Speaker 1: I know that the clock is sticking, and I know
Speaker 1: that when we've last checked my my account was very low.
Speaker 1: This is my body and no one should tell me
Speaker 1: what I can and cannot do with it. And I
Speaker 1: think God is okay with it. The dream of parents,
Speaker 1: that is one of the biggest dreams that we all
Speaker 1: all live for and work for. Hello everyone, and welcome
Speaker 1: to another episode of Cheeks and Chill. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: cheek Ease, and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
Speaker 1: I am. I had a really good weekend. Actually, I relaxed.
Speaker 1: I was in pjs, you know, just doing the thing,
Speaker 1: being more of Jennet than cheek Eas, you know. But anyways,
Speaker 1: today's episode is something very personal to me. It's a
Speaker 1: topic that isn't really talked about, especially in the Latin culture.
Speaker 1: I feel it's kind of, I guess, frowned upon in
Speaker 1: a way. I always use this word, but it's true,
Speaker 1: it's kind of taboo. So a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: I revealed my decision to freeze my eggs. It was
Speaker 1: when I realized that I had assists in my left ovary.
Speaker 1: I never knew it was there until one day I
Speaker 1: woke up with a horrible pain. I felt like I
Speaker 1: was going to die. It was like, I think, like
Speaker 1: three in the morning, and I had my assistant and
Speaker 1: I'm not one to go to the hospital. I I
Speaker 1: can really really tolerate pain. So when I called her
Speaker 1: and I said, I need you to take me to
Speaker 1: the hospital, she knew it was like serious. I had her,
Speaker 1: you know, running red lights and something. I don't recommend
Speaker 1: you guys, but I was in so much pain that
Speaker 1: I just I don't It was horrible. When I got
Speaker 1: to the hospital, they said, well, you have assists. I
Speaker 1: guess it turned over on itself. My ovary because the
Speaker 1: cists was pretty big, and they just said, you can
Speaker 1: leave it there, you can remove it. I decided to
Speaker 1: leave it there, and then I went to a specialist
Speaker 1: and this is how I met Dr Kadeer, and he
Speaker 1: found out that I had endometriosis, something I didn't know.
Speaker 1: This is something I've never shared with anybody. I want
Speaker 1: to share with you, guys, but I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is one of the reasons why I have endometriosis.
Speaker 1: I had a miscarriage when I was nineteen. I've never
Speaker 1: talked about it ever, and I obviously was afraid. I
Speaker 1: was scared. I never told my mom, I never told anybody.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what was really happening. I knew I
Speaker 1: was pregnant. I just didn't know how to tell my mom.
Speaker 1: And then I don't know if it was a stress
Speaker 1: I I just started bleeding and stuff started coming out
Speaker 1: at chunks. It was really really crazy. Apparently I had
Speaker 1: a miscarriage. I never went to the doctors to take
Speaker 1: care of it, so they had to go in later
Speaker 1: like a year later, actually not a out of your letter,
Speaker 1: like six months, eight months later, and I went and
Speaker 1: got a pop smere and they're like, you know what,
Speaker 1: we need to clean up, Like I told them what
Speaker 1: had happened, and they needed to go in there and
Speaker 1: put me to sleep and basically clean up my uterus.
Speaker 1: And I've always thought, is it because of that situation
Speaker 1: that's what happened? And then I thought they had removed
Speaker 1: my sis apparently back and grew back and they had
Speaker 1: to remove it again because I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know what happened. I don't know if it was a
Speaker 1: new sis, if it was the same sis, I don't
Speaker 1: know it was in the same ovary, so that was
Speaker 1: also keeping me from freezing my eggs, because if you
Speaker 1: inject too many hormones in your body, well, I was
Speaker 1: just going to be feeding that one cis and it
Speaker 1: was just going to get bigger and bigger and not
Speaker 1: necessarily my eggs. So that's one thing that had me
Speaker 1: just you know, I was a little hesitant about it.
Speaker 1: Now I do wish I would have done it sooner.
Speaker 1: I think it's just something that especially as a woman
Speaker 1: and everything that's in our food and in the air,
Speaker 1: it's just I don't know. I think of all these
Speaker 1: things and I'm like, it has to affect our bodies.
Speaker 1: So I think that the sooner you do it, the
Speaker 1: better because it's just kind of like a backup plan.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to get pregnant naturally with my current
Speaker 1: partner because right now I'm not on birth control. Right now,
Speaker 1: I am just not trying to get pregnant, but not
Speaker 1: not trying to get pregnant, so I don't know what
Speaker 1: that means. I'm just like, if it happens, and if
Speaker 1: it's meant to be, then that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: And I just want to have my eggs just in case.
Speaker 1: I can't have the baby, I can't get pregnant on
Speaker 1: my own, or I don't know, maybe I want to
Speaker 1: get a surrogate. I've thought about that before. I've also
Speaker 1: thought about my siblings. I know this is weird, but
Speaker 1: I've thought about like Johnny, you know, if he wants
Speaker 1: to have a baby with his partner. I know it
Speaker 1: sounds weird, but I'm like, hey, I'm his sister. You know.
