9. Egg Freezing 101 - Sharing My Experience
In this episode, Merritt shares her entire experience with the egg retrieval and freezing process from start to finish. From the schedule, to the shots, to the procedure, recovery, and results, there's not a stone left unturned in this discussion! In the intro, Merritt gives a final review on her holiday velvet Nap Dress order, her thoughts on the Spencer movie, what she's been watching lately, and more!
In the Beck and Call Q&A segment, Merritt answers listener questions about dealing with criticism/skepticism surrounding egg freezing, as well as how to support friends that are going through this process! Call the Beck and Call hotline at 214-620-0473 to leave a voicemail and ask Merritt anything. She answers two listener questions at the end of every episode!
To see visual guides for each podcast episode and for more behind-the-scenes content, follow along on Instagram @beckandcallpodcast! You can also follow @merrittbeck and thestylescribe.com for more fashion content.
EPISODE AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
Hey guys, welcome back to the beck and call podcast. I'm your host, Merritt Beck. I am a fashion and lifestyle blogger. And on this podcast I'm talking about all things life work and love as a single woman in my 30s. So I actually had some technical difficulties the first time to do record this episode on Saturday morning, which is today, by the way, I woke up, took Reese's on a walk, I was planning to go ahead and record because I've got a lot going on this weekend. And my mom comes in town tomorrow. So I wanted to go ahead and record and get it out of the way so that I, you know, have time to do all the things I'm doing this weekend. And then I can edit, you know, a little tomorrow a little on Monday. I just feel like I'm really tied up with a lot of things this week and want to make sure that I can get this out on Tuesday as scheduled. But as I said before, technical difficulties came about and I spent about two hours on chat with Adobe, I use Adobe Audition to record and edit all of my podcast episodes. Until this point, I have had zero issues, recording, editing, exporting all of that. But for some reason this morning, when I attempted to record, I was not hearing any playback, I could not hear anything that I was recording, I couldn't play back anything that I had recorded previously, there was just something going on and they were not able to help after two hours of chatting back and forth. They took over my computer, I figured out it all had to do with a software update. So you know, pat myself on the back for that rookie mistake. But obviously, while I was frustrated with it, after they couldn't figure it out, I just threw in the towel. I was like, you know, it's time for brunch, I need to take a break from this, take a beat, take a step away, and I went to brunch with a few of my friends and then followed that with the Spencer movie. And this is the first movie that I've seen in theaters since the start of the pandemic. So I was very excited. I'm a big movie buff. I love going to the theater. And I was particularly excited about seeing this movie because obviously you know, I'm a royal fan. I like to follow all of the royal family stories, whether they're faux or real. And also because Kristen Stewart is playing Diana in this movie, and if you don't know me, I'm a big fan of The Twilight franchise or the books. I love the movies. She was terrible in those movies. So I was just curious to see what she would be like in these and y'all she fucking killed it. She is so good in this movie. I do think it's worth noting that the Twilight series you know, the writing is not great. I almost compare it to 50 Shades of Grey. It's like the Mercurial of it all. Like, it's just cheesy writing and I do feel like I mean, Edward wasn't great in it either. Robert Pattinson. I feel like he was better as Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter than he was as Edward and the Twilight franchise. I just think that the writing was bad. The directing was bad and Twilight and we should all give them both a second chance and all the movies they do.
