LadyGang - From Loss to Miracles QUICKIE: Real Fertility Stories from our Ladies

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

Fertility can feel like magic… until it doesn’t. In this raw and emotional LadyGang Quickie—presented by Natural Cycles—we’re turning the mic over to our own community for the first time ever. From devastating loss and IVF struggles to surprise pregnancies and miracle babies, three LadyGang members share the stories no one talks about—the heartbreak, the frustration, the advocacy, and ultimately, the hope. Plus, we get into why so many women don’t actually understand their fertility, how tracking your cycle can change everything, and why having real data (hello, Natural Cycles) can help you feel more in control of your body. If you’re trying, struggling, or just want to feel less alone—this episode is for you. 💛  Check out our amazing sponsors!!LadyGang is brought to you by Natural Cycles! Take control of your cycle and fertility! Get 15% off your yearly subscription to the NC° app plus a free NC° Band at https://naturalcycles.app/lady // Natural Cycles is for 18+ and does not protect against STIs. Always read and follow the instructions for use Clean Simple Eats: Shop the best tasting protein powders at CleanSimpleEats.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mornings without coffee, road trips without snacks, movies without popcorn. Without our favorite foods, we'd miss out on all our favorite moments. Learn more at canadasfoodsystem.ca. It's time for a quickie. Podcast One presents The Lady Gang, The Hollywood Girl Posse. With Lady Gang Quickie, here's Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Let's make this quick. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Lady Gay Quickie. I'm back here with Jack and Kelty.

And today we're talking about something that someone somehow feels both terrifying and magical, fertility. Because depending on the day of the week, you're either like, I want a baby immediately. Or if I get pregnant right now, I will move to another country. And most of us honestly don't know when we're actually fertile. This is where Natural Cycles app comes in because it uses your biomarker data to give you a daily fertility status and predicted fertile window. So, you know, when you're more or less likely to get pregnant, honestly feels like information we should all have before we panic text our friends. Kelty, we also have some special guests today. Yeah. So we talk about literally our Facebook group is at this point, people trying to

figure out if their dress is too white to wear to a wedding. People and then women like trying to figure out their fertility. And we took a look at this year and we're like, what do we want to do? And we really said we want to service like these girls, you know, and I think what's so powerful about Lady Gang is that we've learned we're dum-dums. Speak for yourself. Well, we're 50% Dumb Dumbs. But I think our community has learned more from the other girls in the community than we ever have from like an expert or someone coming on. And so we thought it would be so cool to get girls, ladies, women, powerful bitches to come on and share their fertility stories, because when we share, we feel less alone. So we want to welcome three Lady Gang members.

This is the first time we've ever done this on the podcast. Rachel, Jessica, and Lauren. Hello. Welcome. Now, some of you have been speaking off camera to the babies, so I know that the Fertility Journal journey was okay, but I want to start with Lauren. Lauren, talk to me about where you were and the journey that you went on. I know it was long. Okay, I'll try to make it as brief as possible because it is really a long story, but my husband and I had been married about 10 years, and then we weren't trying, but we weren't

not trying, and then we were kind of like, okay, we're ready. but so then we'd obviously realized there's probably an issue so we went to a fertility doctor had all the testing done and in fact there was a problem they said we would have to do IVF so we went ahead and did IVF we only got two embryos which I know some people get a lot we only had two so and then we transferred the first one it didn't take we transferred the second one it did take and I was pregnant we had our like 20 week we made it to 20 weeks we had the ultrasound It was a little girl. She was healthy. And then at 21 weeks, my water broke. And like the goal is, was to get to 22 weeks because that's when like viability is considered.

And I was in the hospital on like strict bed rest. God bless my husband because he had to like put me under a bedpan, do all the things. And then at 21 weeks and five days, so just two days short of 21 weeks, I did go into labor and I delivered my daughter. And because she hadn't reached 22 weeks, they wouldn't do any life-saving like measures or whatnot. And she lived for an hour and then she passed away. And then I started hemorrhaging. So I had to be rushed to surgery after that. So that was our first loss. And then we decided to go forward with our second, I guess that was our second embryo, but then we decided to do another IVF cycle. And then when we were doing that IVF cycle, we had just started the stimulation and they were like, not seeing any