Speaker 1: I've thought about so many different things. You guys, I
Speaker 1: just feel like it's it's a good backup plan just
Speaker 1: in case I'm not able to get pregnant and I
Speaker 1: would do it on my own or with a partner.
Speaker 1: I think right now, I am not even thinking about
Speaker 1: getting pregnant necessarily, like at this moment, but I just
Speaker 1: know that time is ticking and I have to get
Speaker 1: it done. And I don't want to feel like, damn,
Speaker 1: I should have done it, you know, would have, could have,
Speaker 1: should have? You know, I kind of want to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have it. That pressure is kind of off, and
Speaker 1: I can kind of just kill a little bit, travel
Speaker 1: a little bit more and and do me. You know,
Speaker 1: I just want to do it sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1: I was talking about it on the reality show, and
Speaker 1: I met a doctor through the reality shows. That's one
Speaker 1: of the great things. Actually, there's a lot of really
Speaker 1: good things about the reality show, and I want to
Speaker 1: think that and be grateful for those moments, because even
Speaker 1: though it was a lot of hard work and sometimes
Speaker 1: it did bring a little bit of drama in our life,
Speaker 1: I got to spend a lot of time with my family,
Speaker 1: with my friends, and I also got to meet really
Speaker 1: cool people like the person that I'm going to speak
Speaker 1: to today, which is actually my doctor, Dr Gooder. And
Speaker 1: a lot of people ask me, did you already freeze
Speaker 1: your eggs? Cheekys. No, I have not, and I know
Speaker 1: he's very upset with me about it. He texted me
Speaker 1: here and there He's like, when are we going to
Speaker 1: do this? Cheeks? You know it is time Before we
Speaker 1: get further into the conversation, I want to welcome Dr Gooder. Hello,
Speaker 1: Dr Gooder? How are you? He's here with me? Hello?
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. Of course, I
Speaker 1: wish you guys could see him. He has the best
Speaker 1: eyebrows in the world at like your hair could. By
Speaker 1: the way, you thank you very much so, Dr Deer.
Speaker 1: I know that is something that I need to do
Speaker 1: as soon as possible. When do you recommend Dr Deer
Speaker 1: to freeze your eggs? So, first of all, I want
Speaker 1: to address something that you said. You're not the only
Speaker 1: woman that feels like this. It's a big step for
Speaker 1: people to take, and I usually like to tell people
Speaker 1: just do it and be done with it, because I
Speaker 1: guarantee you afterwards you're going to realize that this was
Speaker 1: so much easier than you ever thought. It is a
Speaker 1: quick ten to twelve day process of little injections that
Speaker 1: we teach you how to administer in your belly, and
Speaker 1: if you can't do it yourself, we are happy to
Speaker 1: help you do them, and we can come into the
Speaker 1: office every day and help you do them. We can
Speaker 1: even send someone to your home and do them. But
Speaker 1: there's a couple of different things involved. The sooner and
Speaker 1: the younger you do this, the better. So everyone's peak
Speaker 1: fertility is probably between the ages of like twenty and
Speaker 1: twenty seven. That is your peak fertility as a female,
Speaker 1: and after that time it just begins to decline. Now,
Speaker 1: there are other are things that can affect your fertility
Speaker 1: as well. For example, endometriosis, PCOS and the number one
Speaker 1: thing that affects you eggs is aging. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that you also talked about. I think it's
Speaker 1: very sensitive and should be addressed, is because in the
Speaker 1: Latin culture, because so many people do have kids at
Speaker 1: a younger age, this is something that maybe looked as
Speaker 1: taboo or frowned upon or making you less of a woman,
Speaker 1: but it's not. There are many many Latin women patients
Speaker 1: of mind, and to be honest, from all cultures and
Speaker 1: backgrounds that are coming to my office that have become
Speaker 1: very successful businesswomen, accomplished in many different areas of the
Speaker 1: world and in the world of business, and who are
Speaker 1: just not ready to have a child. And there is
Speaker 1: no reason why you should be giving up the dream
Speaker 1: of parenthood just so you can go forward with having
Speaker 1: a kid at the wrong time in your life. And
Speaker 1: that's what this allows you to do. It allows you
Speaker 1: to preserve your fertility and your right to make your
Speaker 1: decision about when it's right for you to have a child. See.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. When I first started this process,
Speaker 1: I did hear it a lot, even like on media,
Speaker 1: Oh she can't have kids, she's in other words broken,
Speaker 1: you know, And it's not that it's just it's a
Speaker 1: choice of mine because I wasn't necessarily ready to have children,
Speaker 1: and I said, okay, this is a way of taking
Speaker 1: the pressure off. And I got things like it's going
Speaker 1: against God's will. I feel that it is my choice.
Speaker 1: It's my body. I'm very, very pro choice in a
Speaker 1: lot of things. So this is something that this is
Speaker 1: my body and no one should tell me what I
Speaker 1: can and cannot do with it. And I think God
Speaker 1: is okay with it. Dr Gader exists for a reason.
