{"id":27753,"date":"2025-03-24T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T08:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/?post_type=podcast&#038;p=27753"},"modified":"2025-03-24T20:07:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T20:07:56","slug":"episode-204","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/education\/podcast\/episode-204\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 204: Healing Through Song: Nelly Joy\u2019s Journey Through Endometriosis, IVF, and Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[275,230,229,240],"tags":[268,235],"class_list":["post-27753","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","hentry","category-emotional-support-and-awareness","category-education","category-ivf-facts","category-trying-to-conceive","tag-endometriosis","tag-ivf"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Episode 204: Healing Through Song: Nelly Joy\u2019s Journey 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this episode, Nelly shares her raw and emotional journey with endometriosis and the struggles she faced while trying to conceive.","episode_intro_guest":"Nelly Joy","episode_intro_company":"Musician","episode_banner_section_intro_text":"This is Infertility is a bi-weekly podcast where we fuse narrative storytelling with experience and science to give you a new perspective on what it\u2019s really like to go through a family building journey. Each episode dives into the emotional, physical, and financial burdens carried by those who experience infertility on their path to parenthood. Be it IVF, IUI, egg freezing, surrogacy, adoption, etc., the path is never the same and it can be long, painful, and lonely. It\u2019s our mission to give those struggling a platform to be heard, a community connection, and an opportunity to raise awareness of the 1 in 6 who, for many reasons, struggle with infertility.","episode_page_title":"Episode 204: Healing Through Song: Nelly Joy\u2019s Journey Through Endometriosis, IVF, and Grief ","episode_embed_code":"<iframe style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/35702265\/height\/128\/theme\/modern\/size\/standard\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/ffffff\/time-start\/00:00:00\/playlist-height\/200\/direction\/backward\/download\/yes\/stats-code\/landing204\/font-color\/000000\" width=\"100%\" height=\"128\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>","episode_details":"<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Infertility is a deeply personal and often isolating experience, but for singer-songwriter Nelly Joy, music became both an outlet and a source of connection. In this episode, Nelly shares her raw and emotional journey with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/progyny.com\/education\/what-is-endometriosis\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">endometriosis<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> and the struggles she faced while <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/progyny.com\/education\/trying-to-conceive\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">trying to conceive<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, which pushed her limits physically and emotionally.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">From touring with country music legends to navigating the complexities of infertility, Nelly\u2019s story is one of physical resilience, partner support, and using art to heal.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Listen to her song <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ozn3lqVA6jI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Baby Showers<\/span><\/i><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> to discover how Nelly Joy is turning her experiences into then reminder that we are not alone.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Guest<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">: Nelly Joy, Musician<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Host<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">: Dan Bulger, Progyny<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">For more information, visit Progyny\u2019s Podcast page and\u202f<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.progyny.com\/education\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Progyny\u2019s Education page<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u202ffor 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\u202f<\/span><a href=\"mailto:thisisinfertility@progyny.com\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">thisisinfertility@progyny.com<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Watch this episode on YouTube:\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/sn5KdbDRVoM\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Here are some highlights from this episode:<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Fighting Endometriosis on Tour\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">03:25 \u2013 08:49<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Songwriting gave me a really safe and beautiful place to tell my stories. Next thing you know, I'm out on tour with, you know, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, and so then it becomes my job, which is amazing and a beautiful gift, but also with that comes a lot of stress.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">While I was out on the road, touring with all of these amazing musicians, I was extremely sick for a lot of it. You know, I had kidney problems. I became anemic. And I blacked out one time on the tour bus before a show. IBS was a terrible battle that would kind of come and go with endometriosis, and anyway, long story short, I've had several surgeries.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">I had told a doctor a year before everything got really bad. I had said, hey, I think I have endometriosis, like my symptoms are spot on. And she just basically, kind of chuckled. And was like, all girls have hard periods, you know, my daughters, it's the same way, like, here's some birth control. So, you know, after that, doctor completely dismissed me. I thought I was crazy. I thought, well, I know I went in there so confident that this was what was going on, and she dismissed me to the point of like, making me feel like an idiot for even bringing it up. So, I just kind of put it my back pocket. And then over the next two years, I had so many UTIs and kidney infections.