results like for me producing the eggs or whatnot. So the doctor was like, well, I don't know, we should probably stop and do some more testing. So we did do testing. And then they found out I had what's called, I guess, diminished ovarian reserve. So I had like not a lot of eggs. And what I did have in it, just they weren't super healthy. They said, he's like, well, we can go ahead and do the stimulation if you want, but we don't really know what will happen or you can try looking into egg donation. So I did do look, started looking into egg donation. And then my sister said, hey, I'll donate eggs. So my sister donated her eggs for me. So we used her eggs, my husband's sperm, and we got quite a few good embryos from that. And then we transferred

the first one and I got pregnant with another little girl. And then at 17 weeks, I was having scans done and they discovered that my cervix was shortening again. So they had to put in an emergency surplus at that time, kind of like to sew the cervix up. And so I had that done. And then at 20 weeks, we had an ultrasound and we found out our daughter had a heart defect as well. and in order for her to have the surgery post delivery she would have to be I think it was like four to five pounds I don't really remember but then I was being monitored at this point and I was put in the hospital at 22 weeks and then at 26 weeks I ended up going into labor and because I had that stitch in my cervix like tore open got torn and I ended up delivering my

daughter she we found out there was other birth defects and she ended up passing away when she was three days old and then um the whole grief stuff that's a whole nother episode but so then after we had her I the doctors they couldn't rule out genetic issues only because there was a few other birth defects on top of the heart stuff so we did genetic testing of our all of our embryos and I think we had five or six that were all healthy and in the meantime I started researching like the cervix issue I was having. And I guess it's only like happens into 1% of women have like a shortened or insufficient, I guess it's called cervix. Of course it's called insufficient. Go for yourself. Yeah. And so I started looking at the people who named it. But I've heard it called

other things, but yeah, it's like, and I always tell people like that was a 1% statistic. I was like, I'm always on the 1%. I always tell people that. But so I started researching like things to have it. And I found there was a surgery in an abdominal cerclage. So I started in, it's where they essentially like sew your cervix up so like nothing can get out essentially. And it's done pre-pregnancy. So I found out about the surgery, but then I had to find a doctor. The first doctor was like, no, you have to have three losses before we'll do the surgery. And I was like, I'm not doing this again. So I kept finding, and then I found a doctor that would do it. And ironically, they're not an OB.

They're not a gynecologist. He's actually a cancer surgeon that specializes in robotics. And so he did my surgery. It was successful. I then went and got pregnant with my son. And I had a perfect pregnancy. I had a scheduled C-section at 37 weeks. He's now six years old.

And then I had my daughter. I got, then a year and a half later, I got pregnant with my daughter through IVF as well. And then we had the same thing, a perfect pregnancy. I scheduled a C-section. She decided she was on her own timeline because unrelated to my cervix, I ended up getting severe, severe preeclampsia at 34 weeks. And so I ended up having an emergency C-section with her, but now she's thriving at four. So we're finally at the end of that whole journey and that's it in a nutshell, I guess. Oh my gosh, Lauren. Well, first of all, thank you so much for sharing that story and I'm so sorry that is truly a living nightmare yeah I'm so happy

that you have your happy ending yeah but this is I'm so sorry that is really quite it's kind of just the things you don't think about you think it's just the matter of getting pregnant but it's not just the getting pregnant it's like the whole like staying pregnant and like making it through the complications of it. And how frustrating that you had to be the one to research what you needed and find the person to give it to you. It's just really, that's also quite frustrating. Yes. Yeah. What was your husband like? Yeah, good question. I mean, he's been all supportive through all of it, obviously. We were high school sweethearts, so it's been a long, we grew up together essentially, but

it's been quite the journey. That's what I would say losing babies or children or whatever. If you could make it through that, you can probably make it through anything. That is the truth. Wow. Incredible. Thank you for sharing that. You're so strong. Oh my God. Amazing. Okay. I want to come back to all this, but Rachel, I would love to hear your story. yeah hi um okay so my husband and I got married in 2020 and since and we've been together for 15 years at that point so leading up to the wedding since like the world was closed we decided to start trying and just like not not try and you know you know what I mean and I didn't know anything about it I didn't know about like the test strips I didn't know about like any of the you know the