Speaker 1: God gave us this technology. I think if it's against
Speaker 1: someone's morals, religious thoughts, beliefs in this world, and they
Speaker 1: shouldn't do it. But for many people who are out
Speaker 1: there that they believe in science, and they believe in technology,
Speaker 1: and they believe in the field of medicine and how
Speaker 1: amazing we've become and how advanced we are. My field
Speaker 1: of medicine has only existed for thirty years. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's it. And then it's only been in the last
Speaker 1: I want to say, ten fifteen years that we've become
Speaker 1: really good at it. And I want to say in
Speaker 1: the egg freezing world, it's only been around for about
Speaker 1: ten years. So We've only gotten really good at it,
Speaker 1: i'd say in the last maybe a few years, so
Speaker 1: we're very good at it now. There's been other reality
Speaker 1: TV show stars who came and froze their eggs at
Speaker 1: the age of forty four and came back and had
Speaker 1: those kids at the age of forty six and delivered
Speaker 1: at forty seven and did amazing And I'm sure most
Speaker 1: people know who I'm talking about, But I think it's
Speaker 1: a very personal decision. I do not think it's fair
Speaker 1: for anyone to judge if it's God's choice or God
Speaker 1: is allowing, or God looks down in your eyes. If
Speaker 1: the person believes that it's against their religious beliefs, then
Speaker 1: I don't promote that for them. But for most people,
Speaker 1: I think science is on their side, and the dream
Speaker 1: of parenthood is one of the biggest dreams that we
Speaker 1: all all live for and work for. And I don't
Speaker 1: believe it's someone's position to kind of be negative about
Speaker 1: it against someone else's. I agree. I agree. I'm all
Speaker 1: about live and let live. Whatever you want to do,
Speaker 1: I respect it. Whatever I want to do, you should
Speaker 1: respect it, you know. And it's not even because of
Speaker 1: what they've said or what my family may think, or
Speaker 1: some of my family should. I say, I haven't done it.
Speaker 1: It's just has been one thing or another. But I
Speaker 1: know that the clock is sticking, and I know that
Speaker 1: when we've last checked my my account was very low.
Speaker 1: So I guess in a way, I'm a little afraid
Speaker 1: of going and getting all the tests done again, and
Speaker 1: then what if I they're even lower, which I'm sure
Speaker 1: is going to happen, because, like you said, it's age
Speaker 1: when is too late. There are a lot of clinics
Speaker 1: at the age of like forty close their doors. Some
Speaker 1: clinics close their doors at the age of forty two,
Speaker 1: some clinics at the age of forty four. We don't
Speaker 1: close our doors. Every single patient is their own human being,
Speaker 1: and we like to assess and have discussions. So I've
Speaker 1: had discussions with patients saying that listen, you may make
Speaker 1: very few eggs. But then again, I have had people
Speaker 1: make very few eggs and be successful and do incredibly
Speaker 1: well with the whole journey and the process. So would
Speaker 1: I tell my little sister, oh, you're only going to
Speaker 1: make one or two or three eggs, just don't do it.
Speaker 1: I would say absolutely the opposite. One egg on ice
Speaker 1: is better than no eggs on ice. And I think
Speaker 1: that keeping yourself in the game, keeping whatever your body
Speaker 1: is able to help you produce, and keeping it there
Speaker 1: for your future at least keeps a door open. Even
Speaker 1: if it doesn't work, you will know that you did
Speaker 1: every single thing you could, and we have planned b
Speaker 1: there's always the use of other people's eggs and egg
Speaker 1: donation and things like that. But you're a perfect, perfect
Speaker 1: example of the busy young woman in her thirties who
Speaker 1: doesn't have the time to do this, a perfect example
Speaker 1: for someone who is a little scared of doing it
Speaker 1: because no one walks in is excited about this. But
Speaker 1: it's one of those things in life where we do
Speaker 1: it and we need to move on. I tell everyone
Speaker 1: the best piece of advice I can give you to
Speaker 1: freeze your eggs is start it, do it, and be
Speaker 1: done with it, because once you start, a month later,
Speaker 1: you're going to bed at night saying, wow, I'm so happy.
Speaker 1: Now my eggs are on the freezers at Dr Gooder's office.
Speaker 1: He's doing all the babysitting, he's doing all the work now,
Speaker 1: and I can go to bed at night knowing that
Speaker 1: I did what I needed to do. And if you
Speaker 1: needed to do it more than once, then people have
Speaker 1: done it more than once. I had one patient that
Speaker 1: did it five times. She said to me, Dr Gadeer,
Speaker 1: I'm going to have my four kids on my timeline
Speaker 1: and I'm going to do everything that I can to
Speaker 1: promote that and to keep my doors open. And she
Speaker 1: did it. She did it five times and she had
Speaker 1: over fifty eggs by the time she was done. Wow,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Okay, well, I'm just gonna pray that
Speaker 1: I have like at least five. I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have more than that. I'm just I'm gonna be positive. Well,
Speaker 1: you mentioned right now it takes ten to twelve days.
