

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<v Speaker 1>to slow the aging of the ovaries. Their company is

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<v Speaker 1>called oviva. Key to that aging they think might be

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<v Speaker 1>a hormone called AMH.

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<v Speaker 5>AMH controls our ovarian reserve and how many eggs you

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<v Speaker 5>know are leaving at any given point in time.

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<v Speaker 1>You might remember AMH from episode one. It's the hormone

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<v Speaker 1>I got tested to try and figure out if I

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<v Speaker 1>was still fertile. The idea here is that if you

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<v Speaker 1>can regulate AMH, you could control how fast or slow

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<v Speaker 1>those eggs leave the ovaries. You could slow that aging down. Eventually,

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<v Speaker 1>they want to create a drug that you could use

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<v Speaker 1>to slow ovarian aging, to extend your years of fertility,

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<v Speaker 1>or even delay menopause indefinitely. Their first drug target is

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<v Speaker 1>for patients not responding well to fertility treatments.

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<v Speaker 5>If you take a garden hose and you put a

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<v Speaker 5>kink in it, it blocks the flow of water. When

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<v Speaker 5>you release the kink, there's a spurt followed by a

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<v Speaker 5>normal flow of water, and the amh's drug works sort

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<v Speaker 5>of like this. You get this spurt, so this wave

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<v Speaker 5>of eggs that are released all at the same time

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<v Speaker 5>that's greater than normal. You have a greater number of

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<v Speaker 5>eggs you can actually capture.

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<v Speaker 1>Generally speaking, more eggs mean better odds in the fertility world.

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<v Speaker 1>A lot of doctors and scientists I spoke to you

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<v Speaker 1>for this series mentioned to me that it's been more

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<v Speaker 1>than a decade since there's been any radical shift in

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<v Speaker 1>the science behind IVF. Daisy's co founder, David Peppin was

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<v Speaker 1>one of them.

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<v Speaker 6>Frankly, it's kind of shameful there. There are a number

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<v Speaker 6>of women's health indications like say, passistic of Aaron syndrome

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<v Speaker 6>or endometriosis are huge affecting a large proportion of the

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<v Speaker 6>population that I have been understudied for so long, and

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<v Speaker 6>so it's part of a general trend of women's health

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<v Speaker 6>for being ignored, and hopefully we're starting to see some

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<v Speaker 6>signs that this is changing and there's more attention being paid.

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<v Speaker 1>It actually seems like we're at a really exciting moment.

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<v Speaker 1>This growing interest in fertility is just now starting to

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<v Speaker 1>lead to new science and technology that could really move

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<v Speaker 1>the needle. Aviva is a young company. So far, David

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<v Speaker 1>has just shown the effect of aimage drugs on cats

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<v Speaker 1>and mice. There's still a few years away from clinical

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<v Speaker 1>trial in humans, let alone having a drug on the market,

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<v Speaker 1>but things are happening.

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<v Speaker 6>I'm actually quite hopeful. There's actually quite a bit of

0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.800
<v Speaker 6>research that has been going on, you know, serve slowly

0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:18.000
<v Speaker 6>in animal models that could translate into massive leaps in

0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.400
<v Speaker 6>terms of reproductive technology if they are applied to humans.

0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.520
<v Speaker 1>Researchers today are investigating things like how to grow immature

0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.920
<v Speaker 1>eggs in a putrid dish, which could increase the odds

0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.040
<v Speaker 1>of IVF, and scientists in Japan are even trying to

0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.400
<v Speaker 1>make eggs and sperm from stem cells. That would be

0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.520
<v Speaker 1>a game changer not just for patients dealing with infertility,

0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:42.079
<v Speaker 1>but also LGBTQ families. So far, they've been successful in mice,

0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.600
<v Speaker 1>they made pups from two mouse dads. Robotics and artificial

0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.200
<v Speaker 1>intelligence could bring improvements to IVF clinics and labs even sooner.

