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.
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This is Infertility

Episode 193: Protecting Her Fertility Future in the Face of Breast Cancer

In honor of October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we’re highlighting Joyelle Fleming’s story with breast cancer, which began at the young age of 31. During her journey, Joyelle was faced with a difficult decision – what to do about her future fertility given the impact of cancer treatment. With the support of her doctors and access to fertility benefits through Progyny, Joyelle was able to freeze her eggs and focus on fighting cancer.

In this episode, Joyelle reflects on her experience, from navigating fertility preservation to finding strength and support from loved ones and breast cancer advocacy groups. Her story highlights the power of proactive choices and the peace of mind they can provide in the face of life’s toughest moments.

To learn more about oncofertility, check out resources here.

Breast cancer resources mentioned in this episode:

Guest: Joyelle Flemming, Progyny Member at Genentech

Host: Dan Bulger, 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.

This episode is also a video! Watch it here: https://youtu.be/p8N4nVJLOZs

Preserving Her Fertility Prior to Cancer Treatment
03:21 – 05:21

I think at first, I was kind of numb. And then once reality hit in there was a lot of crying. It was really hard telling my parents about it, and then I had them kind of tell the news to the rest of my family. And then when I kind of like, got over the initial shock and grief, I was like, okay, what are we doing? What are the next steps.The priority for Joyelle and for her doctor was, of course, beating cancer, but she and her doctor also knew that it was important to protect her future fertility. Some cancer treatments can cause fertility challenges down the road, so it is a great option for young people who are about to go through treatment to freeze eggs, embryos, or sperm prior to treatment. They started an egg retrieval cycle, basically right away.

I got diagnosed in January and then I started hormone treatments mid-February, so sometime in that month period my doctors asked, “Well, are you interested in having kids? If you do want to have kids, it’s probably good to freeze your eggs or embryos, just because we’re unsure how the treatment will impact fertility.” And I was just like, sure, I would love to have that option. We don’t want kids right now, but we want them in the future, so this could be a future me problem.

Peace of Mind for Future Family Building
06:47 – 13:36

My husband and I chose to freeze embryos. You harvest the eggs. And then it’s how many are mature? And then it’s, how many end up getting fertilized? And then we did genetic testing on them, and so then we only ended up with three embryos, but they collected 19 eggs. It also made me nervous, because this was really my one shot at doing this. So, I was like, hopefully the odds are good in our favor that we end up with some embryos and not none.Egg freezing is a process that takes a few weeks, and while a few weeks is not something that most of us think too much about. For someone who is just diagnosed with cancer, two-to-four-week delay in cancer treatment might be a bit scary. Fortunately, most fertility clinics are prepared to assist patients quickly when they are coming in for oncofertility purposes. Joyelle also has access to the Progyny benefit through her employer, Genentech.

The retrieval itself went smoothly. I’m not concerned about having kids with my husband in the future, which is great, because I have enough things to worry about at this time. We can try naturally if we want to, but if we don’t, we can just use the embryos. It’s just one less thing to be worried about.

Breast Cancer Support
14:37 – 16:00

I have a few support groups that I’ve used:

  • The first one is Imerman Angels. I have a buddy, and she’s also a young Black woman who had breast cancer, so we’ll just like text, and I text her a lot with any questions I have, and that’s been great.
  • Then there’s also The Breasties’ app, which just has different channels, and I believe The Breasties is for breast and gynecological cancer. And that’s been nice just to read people’s posts and also ask questions. It was also helpful before my double mastectomy to see what were things that were helpful for people, and what were things that they thought they needed.
  • And then there’s also Touch, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, and it’s been helpful. They have newsletters that they send out and they do events with different doctors and whatnot, typically talk about breast cancer for Black women.
  • Cold capping can be a couple grand, and I was able to get that covered through a group called Hair & Hope in Chicago. So, they covered my cold capping, which was great, because I was definitely concerned with losing my hair, and I didn’t, which is really nice.

I found those few groups have been really helpful just to connect with other women who have been where I am or are actively going through it. And then I really relied on my friends, my husband, and my family. My friends have been so supportive, and it’s also helped me being open, just like celebrating the wins, I threw myself an end of chemo party, and that was, that was so fun. And just knowing I can have these celebratory moments throughout all of this is so great.

Dan Bulger

Host

Dan Bulger
Producer at Progyny

Dan has been in the healthcare industry for the past ten plus years as a multimedia content producer. Better known as ‘Video Dan’ he has interviewed numerous doctors, patients and other experts in the world of fertility. He’s also the producer for this podcast, This is Infertility and the producer behind the Progyny YouTube Channel which features interviews with dozens of the nation’s leading fertility specialists. On a personal note Dan’s parents started fostering kids when he was four years old, and he considers himself a proud older brother to over 100 foster children.

Joyelle Fleming

Guest

Joyelle Fleming
Progyny Member at Genentech

Joyelle was thrust into the world of fertility treatments and IVF when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2023. Her and her fiancé wanted kids in the future and going through a round of fertility was a great back up option in case Joyelle lost her fertility due to cancer treatment. Joyelle’s looking forward to when all of her cancer treatments are over, resuming travel and her wedding in June 2024.