Speaker 1: Can you explain the process. So yeah, let's go through
Speaker 1: the process, because I think it's really important for a
Speaker 1: young woman who's out there. First of all, I want
Speaker 1: everyone to check their medical insurance, call HR at their
Speaker 1: office and find out if they have coverage. The saddest
Speaker 1: thing I'm noticing, okay, there are people that have coverage
Speaker 1: and don't even know they have coverage for egg freezing
Speaker 1: and for fertility treatment. That is the saddest thing ever
Speaker 1: for me. So all of the big everyone who works
Speaker 1: at Disneyland, at Disney, Netflix, Apple, Google, Snapchat, any of
Speaker 1: the big tech companies. They all have the most amazing
Speaker 1: coverage that there is now. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: other companies, large companies, law firms, lots of these places.
Speaker 1: They have this amazing coverage that people just don't even
Speaker 1: know what their coverage is. So I don't know about
Speaker 1: your personal employer, but that's the first thing I would do.
Speaker 1: If you have the coverage, take advantage of it. Freeze
Speaker 1: your eggs, take advantage of it. If you don't have
Speaker 1: any coverage, don't be scared because we have financing options.
Speaker 1: So first of all, we put together one of the
Speaker 1: best specials that exists in the world of fertility because
Speaker 1: we're a large clinic and we have the opportunity if
Speaker 1: we want to give back and help people. So we've
Speaker 1: decided for two thousand and twenty two to be giving
Speaker 1: back a lot. So we are going to be opening
Speaker 1: the doors and giving the opportunity. Um if anyone looks
Speaker 1: at my social media channel, which is the Doctor's Shaheen
Speaker 1: Gooder channel on Instagram, the specials are popping up left
Speaker 1: and right. Our clinic also s c R C IVF.
Speaker 1: The specials are popping up there as well. We have
Speaker 1: webinars that people can attend, and at the end of
Speaker 1: the webinar they're able to do their consultation for a
Speaker 1: much lower price by doing so. But if with all
Speaker 1: of that you still have trouble, we have options for
Speaker 1: financing that help you get this too, as low as
Speaker 1: like a hundred and sixty seventy dollars. What is the
Speaker 1: cost the class can range. When we do our specials,
Speaker 1: they're in the six thousand plus six thousands something range
Speaker 1: um and when there's no specials there are in the
Speaker 1: eight thousands something range. But with the financing options, we're
Speaker 1: able to help people get it as low as in
Speaker 1: the one and something dollars a month. Now, it varies,
Speaker 1: it varies on your credit, it varies on what you're doing,
Speaker 1: it varies on how many cycles you sign up for,
Speaker 1: but it's there so financially, I think is the number
Speaker 1: one reason people fear this process. Once we have set
Speaker 1: up a consultation and we go over everything in someone's
Speaker 1: health and we go over their menstrual cycle, what their
Speaker 1: goal is. If someone tells me they want to have
Speaker 1: four kids versus one kid, I think it's a little
Speaker 1: different how many eggs they need to have frozen for
Speaker 1: the future. If someone is twenty nine about to be
Speaker 1: thirty and they're ready to go the second day turn thirty,
Speaker 1: it's a little different than someone who's like thirty nine
Speaker 1: about to be forty. So these are all things that
Speaker 1: I need to take into consideration when making an overall
Speaker 1: plan for someone. And I think it's really important that
Speaker 1: we're on the same page. So after the initial consultation
Speaker 1: and this these days, it's super easy. We do them
Speaker 1: by phone. You don't have to leave your home, you
Speaker 1: don't have to leave work, You could do them from
Speaker 1: wherever you want. And I've noticed that people are a
Speaker 1: lot more comfortable, and I've noticed that people are a
Speaker 1: lot more open with me, and they are much more
Speaker 1: just relaxed doing these consultations on the phone, rather than
Speaker 1: coming to my office in l A, sitting in my
Speaker 1: waiting room, coming and sitting here with me, which would
Speaker 1: give some people a lot of anxiety. So with that
Speaker 1: being said, we've made that as easy as possible. When
Speaker 1: the time comes, and it always happens with your period,
Speaker 1: So people call us on the first day of their period,
Speaker 1: on day two, three, or four of their cycle. We
Speaker 1: generally set them up to come in and do a
Speaker 1: quick ultrasound of their ovaries. It's a vaginal ultrasound that
Speaker 1: looks at the ovary and tells me how youthful, how young,
Speaker 1: and how healthy those ovaries look, and then we put
Speaker 1: them on a birth control pill to stop their natural
Speaker 1: ovulation cycle. Now, if you are already on birth control
Speaker 1: pill and have been on it for a while, we
Speaker 1: usually recommend for people to go off their birth control
Speaker 1: for a month or two before so their natural hormones
Speaker 1: just come back to life and are doing really really well.