The like I said before Kristen Stewart nailed this movie, she did such a good job. I totally understand why there's Oscar buzz for it. The director for Spencer's, the same director as Jackie which was Natalie Portman portraying Jackie Kennedy. And it's definitely shot in a similar way you follow Diana the entire movie, there's no break from her. There are no scenes without her. It's like a continuous monologue from scene one until the very end. And the whole movie is pretty much set in Sandringham, which is where she spent a weekend with the royal family over Christmas. And you know, that's when she decided she was going to leave Charles. And so it's all very tortured and tense the entire weekend, Elizabeth Holmes kind of broke this down on her Instagram. And I found that very helpful, because you know, you don't know what to expect when going into these world movies. And this is particularly depressing. So just like kind of a content warning. There's a lot of heavy stuff in it, including a lot about her eating disorder and self harm and just terrible thoughts. So keep that in mind if you are planning to see it. But one thing I did think was interesting is it really did only focus on her. Yes, you did see Charles, maybe in two scenes. You saw the Queen and a couple scenes, but it was truly just about her. They really don't focus on what the royal family was doing at all. They were just sort of, you know, players. They're not you know, the main characters in this movie. But as I said before, I loved it. I think Kristen Stewart deserves an award for it. I think she did an incredible job. I thought it was shot really well. The whole thing was really well done. So definitely recommend it, go see it in a theater. And then since we're already on the topic, I figured I'd just continue on what I'm watching. I started dope sick on Hulu last week and I'm really enjoying it. It is a drama that's based on a true story. It's about the oxycontin Empire, the Sackler family, Purdue Pharma. It goes into how it really got big how they fraudulently marketed it. It's obviously a very dark story because it deals with addiction, crime, chronic illness, and all of that, but I am finding it really interesting. I think it's definitely worth a watch. And the cast is really great too. Michael Keaton formerly known as Batman stars as a doctor in a small mining town dealing with this issue, and Rosario Dawson, I have known her from rent, I loved musicals slash movie, she plays a DEA agent trying to take down Purdue pharma and the Sackler family, it's really, really good. And then this is sort of an oddball recommendation. But my colorist and friend, Monty Fagan, he loves horror movies like I do, and we were chatting about it at my latest appointment. And I recommend it to him Hill House, which I think I mentioned on here. It is a very scary movie. And he told me I must watch one called it follows. It's an incredibly weird concept and reads very much like an urban legend told to teens, to keep them from having sex, because it's about a fatal curse that is passed from victim to victim through sex. So after you get it, something follows you around everywhere, it follows you appearing as anybody so it could be a stranger, it could be somebody you know, and you've got to keep away from it. Because if it touches you, you'll die. And the thing that was following you will then start following the person who gave it to you again. And the only way to get it to stop following you is to have sex with somebody else and pass it on to them like an STD white, the movie is set in the 80s. So the music the outfits, even like the filtering on the you know, scenes looks very 80s and so that sets the tone for the entire movie. And I know I know it sounds very weird and I wasn't planning to watch it but he's told me about it more than once and you know, I'm a big fan of scary movies, so I gave it a shot. It's got really great reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. It is a very weird concept. But if you like scary movies, it's worth seeing it definitely will be different than anything you've seen before. Now that we've gone through what I'm watching what I have watched recently let's go back to just personal updates before we get into the most personal update. Earlier this week. I got my Christmas decorations I started with my mantel and got my garland out because I wanted to take some Christmas photos with my dog. I think I did mention I got Reese's a Whoa, whoa, whoa sweater from Morgan Graham and it is so cute on her. She looks so chubby and I decided to do some holiday cards this year. I've never done it before because I honestly thought it sounded pretty dumb to do one by myself. But now that I have a dog and you know I have cute things to dress her up in might as well. I created the cards on minted and I already ordered them. So hopefully I'll get them soon. I'm actually doing an Instagram partnership with them during cyber week. So full disclosure, I did