0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.400
<v Speaker 1>A company called Overture is one amongst several that it

0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.880
<v Speaker 1>is working to automate some of what an embryologist does,

0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.920
<v Speaker 1>which could help eliminate human error. Many more are using

0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:04.040
<v Speaker 1>AI to try and fine tune processes, including dosing medications

0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.599
<v Speaker 1>and selecting the best embryo. So much of human reproduction

0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.600
<v Speaker 1>is still a black box, and we were really just

0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.760
<v Speaker 1>starting to peer inside of it. All right, are you there? Yep,

0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:16.640
<v Speaker 1>and here can you hear me?

0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:17.440
<v Speaker 5>Okay yep.

0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:19.800
<v Speaker 1>The day after my egg retrieval, my doctor gave me

0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:21.839
<v Speaker 1>a call to see how I was doing. How are

0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.160
<v Speaker 1>you feeling today? Ah, just low energy, but otherwise actually

0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:27.960
<v Speaker 1>better than before the procedure.

0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:29.640
<v Speaker 6>I'm on good yeah.

0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:30.160
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:31.640
<v Speaker 6>Are you making any pain medication?

0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:38.000
<v Speaker 1>I've been taking just two ibuprofen like every time. Honestly,

0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.800
<v Speaker 1>even though I was still extremely bloated and tired and

0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:46.520
<v Speaker 1>well constipated, I was elated. I'd gotten sixteen eggs. That

0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.520
<v Speaker 1>was more than I had ever imagined. I was pretty

0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.320
<v Speaker 1>proud of my now thirty seven year old ovaries. But

0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.040
<v Speaker 1>also I knew that this was just the first stage

0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.920
<v Speaker 1>any long battle of attrition for my little eggs. Now

0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.080
<v Speaker 1>I was going to find out how they fared at

0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.920
<v Speaker 1>the next stage, fertilization. Are you ready for your results?

0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:05.560
<v Speaker 3>Yes?

0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:06.640
<v Speaker 4>You did great.

0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.559
<v Speaker 1>Of my sixteen eggs, fourteen were ripe, one was undeveloped,

0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.120
<v Speaker 1>and another, as my doctor put it, was overcooked. Thirteen

0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.839
<v Speaker 1>of those fertilized, So in twenty four hours I had

0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.760
<v Speaker 1>already gone from sixteen eggs to thirteen nimbreos, and only

0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:23.600
<v Speaker 1>eleven of those were completely normal.

0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:25.520
<v Speaker 4>This is an awesome start, sir.

0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.600
<v Speaker 1>I guess continuation yesterday. It was a good start.

0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:28.600
<v Speaker 6>It's good step too.

0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:30.520
<v Speaker 1>We were going to have to wait a bit longer

0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.320
<v Speaker 1>to find out where we really stood. So I will

0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.720
<v Speaker 1>have all of the information next Saturday for you in

0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:38.400
<v Speaker 1>terms of what made it to the embryo stage. And

0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.920
<v Speaker 1>then the genetic testing takes another you know, seven to

0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.120
<v Speaker 1>twelve days after that to come back. Okay, cool, Well,

0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:45.920
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much.

0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.120
<v Speaker 5>You're welcome, very positive so far.

0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:48.640
<v Speaker 3>It's good.

0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:50.360
<v Speaker 1>I'm super happy with the results so far.

0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:51.600
<v Speaker 4>I have a great day.

0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:51.960
<v Speaker 5>Thanks.

0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.920
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Ye. That two weeks was agony. I am not

0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.880
<v Speaker 1>a patient person. It also gave me a lot of

0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:03.880
<v Speaker 1>time time to think about everything that had transpired so far.

0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.680
<v Speaker 1>It was going well, but I was feeling kind of

0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:11.120
<v Speaker 1>burnout and kind of broke. Even with my great insurance,

0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.760
<v Speaker 1>I had been hit by more than one unexpected medical bill.

0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.960
<v Speaker 1>I still couldn't help but feel like somehow winding up

0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:21.080
<v Speaker 1>in this position was my fault. I felt guilty, like

0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.880
<v Speaker 1>I had taken a wrong turn. Somewhere. I read a

0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.080
<v Speaker 1>book by Yale anthropologists called Motherhood on Ice by Marsha

0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.080
<v Speaker 1>and horn In. It She interviews one hundred and fifty

0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.720
<v Speaker 1>women who froze their eggs, and when I read it,

0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.520
<v Speaker 1>it was striking how many of them had stories like mine.

