A raw, honest podcast about male factor infertility, azoospermia, and the realities no one prepares you for. We share our journey through diagnosis, grief, marriage strain, and the difficult decisions around sperm donors and donor conception. This is the real, unfiltered side of infertility — for anyone navigating male infertility and trying to feel less alone.
Ep. 26: Raising Donor-Conceived Children with Jana Rupnow | Three Makes Baby
In this episode, we sit down with Jana Rupnow, licensed professional counselor, author of Three Makes Baby: How to Parent Your Donor-Conceived Child, and therapist specializing in infertility, donor conception, adoption, and non-biological family building.
We talk about some of the questions we’ve had as we prepare to raise a donor-conceived child, from the grief that can resurface for the non-biological parent to how and when to talk to your child about their conception story.
Jana shares why openness from an early age matters, how parents can make donor conception an ongoing conversation without making it their child’s entire identity, and why parents sometimes need to bring up the topic even when their child isn’t asking questions. We also talk about navigating donor information, family members who may not understand your decision, known donors, and how parents can work through their own emotions so their child has room to process theirs.
We also get into the grief that can come with donor conception and the reality that moving forward doesn’t necessarily mean those feelings are gone. Jana explains why this can be a complex grieving process and why working through it matters for both the parents and the child.
If you’re considering donor conception, currently pregnant with a donor-conceived child, or already raising donor-conceived children, this episode offers a practical look at how to approach the conversations that come with building a family this way.
Resources from Jana:
Three Makes Baby: How to Parent Your Donor-Conceived Child
https://amzn.to/4rIFUvI (https://amzn.to/4rIFUvI)
Three Makes Baby Workbook
https://amzn.to/4rCL0cJ (https://amzn.to/4rCL0cJ)
Courses, resources and more from Jana Rupnow:
https://www.janarupnowtherapy.com/default.php (https://www.janarupnowtherapy.com/default.php)
2 Sept 2026
Episode 25: The Male Perspective on a Successful Donor Conception.
We’re pregnant. After a year of male factor infertility and deciding to move forward with donor sperm, our first IUI worked.
But a positive pregnancy test brought up emotions neither of us fully expected.
In this episode, Matt opens up about what it feels like to find out your wife is pregnant with a donor-conceived child—the excitement of finally getting to become a dad alongside the grief of knowing he won’t be the biological father.
We talk about why congratulations suddenly felt complicated, the moment donor conception stopped being hypothetical and became our reality, and why grief doesn’t disappear just because treatment worked.
We also get into Sidney’s failed attempt to surprise Matt with the pregnancy, what we wish we had understood about each other going into that moment, and how differently we’ve each processed this transition.
This episode is an honest conversation about something we don’t hear talked about enough: what donor conception can feel like for the dad—and how gratitude, excitement, grief, and loss can all exist at the same time.
5 Aug 2026
EP. 23 Our First IUI, the Two-Week Wait & One Year of Infertility
We’re officially in the two-week wait after our first IUI with donor sperm—and by the time you’re listening to this, we may or may not know if it worked.
In this episode of Unfertile & Unfiltered, we recap what our IUI actually looked like, from thawing the donor sperm and the insemination itself to progesterone, symptoms, spotting, and all the overthinking that comes with waiting for a pregnancy test.
We also talk about how surprisingly different this two-week wait has felt compared to where we were a year ago. After a year of male-factor infertility, azoospermia, fertility treatments, and eventually choosing donor sperm, there’s a little less desperation to control the outcome—and a lot more acceptance that we’ll be okay even if we get our hearts broken again.
Plus, we talk about whether we actually think Sidney is pregnant, how infertility changes the experience of announcing a pregnancy, how much the last year has changed us, and whether Matt finally feels ready to be a dad.
In this episode:
What our first IUI with donor sperm was actually like
The IUI procedure and what surprised us
Progesterone after IUI
Symptoms during the two-week wait
Waiting for our first beta hCG pregnancy test
How infertility changes your relationship with control
Looking back on one year of male-factor infertility
How infertility has changed both of us
Our completely different approaches to waiting for pregnancy results
How we’d tell our families if the IUI worked
Unfertile & Unfiltered is our honest, unfiltered conversation about male-factor infertility, azoospermia, donor conception, fertility treatment, and figuring out how to build a family when nothing goes according to plan.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
