41 episodes listed below
From a first clinic visit to raising a donor-conceived child
Lori Metz talks about fertility with people who work in the field. A fertility doctor explains first clinic visits, a registered dietitian covers food and weight, and social workers discuss clinic anxiety and parenting. Donor conception comes up from two sides: arranging a known donor, and raising a child conceived with donor help.
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'Lori Metz talks LIFE: Love, Insight, Fertility, Experience' is a conversation show about trying to conceive and the family questions that come once a child arrives. Lori Metz talks with one guest at a time. She says she has known some of them for a long while, and the talk is relaxed and familiar. The practical episodes work like an orientation for someone new to fertility care. Dr. Arielle Bayer of CCRM New York explains what a person should know when first walking into a clinic, from ovulation disorders to male-factor fertility. When the diagnosis is unexplained infertility, she keeps investigating: turn over every stone, look again with fresh eyes. Rena Gower, Director of Social Work at RMA of New York, is asked for the basics of the clinic experience itself: what to expect, how to cope, how to talk to the doctors. They settle on the word daunting. They also note that many people end up changing clinics. Registered dietitian Dara Godfrey, from RMA, comes back for a second session on how food affects fertility. That session points out that eating too little can matter as much as excess weight. Her method is gradual. She starts from current habits, looks at restaurant menus with the client and skips the full meal plan. Baby steps, in her words. Donor conception takes the show beyond the clinic. Justine Witzke, PhD, MPH, works with known donors, and she raises the questions people tend to skip at the start. How does a future partner fit in? What if the donor later has children of their own, who would be half siblings? Nobody will know the answers right away, she says, but the scenarios are worth thinking through. In 'More Than DNA', Brittany Kelly, an LCSW and the parent of a double donor-conceived child, talks about parenting. The conversation turns to donor-conceived people who learned of their origins late, and to parents who were once told to keep it quiet. They separate what belongs to the parent's story from what belongs to the child's. As one of them puts it, everybody takes their own path to the same place. Most conversations end the same way, with the guest's contact details and an invitation from Lori Metz to send questions or comments.
Made for: Suits a listener who is starting fertility treatment and wants plain explanations of clinics, diagnosis and nutrition. Also suits someone considering a known donor or raising a donor-conceived child.
What sets it apart: The guests include a fertility doctor and a dietitian alongside social workers and a parent of a donor-conceived child. That puts clinic basics and the long-term family questions of donor conception in the same show.
Welcome to LIFE, bringing you insight and experiences into love, relationships and fertility, with a focus on enjoying life and moving forward. Hear a variety of experts from an array of backgrounds sharing their prospectives on topics that encompass the
Lori Metz asks your nervous first-clinic questions and the harder ones about what makes a family.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, thoughtful episode on donor conception, parental history, and earning trust through openness.
Parenting a donor-conceived child means carrying adult history carefully, without handing that weight to the child. This episode keeps that distinction in view.
A warm, candid conversation about openness, belonging, and the emotional inheritance of donor conception.
Parenting after donor conception is handled here through Brittany Kelly's account of raising a double donor-conceived child. As both an LCSW social worker and a mother, Kelly brings personal and professional weight to a conversation that reaches into adoption, blended families,…
A grounded look at the relationships, roles, and preparation behind known sperm donation.
Known sperm donation can seem simple at first, then get more complicated once real futures are involved. Laurie Metz and Justine Witzke look at the questions families may need to settle before moving ahead: how a donor understands their role, what might happen if that donor…
A calm first-visit orientation to fertility care, with particular care around unexplained infertility.
Fertility 101 gives the first fertility-clinic visit a calmer shape. The fertility doctor frames that initial appointment as a conversation first, then a way to understand what may be getting in the way and what care could look like next.
A practical fertility conversation about food, realistic changes, and support without shame.
Weight and fertility are treated as everyday concerns in this practical conversation, with Lori Metz welcoming back registered dietitian Dara Godfrey for a second discussion on how food shapes life.
Fertility support for the over-controlled heart.
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Brittany Kelly, an LCSW and parent of a double donor-conceived child, talks with Lori Metz on Life, Love, Insight, Fertility Experiences about parenting, adoption, and disclosure.
["Brittany Kelly, an LCSW and parent of a double donor-conceived child, talks through a family life shaped by adoption, blended relatives, and donor conception.", "She connects that openness to painful adoption memories, including a baby returned to the birth mother and another pregnancy that ended in a stillbirth and funeral in Northern California.", "Her main advice is to keep a child's origin story separate from the parent's infertility grief, use privacy rather than secrecy, and let an eight-year-old choose what to disclose.", "Lori Metz closes by naming genetic grief, genetic bewilderment, and the lack of donor-conception research as reasons families have to build their own map with open communication."]
Justine Witzke, founder and CEO of Lineage Fertility in Midtown Manhattan, explains why known donor arrangements are different from ordering commercial sperm from a bank.
Lori Metz and Dr.
Lori Metz and Dara Godfrey, MS, RD, focus this episode on BMI, weight, and fertility at RMA of New York, starting with an ASRM statistic that more than 70% of women with weight-related infertility could conceive after reaching a healthier weight.
Rena Gower, Director of Social Work at RMA of New York, discusses what to expect when accessing care at a fertility clinic and how to cope with the process.
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