timing of the cycles all the things so we were doing that and then I got so overwhelmed after a year and a half of trying and nothing happening I was like we're done like this is I can't do this right now um and I was 31 at the time when I stopped when we stopped but we like continued to not use protection but be like hey if the universe wants this to happen it's gonna happen um so then like a year and a half later we had a miscarriage I had a positive pregnancy test in about a month later a lot so very early on um which prompted us to be like okay we're ready for this. Let's go. And after a year of trying, nothing clicked. And so my husband actually went and got checked first. What a guy. Which I think is like kind of rare. Yes. But we, and like

you would never know by looking at him because he's like a guy, you know, but he had low testosterone. out so they actually put him on clomid which is what they give women to ovulate but they put him on clomid and so then we had to wait at least three months because uh semen sperm recirculated like every three months 90 days or whatever is the lifespan so what's what you do now affects 90 days in the future um for that which the more you know i guess and then it still wasn't taking did all the tracking, all the things. Um, and so then I went into a specialist and all my levels were normal. Everything seemed totally fine. Um, and so they're like, well, we could, I've never had any history with anything crazy with my periods or anything like that. Um, but they're

like, well, we can do what my, uh, my clinic has a fem view is what it's called. It's the same as like an HSG, um, and where they basically blow out your tubes, check to see if your tubes are clogged or whatever um to see if you have endometriosis or whatever it may be and one of my tubes was responding the other was not which could mean a lot of things my doctor phrased it you could have endometriosis or you could uh have been stressed intense and the only way to know is surgery oh uh which like i was like cool cool cool this is great you couldn't have told me like in the moment to relax like connect to your breath or something but whatever you couldn't have helped And also, that for saying it's stress.

Like, go f*** yourself. Well, and it is tense. It's got, like, a probe up you, you know? And it's like, okay, cool. But if you told me, like, I'm a fitness instructor, like, my... During the time. During the procedure. During the time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see. Okay. I thought they meant, like, you were stressed in your life, and so it was really... And it probably did, too. But... Just take a few deep breaths. Just chill out.

Well, but had they told me, like, hey, we're not, like, having a response on this side. like maybe if you like I know it's easier said than done to relax and most people would be pissed if you said relax but like if they'd freeze it you know I would maybe like anyway my drive home from that sobbing because they're like okay surgery um and so I had to like my whole right side of my body seized up which was the tube that wasn't responding I had to pull over on the freeway um and like wait 15 minutes to be able to drive again so if anyone has this procedure make sure your partner takes you just think oh gosh and uh so then my husband and I had a game plan he was gonna have the surgery because there was a surgery that was offered to him for testosterone

and he has uh a varicocele which is like a varicose vein where the everything comes from and I was gonna have my surgery so our game plan was to have surgery over the summer and start trying in the fall um and start with IUI because that was what my doctor said was my option and so we put a deposit on a puppy planned a surgery five days after we put the deposit on the puppy I had a positive pregnancy test my daughter's now 15 months old uh everything as far as when I got pregnant went like swimmingly she's healthy and happy and I had a c-section because she was a little big but other than that like ultimately it ended up a positive thing but I just think you need to be your own advocate for things and not necessarily listen to the man, right?

Wait, so did you guys have the surgeries or did it happen before the surgery? Nope. That is crazy. So this procedure can potentially flush out your tubes if you do have something, which allows things to work a little bit better. So I don't know if I, and we don't know which is the answer, right? is it his issue? Is it my issue? Yeah. Um, we're going to start trying hopefully for baby number two in the fall. And I don't know what that's going to look like. And if we're going to give ourselves a year and if it doesn't happen, we're happy with our daughter. Um, but it's just,

it's kind of an unknown and, or maybe the puppy did it. I don't, I don't know. Maybe. I think so. You know what? Puppy magic. Yeah. Yeah. Puppy magic. As a childless wonder, I vote for the I vote puppy. Yeah. Yeah. I think if you're in it also took my mind off of it. Like, yeah, you know, I stopped thinking I stopped stressing about it. Like, right before I had my positive pregnancy test. I like had a weekend with the girls in New York City and Oh, good. I had oysters and sushi and martinis and came home. That'll do it. That was the last hurrah. Oh, my God. Oh, that's so awesome. Mornings without coffee.

Road trips without snacks. Movies without popcorn. Without our favorite foods, we'd miss out on all our favorite moments. Learn more at canadasfoodsystem.ca. The Lady Gang. One question for Rachel. The procedure, just because I'm like so fascinated, is it, do they go in vaginally? Are you awake?

