This is Infertility is a bi-weekly podcast where we fuse narrative storytelling with experience and science to give you a new perspective on what it’s really like to go through a family building journey. Each episode dives into the emotional, physical, and financial burdens carried by those who experience infertility on their path to parenthood. Be it IVF, IUI, egg freezing, surrogacy, adoption, etc., the path is never the same and it can be long, painful, and lonely. It’s our mission to give those struggling a platform to be heard, a community connection, and an opportunity to raise awareness of the 1 in 6 who, for many reasons, struggle with infertility.

Bonus Episode 17: How Your Village Can Support You in a Family Building Journey

As part of our efforts to help raise awareness and support the infertility community, we hosted a webinar about how one’s village can provide support in a family building journey. Everyone’s “village” will look different and could include a partner, family members, friends, coworkers, Progyny’s Patient Care Advocate, or support group. Regardless, it’s important to know, you are not alone in this journey.

In this episode Amanda Lesesne, from Progyny, sits down with Arielle Spiegel from CoFertility, E-Beth Marshall from Creating Arizona Families, and Carolyn Berger a licensed social worker, to discuss the different ways someone can build their village, communicate their needs, and how to keep a village close throughout the journey.

While this episode is definitely worth the listen, we understand that life gets busy and have provided a summary for you here.

Guests: Arielle Spiegel, CoFertility; E-Beth Marshall, Creating Arizona Families; Carolyn Berger, LCSW
Host: Amanda Lesesne, Progyny

For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility.

Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com.

About the Speakers

Host: Amanda Lesesne

VP, Sales, Progyny

Guest: Arielle Spiegel

CoFertility

Guest: Carolyn Berger

LCSW

Guest: Elizabeth Marshall

Creating Arizona Families

Host: Amanda Lesesne

VP, Sales, Progyny

Amanda is a passionate infertility patient and advocate who is able to bridge her personal interest and professional experience to help people build the family of their dreams. At Progyny, as a VP of Sales, Amanda educates employers and consultants across the U.S. about the value of fertility benefits. Prior to Progyny, Amanda spent the last 12 years in software sales and the digital health space. Formerly with Doctor On Demand and Castlight Health where she was responsible for driving growth and building relationships with employers, health plans, and consultants.

Amanda is a proud graduate of College of Charleston where she played Division I soccer and was a graduate of the School of Business. Amanda resides in New Jersey with her husband, Troy, and miracle daughter, Drew.

Guest: Arielle Spiegel

CoFertility

CoFertility is a site that aims to un-complicate the fertility journey and make infertility suck less. With educational content, resources, and tools, Co provides helpful, digestible information about fertility and reproductive health all in one place—while keeping it real.

Prior to founding Co, Arielle led social media and partnerships at Victoria’s Secret PINK and Coach. She thrives on bolstering brand relevance among key audiences, especially when they involve first-to-market technology and media partnerships.

When she’s not busy changing the conversation about fertility, Arielle enjoys traveling with her husband, Max, and playing with their dog, Oliver. She also loves listening to podcasts, with favorites including NPR’s How I Built This and Big Fat Negative. She finally welcomed her rainbow baby in June 2020.

Guest: Carolyn Berger

LCSW

Carolyn Berger, LCSW has been helping couples and individuals build families for over 30 years. She has a private practice where she counsels people wishing to create families through reproductive technology or adoption. Carolyn is the founding board chair of The American Fertility Association and served on the board of Path2Parenthood. She is also on the board of Family Equality, and has a specialty in family building in the LGBTQ+ community. Carolyn is a team member of The Center for Family Building in NYC. She has two sons, one through fertility treatment and one through adoption.

Guest: Elizabeth Marshall

Creating Arizona Families

E-Beth Marshall is an accountant who lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, niece, nephew and three dogs. E-Beth has integrated her business acumen and her firsthand experience with infertility as a grassroots advocate for community awareness and legislative change benefiting individuals and couples facing infertility. E-Beth Advocates on the state and federal level.

E-Beth and her husband have been facing an infertility diagnosis since 2012 and has become a dominant focus in their lives since 2016. The test and trials of infertility have strengthened E-Beth’s resolve to become activity involved in the infertility community. Since 2016 she has been working with the Arizona Legislator to introduce a bill mandating private insurance coverage for infertility and fertility preservation. E-Beth hosts a local support group focusing on support and education for others experiencing infertility. She teamed up with RESOLVE to help cohost their national infertility support group. Additionally, E-Beth co-chairs the DYI Arizona Walk of Hope to raise community awareness about infertility.