WEBVTT
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Language: en

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(suspenseful music)

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- I grew up in Newport Beach, California,

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where for those of you
who've seen the housewives

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or watched The O.C. it is a place with

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a lot of beautiful people,
a lot of affluence.

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Growing up, I felt the
expectation of me was

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to be a success by getting married

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and having really cute babies.

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And that was my number one job.

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At 24, I did exactly that, got engaged.

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It took me a while to really understand

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and navigate that I could
go against the grain

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on that expectation.

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Ended up calling my
wedding two weeks before,

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realized it wasn't the right path for me.

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Fast forward ten years, I still

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haven't met the right person.

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I've been excited about my career,

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excited about traveling, dating,

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doing all sorts of things
that somebody in their 30s

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is not expected to want to
still do all these things.

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I never thought I would be somebody

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who would be interested
in freezing my eggs,

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and then my dad passed away unexpectedly,

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and that changed everything.

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It made me realize how
important family is,

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and although today I may
not see myself having kids

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in this moment, maybe
I'll want that later.

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I would love to keep my options open.

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When I went to the doctor's office

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for just an informational visit,

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just to learn, you know, little
bit more about the process,

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they ran some preliminary tests

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and I had just started my period,

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which is the ideal time to
start the hormone theory

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and start this process,
so with the test results,

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provided those were okay, which they were,

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they wanted to go ahead and
start my hormone therapy

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if I was on board.

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I was actually a little
bit more excited about it

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than I thought that I would be,

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and through the tests, we
did my first ultrasound.

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He showed me, these are your ovaries,

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this is where the baby would grow,

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and it was the first
time in my entire life

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that I felt any kind of
ping of maternal stuff.

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It just so happened to
be that now is the time

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and my body was ready, why not?

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So when I started this process,

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I had an entire table full of hormones.

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The purpose of the hormone injections

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is to basically, it's like
steroids for your eggs.

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As a natural woman, you
drop one egg a month,

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but because of these hormones,
you have tons of them.

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And then you want them to
get big and fat and juicy

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so that they can see them
when they're going in

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to harvest the egg.

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Then it's the last 30 hours when they say,

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"Okay, now you're ready to go."

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That's when you get the trigger shot,

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and that was pretty intense.

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So pull down the pants,
look in the mirror,

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and they teach you, you have
to inject yourself so hard

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that it goes behind the
muscle and they tell you

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as you check it, if there's blood,

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that it's not far enough so you have to

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push it out and do it again, so thank God

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I got it on the first try.

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So the trigger shot then
will start the process

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of getting the follicles ready

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and the eggs ready for retrieval.

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30 hours later, show up
at the doctor's office.

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They put me to sleep,
they go up inside me,

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and they, you know, broke the follicles

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to suction out the eggs and the
eggs are immediately frozen.

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The process itself is very quick.

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The procedure took maybe 20 minutes.

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The doctor predicted that
I would have 12 to 14 eggs

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at the end of this process
that they could harvest.

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Out of those eggs, they
say one out of every four,

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count on those being viable.

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I ended up having 20 eggs, which was

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a lot more than they expected.

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And about 48 hours after the surgery,

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I immediately just puffed out.

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With the 20 follicles
that my body had created,

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as the doctor goes in
there to retrieve the eggs,

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they basically puncture each follicle

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and then suck out this
little microscopic egg.

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Well, all that fluid around that egg

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now has to go somewhere.

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It was the most frustrating time ever,

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being a woman that has
curves and has always

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been conscious of what am I
eating and am I exercising

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and am I losing weight,
am I gaining weight,

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I was put in a position
where my body was constantly

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gaining weight even
though I wasn't eating,

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I wasn't drinking, I
couldn't even have water,

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and yet I'm gaining weight.

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It sucked, it was absolutely terrible.

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For some people, freezing
your eggs might be easy,

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lickity-split, no problem,
I'm back to work the next day.

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For me personally, it was not that.

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Everybody is unique, their
situations are unique,

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but I think it's important
to know all sides

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so you can make an educated decision

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based on all perspectives.

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When I grew up, I never
felt I could be respected

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for wanting to be the
person that I truly am.

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So whatever you choose,
let it be your choice.

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What's right for you, not
what the expectations were

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of you growing up, or what
your parents want you to do,

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what your boyfriend wants
you to do, your husband.

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It's you, you have to have

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the best relationship with yourself.