Fertility 101: The Basics of Genetics and Genetic Testing
Release Date: 07/28/2025
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This is Infertility
Guest: Julie Eshelman, Founder & CEO, Building Military Families Network Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny Today’s guest always dreamed of building a family. But when she and her husband began trying to conceive, they faced years of unanswered questions and a string of devastating losses. Like many military families, Julie Eshelman’s journey was shaped not just by infertility, but by deployments, changing doctors, starting over in new states, and a healthcare system that doesn’t always recognize the unique challenges military families face in building a family. Julie...
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This is Infertility
Guest: Teonna Woolford, CEO & Co-Founder, SC RED Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny Teonna had always known she wanted to have a lot of kids. At the age of nineteen, she discovered something that would change the trajectory of her life: she might be infertile due to sickle cell disease. Despite years of managing sickle cell, in and out of hospitals, doctor’s offices, and attending sickle cell conventions, no one had ever talked to her about the link between sickle cell and infertility. Unfortunately, fertility preservation was too financially...
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Guest: Maia Brown, President of The Beltane Guild Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny Firefighters face physical and emotional challenges at work, but what about when they’re facing challenges with fertility? In this episode we hear from Maia Brown, a firefighter paramedic and president of , a nonprofit dedicated to firefighter reproductive health. Maia shares her deeply personal journey, from discovering in the middle of paramedic school, to undergoing IVF, to realizing how little support exists for firefighters facing fertility and family building...
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Fertility 101: The Basics of Genetics and Genetic Testing
This is Infertility
Guest: Jay Shaw, MS, CGC, Senior Product Manager, Fulgent Genetics Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny The Fertility 101 Series, because there’s no shortage of daunting terms to keep your mind running, is a quick and dirty breakdown on a specific topic with insights from a fertility expert. Today’s episode is a deep dive into the role of care and planning. We’re joined by Jay Shaw, a certified genetic counselor and Senior Product Manager at , who walks us through the basics and beyond when it comes to genetic testing. We start with a foundational...
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This is Infertility
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This is Infertility
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Fertility 101: Sperm with Dr. Turek: Everything You Didn’t Learn in Health Class
This is Infertility
Guest: Paul Turek, MD, FACS, FRSM, Founder of The Turek Clinic Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny The Fertility 101 Series, because there’s no shortage of daunting terms to keep your mind running, is a quick and dirty breakdown on a specific topic with insights from a fertility expert. When it comes to fertility, men are half of the equation, but too often, they’re the half that gets forgotten or overlooked. This Men’s Health Month, we’re joined by Dr. Paul Turek, a world-renowned urologist and male fertility expert, to talk all things sperm, from how it’s made...
info_outline Guest: Jay Shaw, MS, CGC, Senior Product Manager, Fulgent Genetics
Host: Dan Bulger, Progyny
The Fertility 101 Series, because there’s no shortage of daunting terms to keep your mind running, is a quick and dirty breakdown on a specific topic with insights from a fertility expert.
Today’s episode is a deep dive into the role of genetics in fertility care and planning. We’re joined by Jay Shaw, a certified genetic counselor and Senior Product Manager at Fulgent Genetics, who walks us through the basics and beyond when it comes to genetic testing.
We start with a foundational overview, and Jay makes sure to break down the medical jargon for us. What is genetic testing? And what do terms like “carrier screening,” “single gene disorder,” and “pathogenic variant,” actually mean?
From there, Jay explains how test results can inform decisions around IVF, embryo selection, and prenatal diagnostic testing. She also walks us through options available to people and couples when carrier screening reveals shared risks, including IVF with genetic testing, sperm or egg donation, and early interventions during pregnancy or at birth.
Jay also shares how genetic testing is expanding with new tools for cancer screening, direct-to-consumer options, and exciting advancements on the horizon, including genome sequencing and the potential for AI to transform how we interpret genetic results.
Genetic testing is a crucial part of the family-building journey, protecting the health of your baby and ensuring a well-informed pregnancy. Tune in to hear all that it has to offer.
For more information, visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com.