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Fertility Cafe

Eloise Drane

Fertility Café explores the evolving world of reproductive health, infertility, and modern family building. Hosted by Eloise Drane, fertility expert, agency founder, past surrogate and egg donor, and mom of five, the show unpacks the medical, emotional, and ethical sides of today’s fertility care.

From IVF, surrogacy, egg and sperm donation, embryo donation, infertility treatment, men’s fertility, hormones, and fertility preservation, each episode dives into every part of assisted reproduction. Hear real stories and expert insights from fertility doctors, surrogates, and intended parents in open conversations.

Whether you are navigating infertility, exploring surrogacy or donation, or curious about reproductive wellness, Fertility Café helps you find clarity, confidence, and hope.

Connect with us: www.thefertilitycafe.com

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28 episodes
weekly
Avg 44 min
English

Episodes 28

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S7 · E158
Tuesday · 1 hr 21 min
Surrogate Stories: Three Matches Before One Worked
What happens when agency after agency turns you down, and you keep going anyway? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week, our surrogate is Rachel, who delivered
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S7 · E157
October 13 · 52 min
Surrogate Stories: She Wanted to Choose Them, Not Be Chosen
What if the thing that decided your agency was not the compensation or the process, but who got to do the choosing? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week, our
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S7 · E156
October 6 · 47 min
Surrogate Stories: Two Moms Carrying for Two Moms
What happens when what a surrogate wants for a birth and what the intended parents need are not the same thing? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week, our sur
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S7 · E155
September 29 · 50 min
Surrogate Stories: What Postpartum Feels Like Without a Baby
What do you do when a surrogacy journey ends before it starts, and you decide to try again anyway? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week, our surrogate is Chr
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S7 · E154
September 22 · 1 hr
Surrogate Stories: Two Journeys, One Family
What does a surrogacy journey actually look like from the surrogate’s side, including the parts nobody warns you about? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week,
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S7 · E153
September 15 · 56 min
Surrogate Stories: A Loss, a Rematch, and a Fresh Start
What does it take to stay in a surrogacy journey when almost none of it goes the way you pictured? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week, our surrogate is Tay
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S7 · E152
September 8 · 33 min
Surrogate Stories: She Gave Two Families Their Second Child
What does surrogacy look like when everything actually goes the way it should? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week, our surrogate is Amy, a two-time gestati
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S7 · E151
September 1 · 48 min
Surrogate Stories: Once for a Friend, Once for a Stranger
What changes when you carry for your best friend, and then do it again for a family you have never met? This episode is part of the Surrogate Stories, where we hand the mic to the women who make this whole thing possible. These are their journeys, their stories, in their own voices. Eloise Drane sits down with surrogates and lets them tell it start to finish: why they said yes, what carrying for another family really asked of them, and what they carried home afterward. This week, our surrogate i
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S7 · E150
August 11 · 46 min
What Your OBGYN Isn’t Telling You
Too many people walk into an OB GYN appointment with uncertainty, unanswered questions, or years of silent symptoms. In this episode, Eloise Drane sits down with board-certified OB GYN Dr. Renita White, MD to unpack the real state of women’s healthcare today and the steps every person can take to advocate for themselves. Dr. White shares why she entered obstetrics and gynecology, what she witnessed during training, and how systemic gaps leave many women confused about their own bodies. She expla
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S7 · E149
August 4 · 44 min
What It’s Really Like to Be an Egg Donor
What does it actually feel like to donate your eggs including the parts nobody talks about? In this episode, Eloise Drane sits down with Rai Hyde, a six-time egg donor who is proud of her donations and the families she helped create and who also experienced long-term health complications as a result. Rai shares her story with honesty and without sugarcoating, because she believes every woman considering donation deserves the full picture before she decides. This conversation covers what motivate
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S7 · E148
July 28 · 41 min
What Donor-Conceived Adults Want Parents to Know
What does it feel like to grow up donor-conceived and find out at age 35 that everything you thought you knew about your origins was incomplete? In this episode, Eloise Drane sits down with Erin Jackson, a freelance writer and donor-conceived rights advocate who discovered at 35 that she was conceived using donated sperm. The experience was shocking and it sparked a mission. Erin went on to create We Are Donor Conceived, a community and resource hub built to support others navigating the same di
