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 8 who, for many reasons, struggle with infertility.
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This is Infertility

Episode 5: LGBTQ+ Family Building: Two Moms and the Journey to Build Their Family

For Pride month, we’re rolling out four episodes that cover family building for the LGBTQ+ community. The first episode is about what it’s like to build a family as a same-sex couple. There are important decisions to make up front such as, who’s going to carry the baby? How do you choose a sperm donor? And which fertility treatment – IUI, IVF, or reciprocal IVF – do you choose? 

But even when you’ve made all of those decisions, sometimes things don’t go as planned. In this episode, Katie Acosta and Hilary Smith explain how their chosen family building path didn’t work, how they embarked on a new fertility journey called reciprocal IVF, and how they navigated the legal logistics with their new family.  

Guests: Katie Acosta and Hilary Smith 

Expert: Dr. Shahin Ghadir, SCRC 

Host: Melissa Maldonado, Implementations Manager at Progyny 

For more information visit Progyny’s Podcast Page, Progyny’s Education page for LGBTQ+ family building options, and Southern California Reproductive Center (SCRC). 

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-Melissa-Maldonado

Host

Melissa Maldonado
Patient Care Supervisor at Progyny

Melissa began her career in the healthcare industry with an outpatient radiology company focused on excellent customer service. During this time, Melissa developed a passion for healthcare and the focus on high quality care, which continued to grow when she began her career at Progyny as a Patient Care Advocate. Today, Melissa actively works with Progyny members to help them achieve their fertility goals and oversees the Patient Care Advocate team. She also enjoys watching Florida State Football and traveling with her husband.

Podcase-Headshot-Smith-Acosta-headshot

Guest

Katie Acosta and Hilary Smith

Katie and Hilary live in Atlanta, GA. When they first met, Katie was raising her then ten-year-old son from a previous relationship. They married in New York City in December of 2012 because at the time marriage was not legal in Georgia. Their marriage was not recognized in Georgia for another three years, by which time Katie was already pregnant with their daughter. Katie became pregnant via reciprocal IVF after Hilary had tried unsuccessfully to conceive for two years. Hilary went through 8 IUIs and one unsuccessful IVF transfer. After Hilary’s IVF procedure did not work, they decided that Katie would try to get pregnant with their last remaining frozen embryos. Two frozen embryos were transferred into Katie’s uterus and one finally took! They now have a happy healthy two-and-half year old daughter and a 17-year-old son.

Podcast-Headshot-GHADIR

Guest

Dr. Shahin Ghadir
board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist at Southern California Reproductive Center (SCRC)

As a founding partner of Southern California Reproductive Center, Dr. Ghadir is double board-certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and also at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.

Music From This Episode:

Artist: Nctrnm
Track: Blonde
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nctrnm/Blonde_-_Single/NctrnmBlonde

Artist: ROZKOL
Track: Golden Sphere
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/ROZKOL/Roadside_Picnic/ROZKOL_-_Roadside_Picnic_-_14_Golden_Sphere

Artist: Swelling
Track: Dawn I
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Swelling/Projector_Music_For_Visual_Media/Swelling_-_Projector-_Music_for_Visual_Media_-_06_Dawn_I

Track: Dawn II
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Swelling/Projector_Music_For_Visual_Media/Swelling_-_Projector-_Music_for_Visual_Media_-_07_Dawn_II

Artist: Doctor Turtle
Track: His Last Share Of The Stars
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/his_last_share_of_the_stars_zeroed

Artist: Celophane Sam
Track: Run Hound
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Cellophane_Sam/Desire/Cellophane_Sam_04_Run_Hound

Artist: Kai Engel
Track: Holiday Gift
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/Sustains/Kai_Engel_-_Sustains_-_03_Holiday_Gift

Artist: Jahzzar
Track: MainSquare
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/handmade/MainSquare