Founder Health Update: Navigating an Unexpected Pregnancy
👶 A personal reflection on pregnancy, the complexities of sharing this news, and how MyAdvo continues to hold space for all our journeys.
It’s been a few months since I’ve shared a founder health update, but I’m excited to bring it back. Before I share something personal, I want to acknowledge that pregnancy announcements can bring up grief, frustration, or anxiety. If this is a hard topic for you right now, please feel free to skip this note or come back to it when you’re ready.
To be honest, I've been anxious to share this news with you: I'm pregnant, expecting a baby this November. I’ve been nervous about sharing because [1] the pregnancy was a surprise (my partner and I are about 1-2 years early in our family planning), and [2] it took a little bit to confirm viability.
It’s pretty ironic, given all the thought and preparation I’d put into what it might take to conceive. A member recently reminded me that even if it’s not hard to get pregnant, it’s always a question of whether it will be hard. I’ll admit, though, there’s a part of me that feels guilty. In last month’s newsletter, I shared statistics on infertility rates linked to PCOS and endometriosis, along with reminders that women can conceive spontaneously despite these conditions. These journeys are rarely linear and always nuanced. A successful pregnancy certainly doesn’t mean overcoming fertility issues. Like so many of us, I’m still trying to figure out what works. I mostly have hypotheses, so for now, I’ll share what happened.
I’ll start with a bit of context — like many of us, my journey with birth control, irregular cycles, and PCOS has been far from straightforward. I’d been off birth control for several years because of aura migraines and limited options due to my septate cervix. My surgeon actually advised against an IUD as they didn’t want anything sitting on top of my cervix that could potentially damage it. When I decided to freeze my eggs, my reproductive endocrinologist recommended coming off the pill for fertility testing, and after a couple rounds, I decided to stay off since my periods became regular and I felt good. My now-husband and I relied on condoms and had discussed the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy. I also started using Natural Cycles, an FDA-approved birth control that tracks daily fertility using basal body temperature, which I upgraded with my Oura ring for easier tracking.
But everything shifted when I fractured my spine in what can only be described as a freak accident. After surgery and recovery, my PCOS symptoms flared — long, irregular cycles, bacne, mood swings, and fatigue. I turned to functional medicine to stabilize my cycles and symptoms, focusing on stress management, diet changes, and exercise. After about 9 months, things balanced out: regular cycles, clearer skin, and better moods. My provider even said I’d be ready to conceive. But then, with the holidays and heavy work travel, my cycle got disrupted. Natural Cycles, which had been working for me (Natural Cycles is 93% effective with typical use and 98% effective with perfect use), struggled to predict my cycle after those irregular months.
This isn’t a ding on Natural Cycles — I actually plan to use it again postpartum to track my period. But if you have irregular cycles, I believe it’s critical to use a backup form of contraception if pregnancy isn’t part of your current plan. Especially in today’s political climate, with abortion bans in so many states (I even avoid traveling to some of them now for this reason), having reliable contraception is more important than ever.
To be honest, I felt a lot of feelings when I found out I was pregnant. Shame that I couldn’t manage my birth control. Anxiety that timing wasn’t right with a drawn out green card process for my husband and me transitioning into a new career as a founder. Relief that I could get pregnant. Fear that I would miscarry because I hadn’t yet taken care of removing my fibroids. Guilt about how I was going to share all of this with my friends and community.
It took a few months before the pregnancy felt real and I could start looking forward to welcoming a baby at the end of the year. Part of the delay was because we couldn’t get a viable ultrasound for several weeks. After I reached out to my gynecologist (also now my obstetrician), she brought me in for an ultrasound. Typically, due dates are calculated by adding 40 weeks to the first day of your last menstrual period, which for me was late January. However, the embryo wasn’t measuring up to those dates. This meant I likely ovulated later (likely due to my PCOS), making the embryo too early to detect (viable ultrasounds are usually done between 6-10 weeks), or it was a blighted ovum, where a gestational sac forms without an embryo, that could lead miscarrying. It took four ultrasounds, each time being asked about my irregular cycles, before we finally got a viable scan and an adjusted due date.