pay for part of the order with a gift card. But I am actually so excited about these can't wait to get them in. I will definitely show y'all on Instagram, what they look like when I get them. And then on Friday morning I woke up early and decided to just start setting up my Christmas tree and luckily I have an easy one to set up. It's one of those flip trees from Balsam Hill. I love all of their things. That's where my garlands from my trees from there, I just think they have really good items. And I set it up myself. It's already pre lit. So luckily I didn't have to do that. But I did run to target to pick up some ribbon because it helps to fill in some spaces to have ribbon wrapped around the tree. I don't have enough ornaments to cover the entire tree just enough to cover the front that people could see. So I ran a target to get the ribbon. And then when Liza got here, my assistant she helped me decorate it and we probably spent four hours decorating the tree I wasted half my day doing that but totally worth it because now my house is ready for the holidays. I feel so much more cheerful and it's all decorated. I love it. And I really wanted to get it all set up before my mom came in town because you know, she doesn't spend a ton of time up here and I've just felt like it would be fun to have it all decorated and festive for the holidays. And speaking of the holidays, I know I owe you guys a velvet nap dress review. So I got it all in last week. And while I love the feel and the quality of the velvet, the fit is still not right. The smoking still isn't the way I like it. It's just not woven tightly enough to be supportive. It runs really big. I can't go braless with the LE dress like I was hoping but I'm still planning to keep both because they're Gorgeous, they're really pretty colors. The Velvet is really high quality. And I do think I'll wear them a lot but I just you know have to wear bras with them. And I know I mentioned two episodes ago that reformation which is the brand that I love their smock styles that they don't do velvet. Well guess what, I just saw a velvet dress by reformation on Netta portait. So hopefully that will be a new thing for them. This dress that they just did though is totally open back which I also can't do without a bras. I can't be ordering that but I would love to see more velvet from them because that would be amazing. Switching gears a little bit I discovered a new recipe that I am now obsessed with and will be cooking repeatedly. You may or may not have seen this if you are following the beck and call podcast Instagram but a few of my friends brought over flowers and homemade soup after my egg retrieval and the soup was so good. My friend Haven was so sweet. To make it she used the Define dish recipe for zuppa Toscana, and the recipe features spicy Italian sausage, kale potatoes. It is super spicy, hearty, savory, just everything you want out of a soup before the fall winter season. It is so good. I want to make it for my mom this week. So definitely check out the zuppa Toscana recipe on the defined dish. You can thank me later. And then on the polar opposite end of things my friend Mallory sent me crumble cookies, which I'd never had before. But I've always been interested in trying, I would sort of compare it to TIFs treats. If you've ever had that here in Texas, they're served warm delivered to your house, they have locations like everywhere. But what's different is instead of buying like one dozen cookies in one flavor, the box is a mix of flavors, so and they change every week. So one week, they might have five or six different flavors. And the next week, it's an entirely different set of flavors. And they're all in one box. But like I said, they're served warm, they're so delicious. It was the perfect sweet treat. As you guys know, I have the biggest sweet tooth. So such a great treat that day. And definitely check it out if you want to send a friend something or even just treat yourself. In other news, I'm actually working on setting up a website for this podcast, I figured it was probably a good idea to have a website where people can go not just the beck and call Instagram, like make my podcast look more legit. And so I'm working with a designer on that. And I'm hoping to get this launched before Christmas. I also wanted to let you guys know that I set up a different email address that is associated with a website so that you can send in questions, comments, funny stories, etc. And it is now info at beck and call podcast.com. So don't use beck and call podcast at Gmail anymore. That's the old one. But info at beck and call podcast.com send me anything you can ask me questions and funny stories relating to things I've mentioned on the podcast, whatever. And I'll certainly update you guys on when the website is live. But in the meantime, definitely be sure to follow at beck and call podcast on Instagram. I'm sharing all kinds of updates there as well as visual guides for each episode.