Vaginally, yeah. So it's like, yeah, they put a probe up. and mine specifically so the fem view that my clinic offers does ink and air but an hsg which is another common is radiation it's a radiology appointment um but it just and they can like see your tubes and if they're reacting or not to and are you aware and that that can predict i was awake yeah oh yeah that's why i was saying tell me to breathe my guy yeah oh yeah wait lauren Lauren was your procedure under anesthesia for the stitching up of well I had the one yeah yes they were you were awake for both no I was completely under because they were like they

opened up my well the first one I had when I was pregnant the one I had the stitch I had when I was pregnant I can't remember I think I was I don't remember I think a lot of I've put a lot of it Yeah. Like I think I might've been like partially awake and like a twilight with that one. But then when I had the abdominal one, like they like cut your stomach, like it's, they're cutting into your stomach. So incisions. Um, and I was out for that. Wow. Oh my gosh. The things we go through and all our husbands really have to do is like take pills and jerk off. Okay. Jessica, take it away. Yeah. I didn't hate men as much as, you know, I did when I was pregnant. Cause I'm like, you have not you don't have to do anything because then we give birth and then we have to feed them

like what's rude yeah it's not cool but you know what can we do but hi i'm me hi i'm a little jittery i'm like i'm so excited to be here thank you so much and thank you to lord and rachel for sharing your story it it takes a lot especially when you go through a loss to kind of talk about it again um so i think that's a beautiful thing that you guys are having us here to do that thanks for being here thank you um so my husband and I actually um started dating in our 30s we met on tinder and we were together for eight years and um I found out I was pregnant and um it was funny because I went into the OB just because I had a weird feeling like I wasn't like I had cramping and it ended up being an ovarian cyst that ruptured so it had nothing

to do with being pregnant. And she was like, weren't you in a lot of pain? And I was like, not really. And she's like, girl, your pain, like your pain threshold is like a cramp, you know? So I ended up like the following week, I'm like, I haven't had a period yet. So I took a test, it was positive. And then they scheduled me for blood work. It's the HCG test to see if your levels are good. And you have to go every 72 hours and they're supposed to double each time and they weren't. So it ended up being an ectopic pregnancy. And I had to take the, it's an MTX shot to dissolve the pregnancy to make sure the cells stop growing. So it's a form of chemo essentially. So I even asked the nurse, I'm like, is there a chance I'm going to get

really sick? Because my understanding is with chemo, your immune system isn't as strong. So she's like yeah you're definitely probably going to get something but just make sure you take your vitamins so I mean it was we ended up losing that baby um which was devastating um but and then my cat just randomly died the next morning so I was just like not mentally there so I mean and he was only four ish so but my aunt's friend was like he went to heaven to be with a baby so I'm like goodness it actually kind of made me feel better but I was 38 at the time so I was like okay I need to make sure that if we're going to do this we need to make sure we're doing it right you know so it takes time too after you miscarry before your body regulates itself like about three months

so after that I scheduled an appointment with a fertility specialist and she said I was 39 at this time she's like with your age and the fact that you guys have been together for eight years and your first pregnancy was not successful you're gonna have to have intervention um so and she's like even with intervention it's not a guarantee so and it's expensive you know what I mean what IVF is like 20 grand and it's not covered I mean such bullshit it is bullshit because it's like well if this was a guy issue not only would it be covered but you would probably be able to get out of work for like six months you know so I literally just I had this I felt like God told me I've got you like keep doing what you're doing so I continued working

out I continued like my friend Jess she was like let's start doing 5-10Ks I'm like okay you know so next thing you know I was out to lunch with her and another friend and um I was like I feel weird and I have the flap and I was like I checked it I thought it said expect your period and I was like okay well that makes sense well then I got home and I checked it again it said take a pregnancy test I'm like how did I read that wrong and I did and I was pregnant so I had to go through the blood work again and I was like oh my gosh it's almost Thanksgiving so the last time when we lost our first baby it was Christmas time so now it's Thanksgiving and I'm like I'm just not meant to enjoy the holidays if this doesn't go well

well that Monday we got the numbers back and it was like 3,000 and my numbers before never got over a thousand and now my daughter's two and a half so oh we want to try for another I get nervous about it because um I have preeclampsia with Sophia I still have high blood pressure um my OB gave me the go-ahead it's just with I'm 43 now and I'm just like it's nerve-wracking but it's also I've always been told you know it's you regret the kids that you don't have but you'll never regret the kids that you do and it's something that I'm like you know we really want to try and so I'm hoping that and the best thing about they call it a geriatric pregnancy obviously because why not call it something different but yeah they pay more attention to