Speaker 1: So that's a really important thing for us to do
Speaker 1: um and we kind of do that really quickly, and
Speaker 1: once we have people back coming back to normal, we
Speaker 1: are ready to start. So after about ten to fifteen
Speaker 1: days of birth control, we teach you how to give
Speaker 1: yourself these injections that last for about ten to twelve days.
Speaker 1: They're tiny, tiny little needs. Some people don't even feel them.
Speaker 1: Like we get phone calls all the time, like I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry to my nurses. You know, they say, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm getting the injection, Like I don't
Speaker 1: even feel it. But we see that their eggs are growing,
Speaker 1: and we see that their estrogen levels are going up,
Speaker 1: so we know that they are doing well, and they're
Speaker 1: doing they are growing, so they're very small. During those
Speaker 1: ten to twelve days of injections, we usually have people
Speaker 1: come in about three or four times for ultrasounds and
Speaker 1: blood tests to make sure that everything is growing and
Speaker 1: everything is coming along really well. And then towards the
Speaker 1: end of the ten to twelve days, we usually say,
Speaker 1: you know what, you're ready to have your eggs come out.
Speaker 1: We bring patients to our surgery center, which is right
Speaker 1: here in our office. You've been there before. You're in
Speaker 1: there for about an hour, hour and a half. The
Speaker 1: actual procedure is under a light an aesthetic that my
Speaker 1: anesthesiologist gives. You fall asleep, you wake up, and it's
Speaker 1: all done. It takes about three to five minutes for
Speaker 1: the eggs to come out. It's a special little needle
Speaker 1: that goes at the tip of an ultrasound machine. The
Speaker 1: eggs get what we call retrieved, and then those eggs
Speaker 1: then go off to the ib F laboratory and all
Speaker 1: of the eggs that are mature get frozen to be used.
Speaker 1: Whenever you're ready to use them in the future. So
Speaker 1: quote unquote healthy, right, because there are some that are
Speaker 1: come out that probably are not usable. Is that correct.
Speaker 1: So the only thing we're able to check is if
Speaker 1: the egg is mature or immature. Now, if you come
Speaker 1: in with a partner and say, this is my partner,
Speaker 1: we want to make embryos, that's when the egg and
Speaker 1: the sperm are put together. When we put the egg
Speaker 1: in this them together, then we watch the embryo grow
Speaker 1: for a week. Whatever embryo makes it to the full
Speaker 1: grown stage at that point, then we are able to
Speaker 1: do a little biopsy, freeze the embryo, and I can
Speaker 1: tell you a week later if the embryo is genetically
Speaker 1: normal or genetically abnormal. That's completely different than the egg.
Speaker 1: The egg I can only tell you is mature. Let's
Speaker 1: say you come back with someone with great sperm a
Speaker 1: few years later, there's a good chance you're gonna make
Speaker 1: a really good embryo. Let's say you come back with
Speaker 1: someone who has really poor sperm in the future. I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe you're not going to make as many
Speaker 1: good embryos later. So I can't tell you if your
Speaker 1: egg is gonna be giving you a beautiful, healthy child
Speaker 1: or not until the future when you make the embryo.
Speaker 1: I have some women to tell me. I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to have a kid, and I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be getting married or having a husband. I want to
Speaker 1: use donor sperm. So we use donor sperm and they
Speaker 1: know the result now. But for people that are waiting
Speaker 1: for Mr Wright and I have my eye look an
Speaker 1: everywhere for Mr. Write. For some people, um, I think
Speaker 1: that the best smartest thing to do is freezing the
Speaker 1: egg and that's when you get to use it later
Speaker 1: on in the future. Okay, So within those ten to
Speaker 1: twelve days when you're injecting yourself, are you bloated? Do
Speaker 1: you are you uncomfortable? What's the experience? That's a really
Speaker 1: really good question. So during those ten to twelve days,
Speaker 1: you do get a little bloated. So your ovaries are
Speaker 1: usually small. They're the size of like two little apricots
Speaker 1: or two little walnuts, or whenever you want to call them.
Speaker 1: As these different little eggs grow, they begin to grow, grow, grow, grow,
Speaker 1: grow in an ideal, great world. If you've responded and
Speaker 1: done really well, your two little apricots become two huge grapefruits,
Speaker 1: all with eggs growing around them. Each one is called
Speaker 1: a little follicle. If you have too grapefruits squeezed into
Speaker 1: your belly, you are going to have a sensation of
Speaker 1: feeling full and bloated. And after your eggs come out,
Speaker 1: it takes about a good solid week before those ovaries
Speaker 1: start shrinking back getting to be the small little walnuts
Speaker 1: and apricots again, so you're going to have that sensation.
Speaker 1: We also tell people after like the third or fourth
Speaker 1: or fifth day of injections, once they start to feel
Speaker 1: little bloated, to actually not exercise and not have intercourse
Speaker 1: because as your ovary gets bigger, if you decide to
Speaker 1: do a spinning class, you have a chance of twisting
Speaker 1: that over and that could be a disaster called variant torsion.
