I froze embryos. Here's what surprised me the most.

Get ready for another vulnerable episode of the pod...

Hello friends!

I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a vulnerability hangover after this week because I’ve been sharing a lot of personal details lately. Last week on the pod, I opened up about Zack and my official decision about whether we’ll have kids. This week, I’m opening up about exactly how we plan to make that happen.

In case the title didn’t give it away, Zack and I underwent the process of freezing embryos earlier this year. We did it with Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, a.k.a. “The Egg Whisperer,” the incredible leading fertility expert had on the podcast last spring. Embryo freezing wasn’t a decision we took lightly, and it was definitely a financial, physical, and emotional investment. In today’s mini-episode, I’m sharing every single detail of the process—including how many embryos we ended up with.

I’m very aware that this is a difficult subject for many of you. If you don’t want to listen to this episode at all, I get it—no hard feelings! But in the spirit of trying to be as sensitive as possible, Zack and I don’t get into our final numbers until the very end of the episode. So if you want to listen to the beginning just to hear about my experience, rest assured you’re not walking into an emotional landmine.

And now, without further ado, let’s talk about the thing that surprised me the most about the process:

I actually felt really good

Before starting my embryo-freezing journey, I truly had no idea what to expect. And because of that, I was terrified. I had friends who had awful experiences physically and emotionally, and my brain really clung to those stories. I completely cleared my schedule beforehand, imagining myself bedridden throughout the entire process.

Luckily, that cleared schedule wasn’t necessary—I felt so good that I was able to record podcasts the entire time! Four or five days before my retrieval I started to feel more bloated and heavy, but I never had brain fog, which was something I was really concerned about. The injections themselves weren’t a huge deal, which I was also surprised by since I’m not a person who considers myself great with needles. I used bags of frozen peas to numb the pain, which I highly recommend.

As I quickly learned, a lot of embryo-freezing involves finding the golden egg in a sea of not-so-great eggs. Photo cred: Yulia Reznikov

The recovery was a little rougher. I was constipated and definitely experienced some depression leading up to my next period. But knowing why I was depressed was really helpful as I navigated that time, and while I didn’t feel 100% normal in the weeks after my procedure, it always felt like something I could handle.

I share this story not to brag, but because I wish I had heard more positive stories going into this process. Of course, there’s a chance you could feel terrible—but you might also feel really good. Why not give the process the benefit of the doubt?

From the episode:

“I did interview episodes. I did solo episodes. I didn't feel mentally off until later. And physically, it really wasn't even that uncomfortable. By Friday, I could feel my ovaries when I walked, and that felt a little bit weird, but then the retrieval was on Saturday. If you're listening, I'm just one experience, but I was so, so nervous about how incapacitated I would be and how terrible I would feel. And by and large, I really felt pretty good.

The takeaway:

Whether you’re about to go on your own egg- or embryo-freezing journey or you have something else coming up that you’re nervous about, try not to focus on how badly it could go. Instead, ask yourself, “What could go right?”

For more details on our embryo-freezing journey, including our exact numbers, the hilarious thing I apparently said to the anesthesiologist before I went under, and the full details on why we decided to go this route instead of trying unassisted, head to the Liz Moody podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Thanks so much for being on this ride with me. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you all!

Xo,

Liz

P.S. To access the full episode transcript plus key takeaways from the episode, hit the subscribe button below. And for those of you struggling with flight anxiety right now, I have a really helpful paid post coming Friday, so stay tuned…

5 key takeaways

• Why we chose to freeze embryos over trying immediately: We opted to freeze embryos instead of trying for right away to give ourselves more time to focus on our careers, enjoy our current phase of life, and minimize potential risks related to my age.