Hey y’all, it’s Lauren. In this video I’m sharing my fertility journey after cancer—because infertility has honestly been one of my biggest worries ever since I was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 18. We didn’t have time to do any fertility preservation before chemo, so for years I’ve been living in that tension of “some doctors say I’m fine” and “others say it’s likely affected.” A couple years into remission I finally saw a fertility specialist, got my AMH tested (mine was 1.8—low end of normal), and heard all the options like IVF and embryo freezing… but the appointment left me feeling like a number, not a human. I also talk about the financial side, because my insurance didn’t cover fertility treatment at all, and the out-of-pocket costs were shocking. Then I share what happened when I went to my gynecologist before getting married to talk birth control—how quickly I was prescribed the pill without really feeling heard, and why I ultimately didn’t take it. Instead, I’ve been tracking my cycles naturally (Natural Cycles/temperature tracking), and I’ve learned so much about my body and had so much more peace. I’m still living in the unknown until we actually start trying for kids, but I wanted to be transparent and encourage anyone walking through fertility fears post-cancer (or just in general): you’re not alone.