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S7 · E147
July 21 · 48 min
What It’s Really Like to Be a Surrogate
What does it actually feel like to carry a baby for someone else? Not the polished version the real one. In this episode, Eloise Drane sits down with Heathyr Suhr, a two-time gestational surrogate and single mom, to talk honestly about what the surrogacy journey looks and feels like from the inside. Heathyr shares her motivations, her experiences with intended parents, what she needed most from her agency, and the parts of surrogacy that nobody tells you about upfront. This is a first-hand accou
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S7 · E146
July 14 · 52 min
The Truth About Birth Control, Ovulation, and Your Hormones
Why are we taught so little about something that happens every single month for decades of our lives? In this episode, Eloise Drane sits down with fertility awareness educator and author Lisa Hendrickson-Jack to unpack one of the most overlooked truths in women’s health: the menstrual cycle is not just about getting pregnant. It is a vital sign. From heavy periods and birth control prescriptions in her teens to becoming a pioneer in fertility awareness education and podcasting, Lisa shares how c
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S7 · E145
July 7 · 32 min
Egg Donation 101: How It Works
How does egg donation actually work, and what do you need to know before you start? In this solo episode, Eloise Drane, founder of Family Inceptions and a six-time egg donor, breaks down everything you need to know about egg donation. She covers the biology behind the process, the different types of donor arrangements (anonymous, semi-anonymous, known, and informational), how to choose the right program, and what the process actually looks like for both donors and intended parents. Eloise also a
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S7 · E144
June 30 · 30 min
Becoming an Egg Donor: The Real Process
Thinking about becoming an egg donor? Before you take the first step, here’s what the process actually looks like from your first application to the day you receive your compensation check. In this solo episode, Eloise Drane a six-time egg donor herself and founder of Family Inceptions takes you through the entire egg donation journey in detail. She covers how to choose the right program, what medical screening and monitoring really involves, the legal agreements that protect you, and what compe
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S7 · E143
June 23 · 24 min
Should I Freeze My Eggs? What to Know Before You Decide
Should you freeze your eggs? It’s one of the most searched fertility questions online and one of the most misunderstood. In this solo episode, Eloise Drane cuts through the noise and gives you an honest, grounded look at egg freezing: what the process actually involves, what it costs (financially and emotionally), who it’s right for, and what the conversation often leaves out. Egg freezing has moved from a niche medical intervention to a mainstream choice but popularity hasn’t made it simpler or
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S7 · E142
June 16 · 30 min
Does Your Job Cover IVF? Fertility Benefits at Work
Does your employer cover IVF, surrogacy, or egg donation? Most people have no idea what fertility benefits they’re entitled to, or how to ask for them. In this episode, Eloise Drane sits down with Brooke Bartholomay Quinn, COO of Carrot Fertility and fertility benefits expert, to explore how companies are building fertility and family-building benefits into their packages, what those benefits actually cover, and how employees can advocate for themselves if those benefits don’t yet exist at their
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S7 · E141
June 9 · 31 min
What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Surrogate
What do you wish someone had told you before you became a surrogate? In this episode of Fertility Café, Eloise Drane opens up the conversation surrogates rarely get to have out loud: the strange facts, surprising details, and small things nobody warns you about before a surrogacy journey begins. Drawing on years of stories from surrogates past and present, the Family Inceptions team, and friends across the field, this episode gathers the honest, behind-the-scenes truths -- from what not to do du
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S7 · E140
April 7 · 34 min
The Surrogacy Industry Has a Serious Problem
What happens when an industry built to help people build families starts failing the very people it's supposed to serve? In this season seven finale of Fertility Café, host Eloise Drane steps out from behind the interview chair to speak directly about what's been happening in the fertility and surrogacy space: the progress worth celebrating, the structural failures that keep producing real harm, and the political forces reshaping access to care right now. Eloise draws on nineteen episodes of con
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S7 · E139
March 31 · 58 min
Beyond the Egg: Rethinking Fertility Through Egg, Embryo, and Sperm Health
What if everything you thought you knew about fertility was only half the story? In this episode of Fertility Café, Eloise Drane sits down with board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist Dr. Natalie Crawford for a deeply honest, science-backed conversation about what's really going on inside your body and why so many women are left in the dark until it's too late. Dr. Crawford opens up about her own fertility journey: recurrent pregnancy loss, an ectopic pregnancy, a
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