Last week we held our first NYC ladibug lounge event with Kindbody, an incredible company that offers fertility conversations, IVF, egg freezing & more. After our TikTok for a women’s health community in NYC went viral, the most popular requests that popped up were ‘wtf is egg freezing’ and ‘should I be worried about fertility’.
I am a Gen Z girl in NYC and I am surrounded by women who are absolutely killing it with their career and personal goals. It’s an incredibly motivating and animating place to be. The average age of women falling pregnant with their first child in the U.S. has increased to 29.6 years old, up from 24.9 years old in 2000. And this is even higher in NYC, with reports of the average at 32! This trend reflects the wonderful improvement in female education and participation in the workforce.
Yet, this has also led to a lot of discourse around career progression and fertility challenges. I find this topic tricky. I don’t think anyone’s reproductive health or fertility journey is anyone’s business but their own. I also feel discouraged when I see the data around promotions and workforce re-entry during the reproductive arc of a woman’s life. But where this does become nuanced, is that as much as we don’t want to believe, women are bound to the laws of biology and we cannot beat time. What matters to me is equipping women with real information, cutting through the misinformation online, and empowering them to move through each stage of life knowing their options. Because what our TikTok showed is that a lot of us have no idea where to start.
Our event with Kindbody was positioned as going back to the absolute basics i.e. what is egg freezing, what is our reproductive life cycle, what is AMH testing, should I be worried about fertility in my 20s. Dr Fahimeh Sasan was brilliant. She articulated her deep subject matter expertise that made sense to all of us.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the evening.
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1 in 6 women will have fertility issues - 1 in 8 will have breast cancer. It is unfortunately more common than we think
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We are actually born with 2 million eggs (wtf) and this will decrease from day 1! By the time we reach puberty, it would have dropped to around 300,000-500,000. This was wild to me. And technically, when you were growing in your mom’s tummy, your eggs are developing too, meaning she was carrying your eggs as well (so weird).
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There is no way to test the ‘quality’ of our eggs. We can test for the count (through an AMH test) but egg quality deteriorates overtime (especially in your 30s). Just as we age and develop grey hair or wrinkles (signs of our DNA ageing), our egg quality also declines. This is why older women are more prone to miscarriages and fertility complications.
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Birth control does NOT hurt your fertility! BIGGEST TAKEAWAY (especially for me, this was always a fear of mine). This misconception often pops up when women stop taking birth control after a decade or more, only to realize they’re unfamiliar with how their natural cycle works. So if they aren’t getting regular periods, they tend to link it to birth control.
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Getting tested for your reproductive health (i.e. AMH), should be as annual as getting a Pap smear or breast scan
And my personal take on it all? I think you should feel empowered to ask the most basic questions. There is no harm testing your fertility health (the earlier the better) and I encourage you to visit Kindbody, even just out of curiosity! I asked my general practitioner during my annual 2 years ago about my fertility health and she said ‘are you trying to conceive? If not, we don’t usually run tests’. This is an unsatisfactory answer. You are absolutely entitled to learn and explore any aspect of your health.
Our goal at ladibug is to break through misinformation and equip you with all the facts, so you can make an educated decision. We never tell you what we think you should do or not do; your choice is entirely your prerogative. We are just here as a resource.
Our next info expert panel event? Tummy issues and female nutrition!! Because god forbid, every woman in our orbit seems to have a stomach problem. Follow us on IG and TT to see registration opening soon!
-brooke