Alright, we are to the main topic of this week's episode and it is a personal one, you probably already know the subject considering the title of this episode. But if not just a content warning that I will be talking about medical stuff, I'm talking about egg retrieval, egg freezing fertility, all of that good stuff. So if that does not interest you, I suggest you wait until the next episode to tune in. I also want to remind you guys that I am not a medical professional. And I'm not advising you in any way on what to do. I'm simply sharing my own experience in hopes that it might help you if you're considering doing this. Or to give you some insight and how to help your friends that might be going through this, everyone's experience is going to be different. So don't assume that what I am doing or have done is going to be the same as what you might do if you decide to go through the egg retrieval and freezing process. And I'm also not an expert. So well I learned a lot and want to share everything I did learn with you guys. I may not say everything 100% correctly or be able to answer your questions on this topic. So I do hope you'll give me grace as I'm being very vulnerable here. And as always, please chat with your doctor if you have any questions about anything I mentioned here because like I said, not an expert, not advising you. I'm not a medical professional. But let's get into it. So I mentioned this in one of my earlier updates on the podcast, but I hadn't originally planned on freezing my eggs. In fact, I'd said as much on my Instagram stories. I was still very much unsure about whether I wanted kids so I was sort of taking the approach of if it happens great, but if not great, but then a few of my friends started getting curious and investigating and kind of relaying some information to me. And so I was a little curious and decided to make an appointment just to see what I was working with. I was actually very lucky and that I had to do very little research in finding a doctor because like I said, several of my friends have gone through this already. And they all went to the same place, I did make one call to another place, but ultimately decided to just do my egg retrieval and freezing with Dr. Mika Thomas at Dallas fertility associates. And I really am pleased with everything that happened. And I highly recommend them. There are multiple doctors in this practice. And I mean, seriously, it's like an assembly line, they just have it figured out. So I called and made an appointment with a doctor for an initial consultation, which once I got there, I got my blood drawn, I did a vaginal sonogram. And they basically just want to see what like I said, what you're working with how you look down there, if everything's where it's supposed to be, when they're doing the blood draw. They're testing your Hmh levels, which I had to Google this, but it's anti mullerian hormone, and it's a hormone produced in the ovaries that assesses a woman's ovarian reserve or egg count. I was a little surprised to learn that my results were on the low side of average at 1.1, which is what got the fire burning for me and inspired me to actually go through with this process. And the doctor said it was a good time for me to do this because she said she typically recommended that women freeze their eggs before the age of 35. As numbers really start to drop. After that I had just turned 30 for the summer, and my Hmh levels were lower than I'd hoped. So it was a good thing I didn't wait till next year. As soon as we found out that information, the doctor asked me to start taking CO q 10, which is a supplement that's supposed to support egg quality and overall fertility. While there's nothing I can do about increasing the number of eggs that my body will create co Q 10 can help with the quality of the eggs, which is very important, especially as you age. So once I decided to go through with this, it really came down to scheduling, I really want to start in June, and I was going to be out of town in July, I was going to be out of town in August. And it just I couldn't make it work with the schedule that I had. So ultimately, I had to wait until I was back from my three week trip in California to get going with this. Once you start this process, you have to go to appointments almost every other day. And you also have to do at home injections the same time every night. So if you're planning to do this, at some point, you have to consider your schedule, you have to be in town. There's just no way around that. So just keep that in mind. So after a little confusion with the scheduling, they told me just a call when I got my period when I was going to be in town for a while. So after my California trip, I ended up getting my period on September 19. And they instructed me to use an ovulation predictor kit that following week to track the day I'd be at peak fertility. And I just used one by clearblue that I found at CVS, you can get them at CVS, Target, Walgreens, etc. And while I was tracking this, the doctor went ahead and sent all of the prescriptions to the pharmacy for my upcoming stimulation and all of that. So while I was working on tracking my ovulation, the order was placed for all of the medications, I got them in the mail and was sort of ready to go. My peak Fertility Day ended up being on October 2. And then I called to alert them to that and had a pre start phone call with the nurse on October 6. And during this call, we went over this very large packet, I want to say it was 18 pages long that had detailed information on IVF the entire process. While I'm not fertilizing any eggs right now, this part of the process is part of IVF. So they include everything in there for you. They also give you individual pages based on each drug you're taking with instructions on how to