I’ve learned so much these past few months—about pregnancy, but also about the emotional weight of navigating the unknown. I’ve learned that our stories rarely follow the timeline we plan. That even with all the preparation, we still carry uncertainty. In many ways, it brought me back to how I felt when I was first diagnosed with PCOS, fibroids, and adenomyosis: uncertain, overwhelmed, and craving information and support that felt relevant to my body.
I didn’t share the news right away for a lot of reasons—some practical, some emotional, and some deeply personal. There was fear around miscarrying, around saying the “wrong thing,” around how to hold space for both gratitude and guilt. But one thing that became clear is this: no matter the path we’re on, no one should have to go through it alone.
It reaffirms my conviction in MyAdvo’s purpose. Just like every stage of my journey with these conditions, pregnancy brings its own unique challenges—and so little guidance. And that’s what MyAdvo is here for: to offer guidance, support, and solidarity, no matter where you are in your journey. Whether it’s diagnosis, symptom management, fertility planning, or now pregnancy, we’re committed to meeting each other exactly where we are. It’s about giving each other the information and tools to advocate for ourselves while also protecting our mental space, depending on what we’re ready to engage with.
Starting this month, we’re opening a new Pregnancy & Postpartum channel in our WhatsApp community for those who are currently pregnant or recently gave birth (I’ll be sharing details in WhatsApp soon!). If that’s you, I hope you’ll join. And if that’s not where you are, I hope this space continues to feel like one that holds all experiences with compassion, honesty, and care.
Thanks for being here with me—for the surprises, the messy middle, and whatever comes next.
In this issue
MyAdvo community news
Advocacy snapshot
Women’s health in politics
Reflection question
MyAdvo monthly reads
MyAdvo community news 👥 💭
📣 I’m excited to announce that MyAdvo has brought on Silvi Specter as our official Community Manager to help us operationalize and grow!
As we’ve grown to over 100 members in our WhatsApp group as well as over 1000 across Instagram and Substack, we wanted to make sure that our communication continues to feel uniform, make it easier to welcome new members, and ensure we nurture our existing members in a sustainable and authentic way. One of the things we rolled out this month were our updated community guidelines that we share with every new member so our space stays supportive during our health journeys with adenomyosis, endometriosis, fibroids, and PCOS. We also opened a new channel for those of us also navigating pregnancy and postpartum.
Silvi and I actually met through another community we’re a part of called The Old Girls Club. I was drawn to Silvi’s experience not only growing organic followership and membership across digital health and insurance but also founding her own community of marketers, The Growth Tribe, as well as her focused and efficient work ethic. Our plan for the next 90-days is to operationalize our member journey, grow our base, balance out workloads as I shift attention to advocacy tools releases, events, and fundraising.
What we’ve done so far:
Optimized our application process with a new form and automations for onboarding via WhatsApp and email
Updated and sent out our new community guidelines
Updated our channel structure to focus more on condition channels
Launched our “Pregnancy & Postpartum” sub-channels
What’s upcoming in June:
Recruit and activate our channel captains (DM me if interested!)
Launch our member referral program
Launch our Adenomyosis and Tri-State area channels
Revamp our IG strategy and outreach cadence
Please reach out if you’re interested in being a part of any of our community building activations!
💬What we’re talking about 🗣️
In our members WhatsApp chat, we have a few different channels so people can connect more deeply by condition, and more recently, by health stage like Pregnancy and Postpartum.
Here are a few highlights from our Endo chat this month:
What does inguinal endometriosis feel like versus a hernia?
How do you alleviate severe tailbone pain normal with endo?
What tests are done for POTS? (often have overlapping symptoms with endo)
Join the conversation by becoming a MyAdvo member.