0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.600
<v Speaker 1>It was cathartic. She concluded that there's a mating gap.

0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:42.920
<v Speaker 1>The society had changed in a way that just made

0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.240
<v Speaker 1>it harder to start a family earlier in life. Eighty

0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.320
<v Speaker 1>two percent of the women in her study were single

0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.440
<v Speaker 1>with no partner in sight. The rest were either in

0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.960
<v Speaker 1>unstable relationships with men or waiting for their partner to

0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.680
<v Speaker 1>be ready for parenthood. In a way, egg freezing is

0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.440
<v Speaker 1>a technological solution to what is ultimately a social problem.

0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.480
<v Speaker 1>When I talked to her, she said she thought egg

0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.440
<v Speaker 1>freezing is sort of a stop gap, something that works

0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.280
<v Speaker 1>for a lot of people, but is an imperfect solution.

0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.680
<v Speaker 1>I feel hopeful, though our understanding of female biology is

0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.400
<v Speaker 1>changing every day. In the future, maybe single thirty something

0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.080
<v Speaker 1>women won't have to go through any of this, or

0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.440
<v Speaker 1>maybe even if they do, at least their insurance will

0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.400
<v Speaker 1>cover it. After two weeks of waiting, my doctor called

0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.560
<v Speaker 1>with our results. Our final count of embryos STU was

0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:33.640
<v Speaker 1>an edenberg, so I called them to share the news.

0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:35.560
<v Speaker 1>So are you ready for it.

0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:37.760
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, what what's the news? Tell me?

0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:44.560
<v Speaker 1>It's good news. We got four for like.

0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.480
<v Speaker 7>That are healthy and to have all the right stuff

0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:48.760
<v Speaker 7>in the right places.

0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.480
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so we don't have to do it again.

0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.280
<v Speaker 7>Oh, I'm still pleased for you, especially because I know

0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:56.760
<v Speaker 7>it's been really bloody tough.

0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.400
<v Speaker 1>We had four embryos, three boys and one girl. So

0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:02.640
<v Speaker 1>how do you feel about it?

0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.199
<v Speaker 7>You know, it's really good to know that we have

0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.879
<v Speaker 7>that sort of option. There these little frozen embryos that

0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.040
<v Speaker 7>they are sitting there, and you know you could pull

0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.440
<v Speaker 7>about and use them at whatever point we decide. I'm

0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:16.960
<v Speaker 7>glad you, glad you told me.

0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:20.680
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I was thinking about not ever telling you.

0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:25.960
<v Speaker 1>Actually, I'm thinking about just like withholding this information. Yeah,

0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:27.360
<v Speaker 1>let me wonder.

0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:31.720
<v Speaker 7>I mean I would I would have asked you at

0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.760
<v Speaker 7>some point, like what happened if you heard back about that.

0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.840
<v Speaker 1>Since we froze embryos in July, a lot has happened.

0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.399
<v Speaker 1>Stu moved to New York, and we got married. Kids.

0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:46.600
<v Speaker 1>Still feel a bit down the line, but I think

0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:48.680
<v Speaker 1>in the end we're glad to have our little embryos

0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.760
<v Speaker 1>on ice. Our journey still isn't over. We might use

0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.200
<v Speaker 1>those embryos one day, that is, if we can afford

0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.600
<v Speaker 1>to keep paying for them. The day after I finished

0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.080
<v Speaker 1>the script, I got an email from our fertility clinic.

0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:09.399
<v Speaker 1>They were raising our embryos rent. This series was written

0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.600
<v Speaker 1>and reported by me Kristen V. Brown. It was produced

0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.240
<v Speaker 1>by Jilda Decarley and Stacy Wong and edited by Cynthia Koons.

0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.200
<v Speaker 1>Additional research was done by Tana's Mcjohnny. It was engineered

0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:24.080
<v Speaker 1>by Blake Maples. Our theme music was composed and performed

0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:28.000
<v Speaker 1>by Hannis Brown. Special thanks to Shelley Banjo, Randy Shapiro,

0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:33.439
<v Speaker 1>Anna Maazarakis, Jeff Grocott, Lauraszlenko, and Creighton Harrison. Sage Bauman

0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.600
<v Speaker 1>is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.