prepare the medicine, inject yourself. There's also places where you can go online for tutorials, there's just a ton of information on the entire process given to you in this pre start packet. They also gave me a calendar with certain dates and when I could expect to do certain things which was all pretty much a guesstimate. But it still helped to have that so I could kind of plan out my month. So the week after my pre start phone call. Everything started on October 12, I began taking a pill called S trace which I was to take twice a day until I got my full flow period and then the next day on the 13th I was to do again a relicts injection every night for three nights. And thanks to all of you who sent in tips on the beck and call podcast Instagram because I knew to ice the area before my first injection which made all the difference. The actual act of icing the area actually does hurt a little bit but then you eventually numb and you're totally numb once you do the injection and I really think I needed that at least for the first injection honestly I did it the entire time. But definitely the for the first one because I was anxious about how I was going to feel with it. I've never like shots, I always look away and so I just figured icing it will help lessen the blow. The gainer relics injection was the easiest of all the injections to do because it was ready to go in the syringe all you had to do is tap to get the air bubbles out and then injected into your skin whereas the other ones required a little more labor to get the job done. After my last night of the Ghana relic shots and four days of taking the esterase pill, I got my full flow period on Saturday the 16th. And because the office was closed over the weekend, I called them first thing Monday morning and they got me in for my baseline that day. Your baseline appointment is where they do a hefty blood draw a COVID-19 test and a vaginal sonogram to prep you before the full stimulation injection start that night. For the blood draw. They also took blood for a genetic panel, which I requested. They offer that when you do this, and it tests for I think around 270 genetic diseases that you could be a carrier of I just figured that would be helpful information to have for the future. The same day as my baseline appointment. The nurses called me and told me to start my first night of stimulation injections and the drug cocktail I started with was men appear follistim and dexamethasone, the follistim injection is actually very easy. It comes with a pin dispenser and a cartridge. So you insert the cartridge into the pen, twist the pen to adjust the amount of medicine you need. And then after inserting the needle into your skin, you press the top of the pen with your thumb to inject the medicine. So the men appear is a little more labor intensive because you actually have to mix it yourself. The meta pure is powdered and you have to mix it with a dilute lint probably saying that wrong. It's sodium chloride and I was doing 150 I use which stands for international units have the men appear, but they only come in 75 iu vials. So I actually did mix three vials together before injecting myself. Luckily, there are some super helpful video tutorials on freedom med teach calm for men appear and all of the other fertility drugs. And after like two three days, I really got the hang of it. And it was kind of fun. It felt like a mad scientist. One thing to note is that once you've decided on the time, you're going to give yourself to do the injections, you have to stick to a two hour window around that time to do it every night. So for example, I started my injections at 8pm The first night so every night after I had to do my shots between seven and nine every night. And once you start the stimulation process, that's when you start going in every other day for a blood draw and vaginal sonogram. And they're they're testing your estrogen levels to make sure the medicine is doing what it's supposed to. And then they may adjust your medication as needed depending on what they find. And then the sonogram is to see how many follicles are coming along and measure the size of each one, monitor the growth that's happening and make sure everything's happening according to the timeline. Another thing to note is that once you start the stimulation process, you are not allowed to drink alcohol and you're not supposed to work out. So anything twisting any kind of jumping can cause ovarian torsion. I think I've said this in a previous episode, but that sounds horrific. So I was happy to take a backseat and not work out for a couple weeks. But you're not supposed to work out or drink alcohol from the start of stimulation until your first period post egg retrieval. So usually about two, two and a half weeks. After my sonogram and blood test on October 21. The nurse instructed me to incorporate Ghana relics back into my injections each night. So from Friday until the following Thursday, I had three injections tonight and one pill. Needless to say I got pretty bruised up from that. And the number of shots also made the icing a little less effective because it takes a few minutes to get them all done and together and they just you know your skin becomes a little less numb as time passes. So the shots were a little uncomfortable those last several days, but nothing I couldn't handle I guess. So as I mentioned before, I did three injections and one pill tonight from like Friday to Thursday the 28th. And on Thursday, I went in for another blood test in sonogram and the nurse called me after the appointment to let me know that I was going to trigger that night, which means that instead of doing stimulation injections that night, I was going to do one of a drill shot to trigger the eggs for collection. I was told to do the OFA drill shot