Big Fat Negative: TTC, fertility, infertility and IVF

Cathy Adams is the travel news features editor for The Times and Sunday Times -- and also a person who has spent years trying to conceive her second child. Now, she's at a crossroads: give up IVF and reconcile herself to having one child, or keep adding to the £40,000 it's already cost her? Secondary infertility has never felt so difficult. Meanwhile, Emma provides an update on her endometriosis story, as Ed Coats, medical director at The Evewell West London, addresses the treatment options for endometriosis patients who are trying to conceive. Is IVF the only answer? You can find out more about the baby loss and miscarriage charity Gabby mentions, Chasing Rainbows, at https://www.chasingrainbowscharity.com/. You can find Hannah Vaughan-Jones' Substack at https://hannahvaughanjones.substack.com/.--Hi, we're Emma and Gabby from BFN, the UK's biggest podcast about infertility and IVF. We're on our eighth series now, but at the beginning we shared our own IVF journeys. If you'd like to hear about them, go back to the first series of the podcast. You'll get to know us better that way, too.

This week we're joined by Tristan Taylor, the founder of Mandrology, who is biohacking his way to sperm health. He explains why sperm quality is a biomarker of health, in the same way that heart rate and blood pressure is -- and what you can do to improve it.Meanwhile, Emma Whitney, director of embryology and genetics at The Evewell, explains why not all add-ons are made equal -- and why timelapse embryo imaging is one of the good ones.--Hi, we're Emma and Gabby from BFN, the UK's biggest podcast about infertility and IVF. We're on our eighth series now, but at the beginning we shared our own IVF journeys. If you'd like to hear about them, go back to the first series of the podcast. You'll get to know us better that way, too.

Oonagh Pickering is one of the research nurses at Tommy's whose study on graduated miscarriage care has already changed how the Scottish NHS approaches care after pregnancy losses -- and now they want England to make a change, too. Oonagh joins us to talk about how offering extra care following first and second miscarriages, including progesterone for threatened miscarriages, extra scans and mental health care, could help to prevent up to 10,000 miscarriages a year in the UK. Meanwhile, Ed Coats, medical director at The Evewell, West London, joins us to talk about rest after embryo transfers -- do you need to?--Hi, we're Emma and Gabby from BFN, the UK's biggest podcast about infertility and IVF. We're on our eighth series now, but at the beginning we shared our own IVF journeys. If you'd like to hear about them, go back to the first series of the podcast. You'll get to know us better that way, too.

The sourdough baker Martha de Lacey joins us this week: she has run the full gamut of infertility experiences, from going solo to recurrent miscarriage to secondary infertility. "It's so difficult when you give yourself this story of why things happened and the meaning behind it," she says. "Actually it's just nonsense. It's all just luck."Emma Whitney from The Evewell also joins us to explain why some embryos survive and others don't.

She's a performer, musician and wickedly funny creator: Sheyi Martins-Allen joins us to talk about her experience of secondary infertility, and how her faith played into it. We also hear her gorgeous song, Stronger, which you can find on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/track/4cqnVteEnJmuttnOJ6wXFk?si=ar63ecyLTgyKOdTxuGx2Vw&nd=1&dlsi=2bdd768cd3fd4dc5 (or search for 'Sheyi').Mr Ed Coats, medical director of The Evewell, West London, joins us to explain whether IVF can help with recurrent miscarriage.

SPECIAL EPISODE SPONSORED BY WILD NUTRITION.Gabby and Emma swanned off to London last week to attend the launch of a new report by Wild Nutrition called The Fertility Disconnect, which shows that 79% of people want more children than they have. The BFN girls were joined by Julianne Boutaleb, a perinatal psychologist; Gail Madelena, a nutritional therapist at Wild Nutrition, Ian Stones, the  director and co founder of Testhim and Izzy Judd, an author, podcaster and musician, to discuss what we're getting wrong about fertility -- including education, lifestyle, and asking whether it's a hidden health crisis.You can download your own copy of the Fertility Disconnect report, and book a session with a Wild Nutrition nutritional therapist, at https://www.wildnutrition.com/pages/the-fertility-disconnect.See you tomorrow!

The comedian Kate-Lois Elliott joins us today to talk about how she's balancing the demands of a comedy career with TTC and infertility - and what the books don't tell you about how it affects your ambition.Meanwhile, The Evewell's Emma Whitney explains whether it's possible to rejuvenate older eggs.Swears throughout.

Jacky Maughan had been an international DJ before he and his wife, Eleanor, started trying for a baby. "His lifestyle was party, party, drinking, poor food choices... everything you shouldn't be doing when you're trying to conceive," says Eleanor. When they had trouble conceiving, they took a radical approach to finding out what was wrong, paying for add-ons and tests that weren't available on the NHS. Now they're launching Aloomah, a support platform for people going through infertility. Check it out at https://www.aloomah.com/.