Why does almost nobody talk about how hard it can be to get pregnant?

Dr. Lara Zibners and Dr. Adam Brown are joined by Audrey Ward, a former Sunday Times writer and editor and the author of The Waiting Room: Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope on the Path to Parenthood. Audrey went through recurrent miscarriage and failed rounds of IVF before she had her two sons. For the book, she gathered stories from people aged 28 to 68 who took every possible route: IVF, egg donation, surrogacy, adoption, and choosing a life without children.

In this episode:

• Why men rarely talk about infertility, even though a large share of fertility problems start on the male side
• How clinical language like "spontaneous abortion" and "incompetent cervix" makes a hard moment worse, and what doctors can do better
• The economics of fertility care: add-ons with little evidence behind them, prepaid IVF packages, private equity, and money as the thing that decides who gets options
• Egg freezing sold as an "insurance policy"
• What to say, and what not to say, when someone tells you they're struggling to conceive
• Audrey's view on what would stabilize the system, from fertility education in schools to investigating miscarriage sooner

Content note: This episode discusses infertility, miscarriage, and pregnancy loss.