Speaker 1: It's painful and it's not fun, and it's a life
Speaker 1: threatening emergency where we have to untwist your ovary and
Speaker 1: make sure that it didn't get irreversibly damaged and has
Speaker 1: to be removed. So we tell people to kind of
Speaker 1: take it easy for a week, and also the week
Speaker 1: after their eggs come out, we tell people to take
Speaker 1: it easy for another week. Okay, good to know that
Speaker 1: was gonna be my next question now now that I
Speaker 1: know that, because I'm asking for myself to you guys,
Speaker 1: because I kind of forgot. It's been a while since
Speaker 1: I have gone to see Dr Dear, but I'm I'm
Speaker 1: going to do it next month. I already told him.
Speaker 1: He probably doesn't believe me, but I'm gonna have to show. Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: I just want everyone has to keep this young woman accountable.
Speaker 1: She has made this promise to me multiple times, and
Speaker 1: I cannot beyond this earth and not free because one
Speaker 1: day we are going to be very upset. So I
Speaker 1: need everyone to send her message and show her love
Speaker 1: and support. And I gotta tell you something. We have
Speaker 1: this unbelievable special. It was my idea and my marketing
Speaker 1: department and all my partners loved it. We have a
Speaker 1: special that if you freeze your eggs with another friend
Speaker 1: of yours, you both get a special discount. If you
Speaker 1: freeze your eggs with two other friends, all three of
Speaker 1: you get an amazing discount. We did this because when
Speaker 1: you're coming in here with a man to do this,
Speaker 1: you have each other. You go home, you talk about it.
Speaker 1: You're there for each other. You have someone by your side.
Speaker 1: When you're doing this as a single female, people feel
Speaker 1: very very vulnerable and alone exactly. And as much as
Speaker 1: I care about you and love you, I'm not going
Speaker 1: home and I can't be there at night when you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, what am I doing? And I'm freaking out? Well,
Speaker 1: because it is an emotional process. It is it's a
Speaker 1: very emotional process to be reassessing everything about your life.
Speaker 1: Because some women patient somewhere like Dr Goodear, this is
Speaker 1: so depressing for me. I thought at thirty five, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have three kids and a husband. Instead I'm a lawyer.
Speaker 1: But still I don't know. So whatever it may be,
Speaker 1: whatever it, maybe everyone has their own story. And I
Speaker 1: realized once I had friends come in together to do it,
Speaker 1: and I saw, wow, every time they come in, they
Speaker 1: come in together. Their eg retrievals fell within one day
Speaker 1: of each other. One drove one that day and then
Speaker 1: the other one drove her the other day. They were
Speaker 1: there for each other and it was so amazing. I
Speaker 1: loved the idea that you can do this with your
Speaker 1: best friend, a friend, a cousin, someone. So if you
Speaker 1: could think of someone by next month, I think it
Speaker 1: would be a great idea if you had someone to
Speaker 1: do it with. If not, we're going to be there.
Speaker 1: My team is amazing. They hold your hand. No one's
Speaker 1: going to leave, anyone be a loan. My team is
Speaker 1: amazing and we are there for you. Honestly, you do
Speaker 1: have an amazing team. They're always so nice, so patient
Speaker 1: with me, because again, I've been there so many times.
Speaker 1: You guys, this has been a very hard decision for me,
Speaker 1: especially because you get bloated and your emotional. I'm already
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cancer. You guys a very emotional So I
Speaker 1: know that I have to inject hormones, but I know
Speaker 1: it's for a good cause. It's just I'm like, when
Speaker 1: is the right time? So now I'm like, okay, next month,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have more time. I already told him I
Speaker 1: got to do it because I feel young. But you
Speaker 1: know what, my ovaries are saying something else. So anyways,
Speaker 1: I love that special that you guys have. I think
Speaker 1: I have someone already here that they you know, sent
Speaker 1: me a message that they want to do it with me.
Speaker 1: So that's a great deal. Okay, already, that's fantastic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I swear, Yeah, she just told me. She's like, I'll
Speaker 1: do it with you, cheeks. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: wants me to, like, you know, say her name, so
Speaker 1: I'd rather not. But anyways, so now that we're talking
Speaker 1: about all of this, I'm assuming it's different for every woman.
Speaker 1: During the process. You can either be you know, moody
Speaker 1: and stuff that that's common. So I will be very honest.
Speaker 1: I've seen it all. I've had people come and do this. Usually,
Speaker 1: these injections make you feel really good. They make you
Speaker 1: feel rather energetic. Your estrogen levels are going up, so
Speaker 1: you feel great. Okay. Sometimes afterwards, when they come down,
Speaker 1: as estrogen comes down, some people do get a little emotional. Um.
Speaker 1: I have seen people get emotional during the process because
Speaker 1: it brought too much of their life right in front
Speaker 1: of them and they had to address things that they
Speaker 1: did and decisions that they made. But with all of
Speaker 1: that being said, it's okay everyone. Everything in this world
Speaker 1: that is good for you is not easy, okay. Becoming successful,
Speaker 1: becoming a great parent, freezing and thinking for the future.
