Infertility: A Guided Listening Path

A curated podcast guide for every stage of the infertility journey

Infertility is not a single experience — and neither is the support people need.

This page brings together a curated listening guide from the Perinatal & Reproductive Perspectives podcast, offering clinical insight, lived experience, and space for grief, uncertainty, and meaning-making.

These conversations are designed to orient, normalize, and reduce isolation — not to promise outcomes, assign blame, or prescribe a path forward.

Who This Guide Is For

This listening guide may be helpful if you are:

  • Purple lotus flower logo on a lavender circular background.

    Trying to conceive or considering fertility evaluation

  • Minimalist purple lotus flower logo on a light purple circular background.

    Actively navigating fertility treatment (IUI, IVF, or related care)

  • A purple lotus flower symbol with a person meditating in the center, on a light purple circular background.

    Pregnant after infertility or pregnancy loss

  • Ending or stepping away from fertility treatment

    Ending or stepping away from fertility treatment

  • Purple lotus flower logo with a stylized human figure in the center, on a light purple circular background.

    Living childless after infertility

  • Supporting a partner, family member, or close friend through infertility

  • A clinician or provider seeking patient-centered context beyond clinical outcomes

You do not need to listen to every episode — and you may find that different sections feel supportive at different times.

How to Use This Guide

The embedded playlist below displays episodes in release order.

Because infertility is not linear — and some conversations may feel more emotionally intense than others — we encourage listening with choice and intention, rather than straight through.

You are welcome to:

✴︎ Pause or skip episodes

✴︎ Return to different sections over time

✴︎ Avoid stories that don’t feel supportive right now

This guide exists to offer choice, not direction.

Recommended Listening Order

  • Start Here: Understanding Infertility & Treatment Decisions

    For listeners who are early in the process, actively trying to conceive, or navigating fertility care.

    These episodes focus on medical context, treatment options, and decision-making, while acknowledging uncertainty and emotional impact — without promising outcomes.

    Episode 8 — The Basics of Infertility
    Dr. Amy Balete
    A foundational overview of infertility, miscarriage, treatment pathways, and the emotional realities individuals and couples face — grounded in both clinical expertise and lived experience.

    Episode 26 — Decoding Fertility
    Dr. Lucy Chen
    A reproductive endocrinologist explains infertility diagnoses, IVF and IUI options, testing, and how to interpret probabilities without false reassurance.

    Episode 15 — Reproductive Acupuncture: Calming the Nervous System to Support Fertility
    Nicole Lange
    A clinician-led conversation on integrative fertility care, patient experience, and supporting the nervous system during treatment.

    Episode 23 — Functional Nutrition for Fertility, Pregnancy & Beyond
    Brandy Cummings
    Explores nutrition, environmental factors, and whole-body health as part of fertility care — without framing food or supplements as a cure.

  • Continue With: IVF, Loss, and Pregnancy After Infertility

    For listeners navigating IVF, pregnancy after loss, or complex reproductive journeys that include grief alongside hope.

    Episodes 28–29 — Motherhood, My Way (Parts 1 & 2)
    Cheri Bergeron
    A long IVF journey involving egg donation, pregnancy loss, medical termination, legal complexity, and eventual parenthood — with deep reflection on fear, agency, and meaning-making.

    Note: These episodes include discussions of pregnancy and parenthood following infertility.
    If you have ended fertility treatment, you may prefer the next section.

  • When Fertility Treatment Didn’t Lead to Parenthood

    For listeners who have ended treatment, are considering stopping, or are living childless after infertility.

    These episodes do not offer next steps or alternative paths.
    They center grief, identity, relationships, and life after infertility — without resolution narratives.

    Episodes 18–19 — When Motherhood Doesn’t Come: The Other Side of the Story (Parts 1 & 2)
    Debra Dove
    Recurrent pregnancy loss, infertility, and the long arc of rebuilding identity and purpose without becoming a parent.

    Episode 25 — After the Negative Test: So Now What?
    Lana Manikowski
    A seven-year infertility journey ending without parenthood, exploring shame, isolation, workplace bias, and redefining a meaningful life.

    Episode 14 — Oophorectomy, PMDD, and Hormone Replacement Therapy
    Dana Raine
    Infertility, surgical menopause, grief, and bodily autonomy — including the emotional complexity of choosing health over continued fertility pursuit.

Listen: Infertility Podcast Playlist

Episodes appear in release order.

Use the sections above to guide your listening choices.

Why This Matters

Infertility is often experienced in silence.

Many conversations center success stories or medical endpoints, leaving little space for uncertainty, loss, or childlessness. This guide exists to broaden the narrative — and to make room for experiences that are real, common, and too often unspoken.

No one should have to navigate infertility alone or feel that their story only matters if it ends a certain way.

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A Gentle Reminder

These episodes are not medical advice.

If infertility, loss, or treatment decisions feel overwhelming, support from a therapist or provider who specializes in reproductive or perinatal mental health can be an important part of care.

Move slowly - if that feels right.

Stop listening - if that’s what you need.

Come back later - if and when you’re ready.