exactly at 7:30pm because my retrieval was going to be at 7:30am on Saturday. So you have a full day between the trigger shot and the retrieval. I will say the last few days before the retrieval so maybe Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I felt so bloated, your belly almost feels dense. I mean, it's like obviously your ovaries like bigger I guess but it just was uncomfortable. Other than that, I felt fine. I never really felt hormonal throughout this process. I know that that does happen for some people, but mostly I just felt You know, bloated. So as I mentioned before I had Friday off, I didn't have to go in for an appointment that day. But I was told that I was not supposed to have any food or drink, including water after midnight on Friday and that I was supposed to arrive an hour early. So 6:30am on Saturday to get ready. So what that means is you check in, you fill out your medical history, you get dressed in your dressing gown here, that sucks, and you get an IV hooked up. Honestly, the IV hurt more than doing the injections in my stomach. There's something about the wrist that's just more painful, I think because there's like no fat there, no muscle there, you're injecting right next to the bone. It just bruises really fast. And it it still feels tender to the touch an entire week later. So just a heads up on that. But after I was dressed and ready, I went into the procedure room where the doctor, anesthesiologist and nurse were getting the room ready. Everyone was very friendly and chatty, you could tell they do this all the time. Because like I said earlier on in the episode, I just felt like part of an assembly line. But I will say I was fairly uncomfortable because I was naked from the waist down and the doctor had me put my feet in the stirrups before they knocked me out. And the anesthesiologist was a guy and I am I've always had a female gynecologist. So you know, that was new to me. And I just I'm glad they put me to sleep right away. That made me more uncomfortable than anything else that morning. I just felt really exposed. I mean, that's the only way to describe it. But soon enough, I was out like a light. So by the time I woke up, I was back in my room and the nurse was getting me an apple juice. The procedure itself only took about 20 minutes, but they do keep you an additional 45 to see how you're like when you're weaned off the anesthesia and just like make sure you're good to go. Because of the anesthesia, you are required to have a ride that is not an Uber or a cab to pick you up after the procedure because it was so early that morning, I decided to were there and then my friend who had done this before at the same office came to get me which was so nice of her and I was glad because she knew where to go. So that was really easy. The only thing they told me really not to do was to not drink alcohol not to drive or you know operate any heavy machinery and just to take it easy that day, which I definitely did. I will say I felt extremely bloated and crampy the day of after the procedure and the next day they told me I should only take extra strength Tylenol and that definitely helped. But I took it like every four hours for that day and the next day, but by day three, I was good to go. Aside from the bruising on my stomach and wrist and the cramp Enos and bloating the day of and a few days after I really haven't noticed any other lasting issues from the retrieval itself. And right now I'm just waiting to get my period so I can start working out again. They told me the best way to recuperate was to eat salty food and hydrate which seems counterintuitive, but I followed their orders I got I got a lot of Gatorade and then I got some comfort foods of of your my old days in college and stuff. I got pasta Roni shells and cheese white cheddar, of course and ramen. So I enjoyed both of those on Saturday with two big things of Gatorade. And as I mentioned earlier on in the episode, my friend Mallory sent me crumbled cookies. So I enjoyed those on Saturday. And then on Sunday, my friend Haven brought over the homemade soup and flowers from her and a few of my other friends. So that was so nice. I also had a bunch of friends reach out throughout this whole process, not just afterwards, but as I was doing the shots to see how I was doing offering to help. And that was really nice to feel supported. Because it does kind of feel like an isolating experience doing this all by yourself. The Thursday after my egg retrieval, I had a follow up call with a doctor to go over my results. She said I had 11 days of stimulation and that they use the most aggressive course of action on me because of the age of my ovaries. And she actually told me, my ovaries don't look as young as I do, which made me laugh out loud on the phone with her, they did end up retrieving 12 eggs, but only nine were mature enough to freeze and I'm not gonna lie to you. I know nine is not nothing. And the doctor was actually very pleased with those results given my Hmh levels. But I'm a little disappointed I have to do this more than once. I was really hoping this would be a one and done thing and I could check it off my list and never think about it again. I have heard that this is so common and a lot of people have to do more than one round. And I also don't want to complain because I know so many women are going through fertility issues and you know people struggle even getting one or two eggs. So I don't want to complain but I would be lying if I said I was happy about having to do this again. The doctor told me nine is borderline especially when you consider that you typically lose about 20% of the eggs every step of the way during unfreezing fertilization and transfer and so the more eggs you have, obviously the better. She recommended I do it one more time. to try and get closer to 15 eggs as 12 to 15 are ideal to freeze for a high chance of having just one child, you also have to keep in mind that only about 50 to 60% of mature eggs they freeze will be genetically normal at my age. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not even 100% Sure I want kids and even if I do decide I want them, I think I'd be fine with just one. But I would hate to go through this entire process, spend all of this money and not even have confidence that these nine would be enough to make that one kid happen. So even though I'm disappointed in the results, I am grateful that I went through with it and did it when I did because if I waited another full year, the results might have been even lower. So needless to say, I am doing a second round, I am going to give myself a break over the holiday season so I can enjoy the festivities and not worry about it for the next month and a half or whatever. And then early in the new year. I'm going to try this again, out of curiosity and because I wanted to share as much information as possible with you guys. I also asked How soon after the first retrieval, you can start a second round. And the doctor said that the first period after your egg retrieval is kind of a wash. So after that, you can try again the following month with your second period post retrieval. Another thing I learned from my follow up call was the results of my genetic testing. And I was surprised to learn that I am a carrier for Fanconi Anemia, which is a rare inherited disease that can affect many parts of the body. According to Medline plus.gov. People with this condition may have bone marrow failure, physical abnormalities, organ defects and increased risk of certain cancers. According to some Google research I did after the call about one in every 191 people in the United States is a carrier of Fanconi Anemia, while the actual disease affects one in 160,000. Even when I try and get pregnant, it will be important for my partner to get tested since you have a one in four chance of having a child with this disease if two carriers procreate. So that is interesting news to me, you just sort of never think you're going to, you know, have any of these issues. But here we go, sharing everything, I also found out my blood type is a negative, which I didn't know before. So I guess that's some helpful information to know on to the costs, all in this first round cost me $11,450. I paid 4600 for the drugs 500 for the anesthesia, and 6350 for the doctor's visits, labs and procedure. And that amount of 6300 amount includes the procedure and one year of storage for freezing. And then after that first year, they send you an invoice and that amount is $800 a year. This goes without saying but costs will totally vary based on a number of factors, like how much medication you're prescribed through this process, what the specific doctors fees, procedure fees, that kind of thing vary based on where you're located, or just what your doctor charges. So keep that in mind what you pay may not be anywhere near what I pay, I would make a note to research how you can get reimbursed or if your insurance will cover part of it. My friend who did this, her company is going to pay for it and full reimburse her. I unfortunately am paying for this entirely out of pocket because I'm self employed and have a shitty insurance program, but it's expensive. So if you can figure out a way to get it covered in any way partially or entirely, I would definitely look into it. So unfortunately, I will be paying for a second round of this, which is another $10,000. And I say 10,000 because the doctor did tell me that Dallas fertility associates offers discounts for repeat cycles. And I called and they told me they'd give me $500 off both the office and lab costs. So in my first round, it was 30 627 50 for the office and lab costs respectively. But in round two, they would charge me 30 122 50. So not a huge debt, but I will take it and as my granddaddy used to say it's better than a kick in the pants. The doctor also mentioned that if you have any leftover medications like unopened cartridges, save those as you might be able to save on medication. Unfortunately, I'm totally out of med so I'll be starting from scratch in round two. But she did ask me to continue taking the CO Q 10 supplement until we're completely done with all of the rounds and freezing. I think that's all I have to say about it right now. I mean I'm sure I'm going to have more to say next year once I finish round two but at the very least I hope this breakdown in my experience is helpful to some of you or you know, maybe it answered some questions you had about it or you just want to be helpful to your friends going through it. I will be sharing more photos and videos On the Instagram page about my experience, and I've already created a highlight there with things that I've shared throughout the process, so definitely be sure to follow at beck and call podcast on Instagram for more. I also wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you so much to everyone who took time out of their day to message me positive words of encouragement and support throughout this process. It means so much to me. You guys are wonderful. And I'm so proud of this community. Y'all are the best. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
And because this episode is all about egg freezing, I figured I'd pick two questions on that topic for the beck and call segment this week. I just thought it would be a great way to bookend the topic and close it out until you know next year when I have more of an update. As a reminder, you can call 214-620-0473 to leave a voicemail and ask me anything. You can also submit a question to info at beck and call podcast.com Let's get into the first voicemail.
