News Du Jour · Sugarfree Media

Earthside: Brit's Story

·56 min·3 clips

The surgeon warns he may have to remove both fallopian tubes before the operation begins.

1. News Du Jour follows Brit Bowles’s infertility story, from an unexpected pregnancy at 18 to IVF in her 30s. 2. Annie Bowles hosts the conversation, and Brit Bowles, a hairdresser and mother of Peyton, explains why fertility treatment became part of her family plan. 3. The episode asks what happens when a couple does “everything right” and still cannot figure out why pregnancy is not happening. 4. Brit says she and her husband started timing cycles before their 2019 marriage and tracked ovulation closely. 5. After about six to eight months, her doctor told her that pregnancy often takes a year and ordered semen testing for Charles. 6. Charles’s first semen analysis came back at 19 million, slightly below the 20 million target Brit cites. 7. A urologist in the city put Charles on Clomid, which Brit says she did not know men could take. 8. At OU, Charles’s numbers rose to 43 million with good motility and morphology, but the couple still had no pregnancy. 9. Brit then went through two medicated IUIs, and she says the first one was nearly canceled when the sperm count dropped to 200,000. 10. The second IUI also failed, and she notes that each procedure cost about $900 before moving to IVF. 11. During the first IVF cycle, a mid-cycle ultrasound led Dr. Hansen to suspect hydrosalpinx, which he said could send toxic fluid from the fallopian tubes into the uterus. 12. Brit had skipped the HSG earlier because it would have cost another $500 out of pocket. 13. Her first IVF retrieval produced 12 eggs, eight mature eggs, four fertilized embryos, and one viable embryo. 14. The first HSG later showed her tubes were “the size of bratwurst,” and the doctor told her they were definitely blocked. 15. Surgery revealed scar tissue covering everything and one fallopian tube wrapped around her left ovary. 16. Brit says the surgeon removed both tubes and preserved the ovary because she wanted more children. 17. She describes feeling angry at her body and says the loss of her reproductive organs did not fully hit her until months later. 18. Brit says the doctors and nurses at CCRM in Colorado felt different because they listened, asked detailed family-history questions, and gave her supplements and a new Clomid plan for Charles. 19. The episode has a candid, interview-style rhythm, with Brit switching between numbers, practical decisions, and emotional reflection. 20. People dealing with infertility, IVF, or blocked tubes will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting light relationship talk may skip it.

As heard by us

A direct fertility story that makes the medical process feel human, costly, and immediate.

Annie Bowles gives a direct account of fertility and motherhood that begins with an unexpected pregnancy at 18 and moves through the way family life kept shifting after that, including a split from her first partner and a fast moving relationship with her husband.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A personal fertility road map with the numbers, the setbacks, and the hard-won advice.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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