Speaker 1: All of the things in the world that are challenging
Speaker 1: and important for us our challenges and those are not
Speaker 1: the easiest things in life. But we have to conquer them,
Speaker 1: and we have to know that two weeks from now,
Speaker 1: I will be done. I'm going to go to bed
Speaker 1: knowing my eggs are frozen. And by the way, just
Speaker 1: a couple of myths that we have to address. When
Speaker 1: you freeze your eggs, we are not taking all of
Speaker 1: your eggs out of your body. It's only the eggs
Speaker 1: that we're gonna die off. Anyways, during that one ovulation,
Speaker 1: about a thousand eggs die off. So the more fertile
Speaker 1: you are, the more of those thousand we can try
Speaker 1: to get to keep and freeze or what we call recruit,
Speaker 1: and the less fertile you are, the less of those
Speaker 1: we can get. So you are not going to get
Speaker 1: an earlier menopause. You are not going to get all
Speaker 1: your eggs taken out. You are not going to become crazy.
Speaker 1: You were not going to be gaining weight. You may
Speaker 1: gain a little fluid because your ovaries have fluid in them,
Speaker 1: but it will go down if you don't eat ravenous lee.
Speaker 1: You're not going to get overweight. Okay, So these are
Speaker 1: all the major myths that people are thinking about, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately most of them are just not true. Okay, Now
Speaker 1: do you recommend therapy sessions during this time? You know, Um,
Speaker 1: we have an in house acupuncturist. She is so amazing,
Speaker 1: and I have a couple of other acupuncturists in town
Speaker 1: that I adore. First of all, acupuncture helps fertility, it
Speaker 1: helps you overas respond really nicely. They are so calm,
Speaker 1: cool and collected. They've almost become like therapists for my patients. Now,
Speaker 1: if you have a therapist that you talk to regularly,
Speaker 1: absolutely you should tell them from beforehand I'm about to
Speaker 1: do this, I made need to talk to you. You
Speaker 1: should probably schedule something during that time period just to
Speaker 1: have them there at your side. I just think it's very,
Speaker 1: very important to have support, whether it's a family member,
Speaker 1: whether it's a friend, whether it's your doctor and their team.
Speaker 1: You know, you're not going to the right doctor if
Speaker 1: they don't have a great support system there that you
Speaker 1: could pick up the phone and talk to. I hear
Speaker 1: my nurses outside of my door talking to my patients,
Speaker 1: and I just thank God odd they are on my
Speaker 1: team because they are so lovely and so caring, and
Speaker 1: my patients absolutely love them. And just for people to know,
Speaker 1: you know, every time we talk, I have people that
Speaker 1: listen and you're such a beautiful voice that teaches people,
Speaker 1: which I love about you. I've had people from around
Speaker 1: the country reach out to me that listen to you
Speaker 1: and watch you and learn from you. We've had people
Speaker 1: from Miami, New York, and Texas all do consults by phone.
Speaker 1: We start them with their injections, and there are local
Speaker 1: towns with a local fertility doctor, and just before the procedure,
Speaker 1: we have them fly in, get their eggs out, put
Speaker 1: them in our state of the art lab here, which
Speaker 1: is one of the best in the country, and then
Speaker 1: they are good to go back and they are sitting
Speaker 1: here waiting for them, and if not, I try to
Speaker 1: find someone in their hometown. Okay, See, this is why
Speaker 1: I love dr do you guys. He's so informative, he's
Speaker 1: so patient. And I'm telling you because again, I ask
Speaker 1: a lot of questions. I asked the same questions over
Speaker 1: and over, but I wanted you guys to hear it
Speaker 1: from him. I have a question that they were asking. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: once they're extracted, are eggs they are literally frozen right
Speaker 1: there there in the fridge. There they're somewhere where you
Speaker 1: you storem right. We have a very very private safe
Speaker 1: location in my building. It has seismic control, so things
Speaker 1: are tied down so earthquakes don't do anything. Um. All
Speaker 1: of the tanks are checked every single day by two
Speaker 1: of my embryologists that go into a walkthrough. They're all
Speaker 1: on cameras, they are all on alarms. They have backup
Speaker 1: generators in case the electricity goes out. So we do
Speaker 1: every single thing to keep your eggs frozen in time.
Speaker 1: So they get frozen and they become almost like a glass. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's like a glass like state. It's called vitrification. And
Speaker 1: this is how fast they get frozen and one second. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's it's called fast freezing. Okay. Vitrification is the fastest,
Speaker 1: the newest and most advanced technique to freeze an egg.
Speaker 1: And that's how we do them in my office. Okay.
