This content was created by Erica Hoke. This content was uploaded by Erica Hoke. This is a YouTube video titled "Sounding the alarm on the Fertility docs" (published June 1, 2021) featuring Erica Hoke speaking in English about her personal infertility journey and her advocacy work. Hoke recounts her medical struggles (endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, low AMH, being told she was not a candidate for IVF), shares and summarizes other women's stories (including Erin Banks and Constance) about problematic reproductive endocrinology practices (e.g., transfers when the uterine lining wasn’t ready, failure to run appropriate testing), and warns viewers to self-advocate. She also announces a collaborative book project called "Infertility Success," solicits author applications via a Typeform in the video description, and says she and a colleague will pursue legislation in 2022 to change clinical protocols and protect patients.
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Hey you guys, I hope you're having a fantastic day. I'm Erica Hoke. I wanted to come on here today because I'm a little bit fired up and I really wanted to, um, pass this energy along to you and see if you were fired up or would be fired up the same way after I tell my stories to you. So the thing that has me fired up today is I've been interviewing a lot of different women who have gone through an infertility journey. Similar to myself. And so, you know, when I started to try to get pregnant, if you are not familiar with my story, you could read the whole thing over on my website, just my first and last name, ericahoke.com. But when I started to, uh, when we started to try, we knew that we were going to have struggles. I had a lot of infertility problems, you guys. I had endometriosis, I had uterine fibroids, I had ovarian cysts. I had a lot of things going against me. And so in the back of my mind, I thought to myself, well, if we need to go the IVF route or if we need to go the IUI route, then that, that was kind of like the saving grace, the last hope. Right. And so when all the things, when we had done all the things and it was time for us to see a reproductive endocrinologist and we went that route, we were actually told that I was not a candidate for IVF. We could— I physically could not do IVF because they could not retrieve enough eggs, um, in one cycle. And so, um, even though that was the case, I was still diagnosed with unexplained infertility. So now what, right? I have all these, um, infertility problems. I can't do IVF. Um, I ended up— to make a long story short, and it's not what today's video is about, so I want to I want to just gloss over this. We went through a lot of different healing processes for me, acupuncture and diet and lifestyle changes, and we finally got the family that we wanted. So when we— after the first baby, when we went back to the reproductive endocrinologist, we were actually kicked out of the practice because they couldn't do anything to help us. A lot of women in my situation— I see it every day on the Facebook threads and things like that— they just think that because doctors tell them that they can't help them, that, that means that they can't be helped. They think that they're broken and there's nothing that can be done because medically the doctors have told them that they can't help them. So that is one of the major problems that I see, uh, with reproductive endocrinology. Some of the other things that I have learned, um, in the process of interviewing these women and, uh, collecting these amazing stories is things like, um, reproductive endocrinologists doing IUI transfers on women whose endometrium lining is not ready. One of the women that I interviewed on my YouTube channel, and if you're watching on YouTube, you can search for her here, or if you're watching on Facebook, um, search Erin Banks' story. Um, and if you're watching on YouTube, also go ahead and hit that like and subscribe so that you get notified. Um, Erin's story is amazing because Erin is an ultrasound sonographer, so she knew exactly what her lining should have looked like on transfer day, and she knew and questioned the doctors about the fact that it wasn't thick enough for transfer. They went ahead and transferred again, transferred at that point. So you say to yourself, well, why didn't she just, why didn't she just not do it? Well, she questioned them and you have to understand, you know, even though you have head knowledge, you're still a patient and you're still in a vulnerable situation. It's the doctor's responsibility not to take your money for a procedure that is guaranteed not to work. If you don't have a lining, you can't have an implantation, right? So that's just an example of what has me fired up. And another example is my friend who is, um, whose story is also on here. Constance's story, um, was to me like one of the worst things, um, that could have been done to her. So she had very low AMH, very similar to myself. They were able to harvest some eggs, and instead of doing precursor testing on her husband, on herself, some things that would have given them a better chance of those eggs being viable, they didn't do that, and they basically wasted all of the last good eggs that she had. So come to find out later, she had a few things similar to this. Now, mind you, She's a nurse practitioner, and— but she's a patient. And so what, what I'm telling you this for, why we're talking about this today, is because I want you to know going in that you're going to have to advocate for yourself. You're going to have to ask these questions, and you're going to have to push back against the system that is ready and willing to take your money regardless of outcome. Okay, that's a pretty strong statement, but based on these conversations with these women and many others, I see it, I see it. So Constance's story was they should have done some genetic testing on her husband's sperm prior to using her last few eggs. Then similarly, in a later procedure she had done, they, um, they didn't do some testing that should have been done, and she didn't get a refund, right? I mean, you're talking about like procedures that cost thousands and thousands of dollars, $10,000 to $30,000, and they said, well, it didn't work this time, why don't we go ahead and do that test? No, the test should have been done ahead of time. Okay, people are spending, um, you know, their entire life savings and the rest of their life paying for procedures to get to the family of their dreams. Okay, so, uh, we're gonna change this. I'm just like, I'm throwing my stake in the ground right now. Um, Constance and I are going to be working on legislation in 2022, but in the meantime, I'm getting the word out by sharing these women's stories. I'm now accepting applications for authors for a collaborative book, Infertility Success. So if you have an amazing story to share with me, I've dropped the Typeform in the comments here in the, um, in the information, and you can click on that Typeform, and that's the beginning of the process. And then I'll review it and we can have a conversation about your story. But I'm determined to get these women's stories out there so that this can stop happening to people. It's not fair. It's not fair for people that are already in a vulnerable position. And so again, what we're looking for is these amazing stories to share. And then going forward, We're going to change and put some legislation in place to stop these things from happening and put some protocols in place that doctors are required to do, you know, before, before these procedures. I hope that you're having a fantastic day. Thank you for listening and health and blessings to you, and I will see you next time. Bye-bye.