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>IVF, Pregnancy, and Loss\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">09:40 \u2013 13:37<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">I've never been on birth control, you know, we've never been careful, and, like, there was never a pregnancy scare or anything. And we've been married 12 years, so it's kind of like, what's going on here? Something's not right, you know? I went to the fertility doctors, and they suggested IVF, which we did. Our first round of IVF, we got eight eggs and three fertilized, but one only made it to blastocyst. And those are, you know, those are normal numbers, and I didn't know that like for a woman my age, and I wish someone had kind of prepped me a little bit more just for the fact that you can do IVF and it won't work. That can happen.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">I got pregnant naturally, and I just remember I didn't believe it. I literally was in disbelief I was pregnant, so I told my husband, I'm like, here we go. And about seven weeks in, I fell to my knees in excruciating pain, and it was mostly on one side. On the right side, the pain radiated down through my hips and my legs. I'm like, basically in tears, and I'm starting to vomit, and I'm like, okay, this is another level of pain. And I just remember looking at them and I said, I feel like this is an ectopic pregnancy. They confirmed it was ectopic. I was internally bleeding. And luckily my tube hadn't ruptured.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Grief, Love, and Music\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">16:24 \u2013 17:58<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\nExperiencing that grief together has made us so much stronger, like it's just added to our story and our love. I look at him and I as hard as it is that we haven't had a baby yet, like I have my partner, I have my person, and I know that I can go through anything in life with him. The hardest day of our life, the darkest moment. We got through it, and we're stronger for it.\r\n\r\nWhen am I going to run out of tears? At what point does my body just be like, That's it. That's all you got. There's no more grief left. But that's just not how grief works. It comes in waves, and I'm learning just to give myself permission to cry when I want to cry, and if that means I'm out at a party with friends, or I'm talking with you, and I start to tear up, I don't hold it in. I just excuse myself, and I'll let it run, because tears are a healing mechanism. They allow us one way to help get that grief out. And if you don't get grief out, it stays in and it'll eat you up from the inside out, and that's why I'm a musician and I make art. That's another way I get my grief out - is by putting pen to paper, finding a melody, and even if I write a song that no one ever hears and I don't release it, that was just me processing through my emotions.\r\n\r\n<\/div>","episode_host_image":22673,"episode_host_title":"Dan Bulger, Producer at Progyny","episode_host_bio":"Dan has been in the healthcare industry for the past ten plus years as a multimedia content producer. Better known as \u2018Video Dan\u2019 he has interviewed numerous doctors, patients and other experts in the world of fertility. He\u2019s also the producer for this podcast, This is Infertility and the producer behind the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/progyny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"exc\" aria-label=\"Progyny YouTube Channel - opens in new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"na\">\u00a0Progyny YouTube Channel<\/a>\u00a0which features interviews with dozens of the nation\u2019s leading fertility specialists. On a personal note Dan\u2019s parents started fostering kids when he was four years old, and he considers himself a proud older brother to over 100 foster children.","episode_guest_1_image":27754,"episode_guest_1_title":"Nelly Joy, Musician in Nashville, TN","episode_guest_1_bio":"<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Nelly Joy was born in Abilene, Texas and was raised in Chesterfield, Virginia and Amarillo, Texas. She literally \"fell into music\" at the age of 17 when she broke her wrist in a pole-vaulting accident and had to take a break from all of her athletic endeavors. During recovery, she learned how to play guitar and immediately fell in love with writing. Two years later she won the \"Got Milk\" songwriting contest!<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">After graduating from ACU with her degree in Psychology, Nelly moved to Nashville in January of 2005 to chase her songwriting dream. She became known as one half of the country duo, the JaneDear Girls. Nelly co-wrote 10 songs on the JaneDear Girls' first album that debuted at 10 on the Billboard Top Country Charts. She also co-wrote the ABC promo song \"Good Girls Gone Bad\" for the new TV show G.C.B. The ACM and CMT nominated duo opened for Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and also played on Jimmy Kimmel, CMA Fest, and the CMT Awards.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Nelly is now a writer with Sony ATV and cowrote \"That's Why I Pray\" by Big &amp; Rich. (Highest debut by a duo in the Nielsen BDS era, at No. 24 with the Hot Shot Debut), as well as \"The Sun Will Rise\" by Kelly Clarkson (Which became the promo song for ABC TV show \"Bunheads\"). She also wrote five songs on Jason Reeves' album \"The Lovesick\" which debuted at #5 on iTunes' pop charts, including \"No Lies\" which is a duet featuring Colbie Caillat.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Nelly Joy and Jason Reeves are High Dive Heart!<\/span>","episode_guest_2_image":"","episode_guest_2_title":"","episode_guest_2_bio":"","episode_guest_3_image":"","episode_guest_3_title":"","episode_guest_3_bio":"","episode_guest_4_image":"","episode_guest_4_title":"","episode_guest_4_bio":"","episode_guest_5_image":"","episode_guest_5_title":"","episode_guest_5_bio":"","episode_music_section_links":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast\/27753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/podcast"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}