Fertility Cafe
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
Episodes
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 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 ho...
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,...
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 sy...
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 p...
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 communit...
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 surrogac...
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 pio...
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 actual...
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...
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...
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...
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 gathe...
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 a...
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 fer...
What does it actually take to become an egg donor, and what happens after the retrieval that no one warns you about?
In this episode of Fertility Café, Eloise Drane sits down with Christina Alicea, a fertility field professional and five-time egg donor, for one of the most honest and wide-ranging conversations about the egg donation experience you'll find anywhere. Christina brings a rare dual perspective: she has worked inside fer...
You've decided you want to build your family through surrogacy. Now what?
In this episode of Fertility Café, Eloise Drane sits down with surrogacy Family Support Advisor, Jennifer Silva to walk intended parents through the entire surrogacy journey, from that very first phone call to bringing your baby home. Jennifer draws on both her professional expertise and her own deeply personal fertility journey to give one of the most ...
What happens when a sperm donor and his donor-conceived child find each other decades later?
In this episode of Fertility Café, Eloise Drane sits down with reproductive medicine physician Dr. Danny Shapiro and Georgia state legislator Josh McLaurin for a conversation that is equal parts fascinating, deeply personal, and profoundly important for the future of donor conception.
Dr. Shapiro donated sperm as a medical student at Emory ...
What does it really take to become a surrogate physically, emotionally, and mentally?
In this episode of Fertility Café, Eloise Drane sits down with Darnae Pitts, wife, mother of two, and two-time gestational surrogate, to talk about what surrogacy actually looks like behind the scenes.
From being initially denied due to mental health and BMI requirements to navigating a divorce before starting her first journey, Darnae shares the ...
Why are we taught so little about something that happens every single month for decades of our lives?
In this episode of Fertility Café, 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...
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