Advocacy snapshot: Endometriosis and Pregnancy
A MyAdvo member, Alysha Colangeli, shares her experience with endometriosis, pregnancy, and postpartum.
THE ISSUE
For most of her life, Alysha lived in deep mistrust of her body. Diagnosed with PCOS at 12 and immediately placed on birth control, she wasn’t diagnosed with PMDD and endometriosis until she was 32 years old. Her experiences often felt like a constant war with herself–years of chronic pain, mood swings, and fatigue. For 20 years, she heard the same dismissive refrains: “That’s normal,” “You’re exaggerating,” “Just try yoga.” The medical gaslighting made her feel like her suffering wasn’t real, eroding her trust in both her doctors and her own instincts. . Over time, she came to believe that having children would not be possible.
THE SITUATION
Then, last February, Alysha became pregnant unexpectedly. For the first time in her life, she felt fully embodied. Her chronic symptoms—pain, inflammation, emotional swings—vanished in her first trimester. “It felt miraculous,” she said. “I felt like I’d slipped through a crack and landed in a place of grace.” Pregnancy wasn’t just physical but almost spiritual; it gave her a glimpse of what life without illness could feel like. Medical care shifted dramatically, too. Providers were kind, patient, and attentive—so different from the dismissiveness she’d experienced with PCOS and endometriosis. Despite a prior endometriosis surgery in 2022 in Santa Fe, she hadn’t had full excision, but her pregnancy came before she could pursue it.
SELF-ADVOCACY PROCESS
Knowing her risks—including being 35 and thus classified as “advanced maternal age”—Alysha initially sought out a high-risk OB. When it became clear that her pregnancy was progressing well, she transitioned to a different OB, one who understood and was compassionate about her history with endometriosis. She also worked with her psychiatrist due to her PMDD on a supportive plan during pregnancy and postpartum, including staying on her medication and regular check-ins every week or two to monitor her mental health. This made her feel supported and taken care of.
In the end, Alysha required an emergency C-section after her baby’s cord became wrapped around their neck. Though she’d hoped for a vaginal birth, she worked with a somatic therapist to process her feelings of failure and release expectations.
THE OUTCOME
Alysha’s postpartum journey brought complex emotions. Recently, she got her first period while still breastfeeding, triggering anxiety about her endometriosis symptoms returning. “I loved getting to know who I was without the symptoms,” she said. She revisited her pre-pregnancy therapy notes, not about birth or postpartum, but about the looming fear of the return of her period. Still, there’s a sense of hope—Alysha is considering having more children. There’s still no physical pain that compares to endometriosis. She’s eager to continue conversations with others who’ve navigated chronic conditions and pregnancy, hoping to build deeper connections and find shared strength in their experiences.
If you’d like to connect with Alysha about her experience, join us on WhatsApp here.
Women’s health in politics
There were a lot of rumblings in May from the Trump administration when it came to U.S. health and healthcare. From the deep NIH budget cuts, rumored family policy proposals for how to persuade women to have more children (ie, $5000 cash bonus to every mother after delivery), to the annual HHS “Make America Healthy Again” report that dropped last week. And, we’re still awaiting the anticipated IVF report.
The HHS report focuses on childhood chronic disease, with little mention of women’s health beyond maternal diet and fetal development. There’s some nod to environmental chemical exposure—like pesticides, microplastics, and dioxins—as potential endocrine disruptors, but mostly in the context of pregnancy.
The irony of the report is how there’s a call to decouple scientific research from corporate industries, especially in nutrition science, and yet the administration is proposing to cut 37% of the NIH budgets and has already terminated over $1.8 billion in grants. PFAs and microplastics are highlighted as hormone disruptors, and yet Trump signed an executive order withdrawing from any regulation pending White House review including an EPA plan to limit PFAs. There’s also a lot of cherry-picking when research is extensive, such as the safety of our federal drinking water standards and the testing of childhood vaccines, versus when additional research is needed despite there being substantial research available. Just this week, the government will no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy pregnant women and children. This is despite the CDC itself partaking in studies about the importance of COVID vaccine for pregnant women just last year. Personally, I asked my OB this month if I should get the COVID vaccine at 8 months pregnant, and she did recommend it as it would protect me as well as the baby. I’m curious how obstetricians will share this information moving forward.
