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.
Apple Podcasts Spotify Podcasts Stitcher Podcasts Google Podcasts
This is Infertility

Episode 7: LGBTQ+ Family Building: Understanding the Legal Side

For Pride month, we’re rolling out four episodes that cover family building for the LGBTQ+ community. The third episode discusses the additional obstacles same-sex couples often encounter when trying to start a family.  

Any fertility journey can be complex, but for same-sex couples there are additional legal and political challenges, both on Federal and State levels. In this episode, we hear from Trystan Reese, a transgender activist who works to ensure that every LGBTQ+ person has the right and ability to start their own family at Family Equality Council.  

We also hear from Theresa Witherspoon who, with her wife, found her family through reciprocal IVF. Theresa shares some of the hurdles she and her wife faced as a same-sex female couple, like finding the right sperm donor, absorbing the costs of fertility treatments and donor fees, and navigating the legality of same-sex parenting.  

Guests: Trystan Reese, Director of Family Formation at Family Equality Council, and Theresa Witherspoon 

Host: Parawana Yasmin, Patient Care Advocate at Progyny 

For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page, Progyny’s Education page for LGBTQ+ family building options, and Family Equality Council. 

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. 

Podcast-Headshot-Parawana-Yasmin

Host

Parawana Yasmin
Patient Care Advocate at Progyny

Parawana has had a passion for healthcare from an early age and has been studying health sciences and working in the healthcare field for over eight years. She currently works in New York as a Patient Care Advocate at Progyny and is also pursuing a degree in nursing atop her bachelor’s in integrated neuroscience. Interacting with members and being an integral part of their fertility journey is Parawana’s favorite part of being a PCA. “Somewhere along the way, we must learn that there is nothing greater then to do something for others.” She has always wanted to incorporate giving to others in some capacity in her everyday life and through her current pursuits as well as future educational endeavors she strives to make helping others a career.

Trystan Reese

Guest

Trystan Reese
Director of Family Formation at Family Equality Council

Through his role at Family Equality Council, Trystan works with employers, businesses, and community members to reduce barriers to LGBTQ+ family building. He is a transgender father to two adopted children and one biological child. He lives with his family in Portland, OR.

Podcast-Headshot-Theresa-Witherspoon

Guest

Terri Witherspoon

Terri is a labor and employment attorney living in San Francisco. She and her wife chose to use reciprocal IVF to have their daughter in 2014. They did not have a history of infertility but chose this method, so they could both have a biological connection to their child, with Terri carrying the baby created using her wife’s egg.

Music From This Episode:

Artist: Kai Engel
Track: Meekness
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/Sustains/Kai_Engel_-_Sustains_-_02_Meekness

Artist: Lee Rosevere
Track: Maximum Relax
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/Vanilla_Chill/LR_-_01_-_Maximum_Relax

Artist: Breath Before the Plunge
Track: End of All Things
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Breath_Before_the_Plunge/Breath_Before_the_Plunge/Breath_Before_the_Plunge_-_Breath_Before_the_Plunge_-_03_End_of_All_Things