This week, I’m thrilled to share our second expert episode with the incredible Dr. Olivia Stuart of Fertility Associates.

Olivia is a gynaecologist, obstetrician, and fertility subspecialist meaning she can walk alongside individuals and couples from their initial fertility consultations through to the birth of their pēpi. Olivia came highly recommended by so many of you in the rainbow parenting community, and it’s easy to see why. She’s a compassionate, highly skilled, thoughtful healthcare provider and I was genuinely so chuffed that she agreed to come on to the podcast. 

With so much ground to cover, it was tricky to figure out where to even start this conversation with Olivia! So what we’ve recorded is a bit of a primer; a 101 on family building options using a fertility clinic. Olivia talks through common terms and procedures like IUI, IVF and ICSI, and discusses things like attrition during the IVF and ICSI processes and what sort of factors might lead her to advise one procedure over another. We then talked about how gamete donation – so sperm and egg donation – at the clinic works and what factors are at play in that matching process. 

Now, a confession and an apology! Olivia and I talked for nearly an hour but as we got to the last question, my technology failed me, and I sadly lost part of our recording (devastating!). I’m so sorry! If you were under any illusion that this is a well-oiled, commercial machine, I’m sure that is now well and truly shattered. Despite losing the last few minutes, the 43ish minutes I did capture with Olivia are gold. So please enjoy this intimate conversation with a respected fertility expert who works a lot with queer couples from our community.

If you enjoy this chat and want more expert conversations like it, please let me know via Instagram or email at [email protected]. Your feedback helps me show guests why these conversations matter and there was so much to cover with Olivia that I would love to have her back (with better tech!) and input from you could help make that happen. So please, get in touch with feedback and requests for additional topics. 

You can learn more about Olivia and her practice at www.fertilityassociates.co.nz/team/dr-olivia-stuart 

And as always, thanks for listening to Proud Conception. If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and join the conversation with us on Instagram@ProudConceptionPod. Please consider sharing this podcast with a friend, it really does help us connect with people who might benefit from the stories we are sharing. And if you have a family building story that you’d like to share, please get in touch! You can reach us via Instagram or by emailing [email protected].