NYC Primary Mayoral Elections
On a more local front, the NYC mayoral primaries are coming up on June 24, 2025 with early voting starting June 14th. The primaries are important because they often determine the next mayor as the city strongly leans Democrat. The other thing to note is that these elections are ranked-choice voting (RCV), meaning voters rank multiple candidates in order of preference, which can lead to a different winner than in a traditional winner-takes-all election. To explain RCV a bit more because it can be confusing, if a candidate wins a majority (50% + 1) of first-choice votes, they win. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates based on voters' second choices. This process repeats until a candidate secures a majority. This is why getting to know ALL candidates in this mayoral race is critical.
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) put together a Mayoral Voting Guide, highlighting Democratic candidates’ answers about their plans for sexual and reproductive health care, if elected. Below are snippets from the candidates who responded by the deadline. You can check out all their responses here.
“How do you intend to protect and expand access to sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion access and gender-affirming care, for the people of NYC and those seeking care here?”
Adrienne Adams (NYC Council Speaker):
“As Speaker, I passed the NYC Abortion Rights Act after Dobbs and expanded the Council’s abortion funding from $250K to $1M per year... I’ll keep fighting to make access to abortion and gender-affirming care safe, accessible, and stigma-free... The leader of NYC must be persistent and creative in fighting federal attacks.”
Brad Lander (NYC Comptroller):
“Sexual and reproductive healthcare is a human right... I’ve demanded pharmacy chains dispense mifepristone and faced down red state treasurers... As Mayor, I’ll ensure Reproductive Freedom for all New Yorkers, no matter who’s in the White House.”
Zohran Mamdani (NYS Assembly Member):
“I’ll fully implement the NYC Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill of Rights, expand the Abortion Access Hub, and protect against fake social media accounts surveilling patients... NYC will be a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ people with expanded gender-affirming care... I’ll push for free childcare and fair pay for early childhood workers.”
Zellnor Myrie (NYS Senator):
“I championed the Reproductive Health Act to codify abortion rights into NY law... I’ve called maternal health a public health crisis and fought for doula Medicaid coverage... I’ll keep advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and access to care, building on this record.”
Scott Stringer (Former NYC Comptroller):
“As Comptroller, I championed guides to LGBTQ+ care and led NYC to be the first to directly fund abortion care... As Mayor, I’ll fight to ensure access to reproductive healthcare and fund services and education... I’ll keep standing up for providers and patients.”
💭Reflection question🪞
I’ve been reflecting a lot on pregnancy announcements—when to share, how to share, with whom, or even whether to share at all. There’s a growing conversation around destigmatizing early sharing, especially when it can offer support to others navigating similar paths. At the same time, I deeply understand the desire to protect one’s privacy, given the uncertainty and complex emotions that come with it. What do you think?
💭 How do you feel about pregnancy announcements in general? If you’ve been pregnant or are planning to be, how do you approach sharing your news?
🔖 MyAdvo monthly reads
From policy to podcasts, research updates, trends, and other news to support your self-advocacy journey.
🌸 Endometriosis Foundation of America Names Dr. Piraye Yurttas Beim as Chairperson
⚠️ Study Links Endometriosis to Early and Premature Menopause
💬 Bella Hadid Opens Up about Endometriosis in Candid British Vogue Interview
👶 Study Finds Prenatal Testosterone Exposure Impacts Boys' Activity and Girls' Muscle Strength
🏥 Georgia’s Abortion Ban Forces Brain-Dead Woman to Carry Pregnancy
🚨 Planned Parenthood Greater NY Sues Trump Administration Over Teen Pregnancy Prevention Cuts