Bonus Episode 8: Family Building in 2021

Today’s bonus episode comes from a recent Progny webinar, “Building a Family in 2021.” It’s the start of the new year, which might mean access to new benefits and new opportunities to start or continue building the family of their dreams.  

Moderated by Progyny’s Selena Campbell and experts Dr. Susanna Park, a reproductive endocrinologist at San Diego Fertility Center, Kayleigh Hajny – a Progyny success story, and Joni Vick,  Clinical Educator Supervisor at Progyny, they discuss how the Progyny benefit works, an overview of fertility treatments,  and answers to frequently asked questions during the journey. Plus, you will hear directly from Kayleigh about her experience conceiving her daughter, Liv, with help from Progyny.   

Don’t have time to listen? Don’t worry, we broke down the webinar into a summary here.  

Guests: Kayleigh Hajny, Progyny member, Joni Vick, Progyny 

Expert: Dr. Susanna Park, San Diego Fertility Center 

Host: Selena Campbell, Dan Bulger (Intro) 

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.  

Here are some highlights from this episode: 

When Should You See a Reproductive Endocrinologist? 
4:12–5:16 

Selena Campbell: Before we dive into the different types of fertility treatments that patients can pursue, I’d like to go into the different reasons for infertility and what patients can expect during an initial consultation. So, Dr. Park, I’d like to start with you. Why would you suggest someone to go see a reproductive endocrinologist? 

Dr. Susanna Park: So in general, if you’re less than 35 years old, infertility is diagnosed when you’ve been trying for about 12 consecutive months without conception. If you’re 35 or older, infertility is diagnosed when you’ve been trying for six consecutive months without conception. Now there are certain medical conditions that may warrant an earlier valuation. For example, in Kayleigh’s situation, if you have PCOS and you don’t have regular cycles, it’s really hard to try for six or 12 consecutive months because you’re not ovulating regularly. For example, let’s say you had a history of cancer and you underwent chemotherapy. That may warrant an earlier evaluation. Another different circumstance is if you’re in a same–sex relationship, perhaps female – female or male – male. In that case, you should see a fertility specialist whenever you’re ready to start your family. 

Progyny Member Point of View: 
6:19–7:39 

Selena Campbell: When you first called Progyny, do you mind going into what that first call was like for you? 

Kayleigh Hajny: My husband made the first call because it is through his job, but we did it together a little bit after that. We already knew who our patient care advocate was, shout out to LaTisha! She’s wonderful. So, she went over our benefits package, our smart cycles, how that interpreted into what that meant for us, and our consecutive cycles, if need be later on. So, she was great. And explaining down to every little detail. My favorite part of it was that we didn’t need any approval letters and going back and forth with our doctors and our insurance. It was just pre–approved. So, we had already been hooked up with our doctor through my OBGYN who sent us to Boston IVF, and we had our initial consult already done. We started Progyny benefits right when we were about to start our egg retrieval cycle. We just went in for our information session to go over all of our test results. And then it was just right into it, we went right into our cycles, there was nothing else we needed to do. 

Timeline for Treatment: 
19:18– 21:35 

Selena Campbell: Now we’ve spoken about getting set up with a reproductive endocrinologist, going in for the initial consultation, really discussing the treatment plan and starting that plan. Joni, for our audience, could you shed some light on what a typical timeline would look like for those steps? 

Joni Vick: Absolutely, that’s a great question. Timeline, as everyone knows, is essential, especially whenever you’re ready to get started with your family. And so, the timeline, I would also like to include, it does vary on what type of treatment plan you’re interested in. So, I would always refer back to the physician on providing a guideline as far as when treatment would occur. But essentially, whenever you first contact Progyny, and learn about your fertility benefits from your Patient Care Advocate (PCA), you will then schedule an initial consultation with your provider. So from that initial appointment, if the testing needs to be done usually takes about a month, sometimes two months, because life, it always interferes at times when it comes to infertility. So, we like to allow time there. Within two months, you should have all the testing done that’s needed to determine your diagnosis and the best treatment option. And then you’ll meet back with your provider. And usually within a month or two, go over all the results. And then from there, identify the best treatment option. And then again, depending on what that option is for you. And you’ll then schedule that treatment following the next month or two. So I would say ideally, from getting started to completing treatment can range anywhere from three to six months, some sooner and some later.