you yeah I know right but they advance to a certain age is what my doctor says that's even worse it's truly even worse just like miracle miracle mama I mean hello yes we need a positive spin yes like so yeah I want to ask you guys just to sum up you know these stories I think first of all you're so brave thank you for sharing with us but if there was one thing you could say to a lady ganger that is in our group that is struggling right now that is at some various point in this journey or maybe she's a jack where she's like literally doing her family planning right now what would each of you say to that girl rachel start with you i have two things um because i didn't learn that um like in my 30s my like on my most fertile days my highest chance

was like 30 of getting pregnant and i don't think people realize that that's like part of the deal is like as you age your your fertility goes down just in general and so like even though it's like your best day it's still only 30 out of 100 shots so just keep that in mind um but also advocate for yourself i i like to say like you're hiring your doctors so if they're not telling you what you want find another doctor or they're not like if they say try for a year come to us no no i'll find someone who will allow me to do what i love that that's such good advice that's such good advice? I mean, obviously advocating is, has saved my life in more ways than one at more times. But I would also say that someone in the early stages of their fertility journey, it's, this part of

the journey is such a small little blip on the, like the long, in the long run way. Because it's all about like, even from the early stages of the fertility, it's all the, it's all the road of parenthood whether no matter how you get there in the end but like it's all such a small thing so you have to really enjoy and kind of like take in all the experiences because I know like like Becca you have a four-year-old now too which I have a four-year-old and that's an age but um well three-year-olds are really an age but um it's true it's so true um but you forget about the bad things because it's you're in the moment but you have to even when the bad things are happening you have to like kind of be optimistic and like because it there is light at the end of

the tunnel and like be present don't think about the bad things that happened in the past like be present with where you are and know that it's the journey to parenthood you're gonna get there it's just some people have it easier but then they have it harder with the kids it's like it's all the parenthood journey the fertility is just the beginning and it's such a small little piece in the bigger picture and so I think keeping in mind the big picture is what's important because you will get there whether it's through adoption or whatever in the end you will get there just as long as you stay on your path I love that you're so it's so true like being present in parenting it really doesn't allow you to look back so often like it's yeah you kind of not

forget but you um and also like the gratitude that I have for having this little miracle is so not to say people don't feel this way they get pregnant naturally and have an easier road but like I look at him every day and I think thank God I made the choices I made and thank God for the things that happened before you because you're here yeah absolutely when they do bad things it doesn't seem so big either because you're like well at least at least they're here, even if they're climbing on the counters and jumping off of them, like at least you're here to do it. You're like, bitch, I had my cervix sewn up. Try me. Jessica, what's yours? I mean, I think to trust your team and have support because I had to have an emergency

C-section, but I was never scared ever. I loved my doctor. I loved her so much. She was amazing. I felt I never felt scared. And my husband was, was an amazing and still is an amazing support system. And I think that's crucial, whether it be your husband, your partner, your family, your friends, make sure you have that support, because you're going to need it. And don't, it's hard to say, like, don't be afraid, especially when you're a first time mom, because when you're going through all of it, you are going to be afraid. But women are incredible beings, because all that you go through, once you see that child, you don't remember any of it. Like, I don't remember. I just I was like, I had the most perfect pregnancy, you know,

it was amazing. I'm like, wait, I lost a lot of weight my first trimester, because I couldn't keep anything in. But you don't remember it, you know, so just have a good support system and know you know yeah exactly right but yeah it's just have a good support system and just know that you'll get through it and jump in the group the lady game group like the facebook group has helped me through so many things that i i just love it in there so they're awesome yeah yeah ladies listen you're amazing thank you this is i think this has been a really good uh little what do we experiment it's been really fun to meet you guys and actually talk to you i'm like oh there's like people out there i love your bravery we love your bravery we love your families congratulations and

i hope i know that you've done good work and inspired a lot of girls today so on that note we will we weren't here for a long time we're here for a baby time a fertile time lady gang is hosted and produced by kelty knight becca tobin and jack vanek with social media support from Kali Carrera, audio and video editing from Jared Monaco, and additional support from Steve Delameter and Podcast One.