Speaker 1: And once we're ready, then you take them out and
Speaker 1: you insert them right with the sperm of your choice. Once, yes,
Speaker 1: once you are ready, we thought, okay, and then we
Speaker 1: inseminate them with spurs, we create embryos. We allow the
Speaker 1: embryos to grow in our incubators, and then they are
Speaker 1: biopsied and frozen, and the biopsies that one tiny little
Speaker 1: cell off the edge of it goes out for genetic testing,
Speaker 1: and then we can tell you which one of your
Speaker 1: embryos are genetically normal or abnormal, and all the normal
Speaker 1: ones we also can tell you what their genders were
Speaker 1: if you want, you want to know. Okay, nice, Okay.
Speaker 1: So these eggs can be inserted in either in yourself
Speaker 1: or also you can have a surrogate. Correct. Either way,
Speaker 1: the procedure is the same. Correct, Yes, you can. Awesome.
Speaker 1: Now I just have one question before you go. Mr
Speaker 1: Deer or Dr Deer. Do you think that maybe miscarriages
Speaker 1: or abortions that affects your fertility? So yes, and no,
Speaker 1: if you've had miscarriages and they were taken care of well,
Speaker 1: like if you had miscarriages, whether of like scraping the
Speaker 1: inside of your uterus like horribly hard, and yes, it
Speaker 1: could damage the lining of your uterus and it may
Speaker 1: be hard to implant. But I've had patients have seven
Speaker 1: miscarriages and they were all done correctly and softly and
Speaker 1: gently and in a smart doctor's office, and nothing ever
Speaker 1: happened to her uterus, and she carried a beautiful pregnancy
Speaker 1: when she was ready. So this carriage is I think
Speaker 1: are nothing can be worried about abortions as well. If
Speaker 1: they're done correctly, they really shouldn't be affecting things in
Speaker 1: the long run. So all the things that have to
Speaker 1: do with your overall fertility should not be affecting the
Speaker 1: freezing of the eggs. Okay. So neither of those two
Speaker 1: have anything to do with how many eggs you have
Speaker 1: or it just happened. It's just age, really right, or
Speaker 1: things that you eat or anything like that. Does that
Speaker 1: affect No, no, no, I have some of this is
Speaker 1: l A, guys, this is LA. We have some of
Speaker 1: the healthiest woman in the entire country who do yoga
Speaker 1: and pilates, are vegetarian and eat healthy and watch their
Speaker 1: way come in and their thirty nine years old old
Speaker 1: and suddenly I have to tell them that their fertility
Speaker 1: is very, very low and there's absolutely nothing we can
Speaker 1: do about it. So okay, So sadly there's not much
Speaker 1: you can do. Okay, Dr Gadeer, I know you gotta go,
Speaker 1: and I just want to say thank you again, thank
Speaker 1: you for taking the time to explain this, for being
Speaker 1: so wonderful you and your staff are great. I want
Speaker 1: you to let people know where they can find you.
Speaker 1: If there's a number of website, anyone that's listening to
Speaker 1: us that wants to do this, absolutely well, let everybody
Speaker 1: know right now so I can be followed at Dr
Speaker 1: Shaheen Gadeer on Instagram. UM, I have my own podcast
Speaker 1: now called The Fertile Life, and thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I am beyond excited to have you on as a
Speaker 1: guest where we get to delve into this even deeper
Speaker 1: and learn a little bit more about your life. It's
Speaker 1: not only about fertility. It's about some really amazing guests
Speaker 1: that I've had and sometimes I just do them alone
Speaker 1: when I just talk about a topic like end demetriosis
Speaker 1: or PCOS. So the Fertile Life podcast is there. Southern
Speaker 1: California Reproductive Center is my center where in the heart
Speaker 1: of Beverly Hills. We have an office in Pasadena and
Speaker 1: office in Ventura County, in an office in Santa Barbara.
Speaker 1: So we're kind of all over Southern California, and we
Speaker 1: are doing consults around the entire country. So if those
Speaker 1: things will definitely help everyone find me wherever they go, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: you guys, and I will be sharing more information on
Speaker 1: my Instagram as well. The good thing is you guys
Speaker 1: can listen to the podcast over and over. If you
Speaker 1: guys miss anything, and if you have any other questions,
Speaker 1: DM me you guys, I'm gonna let you go. Dr Deer,
Speaker 1: thank you again, thank you for being so inspired by
Speaker 1: the way. Thank you, thank you. Before we end this episode,
Speaker 1: I want to just tell you, guys, live and let live.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Just allow yourself to make your
Speaker 1: own decisions. Don't let anyone else rule what you should
Speaker 1: or shouldn't do. It's what are you meant to do?
Speaker 1: What do you what do you want to do? If
Speaker 1: you're not hurting anybody else, it's really no one else's business,
Speaker 1: So you can keep it private. You can tell people
Speaker 1: or not. It's your decision. It's a personal decision. It's
Speaker 1: your body at the end of the day. And just
Speaker 1: the way you shouldn't tell anyone else to do whatever
Speaker 1: they want with their body, no one should tell you
Speaker 1: what to do with yours. This is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Michael Tura podcast Network. Follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram at Michael Dura Podcasts and follow me Cheeks.
Speaker 1: That's c h i Q u I s. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.