Hi there. This is Jen from Boston, longtime fan. And huge fan now of your podcast. Islams asked a question about your egg freezing retrieval process. I am currently in the process. Myself little little earlier on than you are though. In I wanted to know about how do you handle or manage talking about it with like your friends and your family. I have found that sometimes when the process comes up, people tend to feel a little judgmental. Just wanted to ask about that. And thanks so much. Good luck. Bye, bye.
Hi, Jen. Thanks for calling in. First of all, I'm a little mad for you that anyone would be judgmental about this process. You're taking your future into your own hands. And I think that's incredibly smart and brave and awesome. What might be happening though, is that people just don't get it, they don't understand. I don't want to compare it to what I do for a living. But oftentimes, when I talk about blogging or my job, people don't really fully understand it don't understand how I make money. And so sometimes when they, you know, are asking questions or seem a little judgmental, it's mostly because they're unfamiliar, it's not something they know that much about. And so it might just have to do with you educating them on what this process means for you and what you want it to do and why you're doing it. I just think a lot of times with topics like this or topics that people don't fully understand, sometimes their commentary can come off as snarky or judgmental simply because they don't get it like they've, they don't know anyone who's gone through it. And so they're just like, I don't, they don't understand why you would do it. So you might just have to explain it to them. Break it down for why you're doing it, why it's important to you to have these options in the future if and when you do want kids, but at the end of the day, this is your life. So even if the people around you don't fully understand you're making a very smart and brave decision that is going to benefit you long term. So you know, pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself and just do it. Alright, let's get into the next voicemail.
Hey, Merritt, this is Gillian, I am so excited for this podcast. I absolutely love listening to it every week. And I had a question about egg freezing. I am someone who has not gone to the egg freezing process and probably won't, but I have a lot of friends who are going through it. And I'm wondering what is a great way to support somebody while they're going through this journey. Because I just don't know how and I would love some advice on it. Thanks so much love the pod face.
Hi, Gillian, thank you so much for calling and for the kind words about the podcast glad you are enjoying it happy to help. So earlier on in the episode, I shared a couple of things that my friends did. Obviously, throughout the process, I had many friends reached out just texting me to see how it was going. I had several friends that live close by offer to help me with the shots which was so generous, even though I ended up doing it by myself. It was so nice to them to offer because a lot of times when people are going through IVF and this kind of stuff, they have a partner who's helping them with this. So even offering that was really really kind I thought and then certainly afterwards, my friends who brought over soups sent me flowers sent me cookies, that was really really wonderful as well. So I think just showing that you are there to support them with a text maybe call them like my friend who did this. She also offered to get on a FaceTime with me while I was doing my shots because she had just done this offering any kind of helping hand while the processes going on would be great. And then of course afterwards offering to bring them food or whatever because you know that first day you're sort of down for the count. You have to hang around your house all day and after the after the procedure you're sort of crampy and not feeling your best You know, maybe again swing by say hi to your friend bring or something you could also offer to give them a ride home after the procedure. I mean, there's so many little things you could do like that that would really be meaningful to your friends. I think anything small or big would be appreciated, but just letting them know that you're there if they need, you know, assistance or just want to talk about it or complain about it or whatever. Alright guys, that's it for this week's episode. I really hope you enjoyed it. Please be sure to rate review, subscribe and share it would mean so much to me. And be sure to follow along at beck and call podcast on Instagram and then if you're looking for more fashion content, you can follow me at Merritt Beck on Instagram. I hope y'all have a great week and I will catch you next time. Bye!
LOVE THIS EPISODE? WE’D LOVE IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE US A REVIEW