Chiquis Rivera had an important conversation with fertility expert Dr. Shahin Ghadir and confirmed she is going through the process to freeze her eggs on July 5. "FINALLY!! Freezing my eggs!! A straight up convo with about egg freezing," she captioned the long conversation she had on IGTV on Tuesday, June 23. She has been talking about this for years, but a couple of health issues like cysts and work obligations have delayed the process.
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Chiquis might not be with husband Lorenzo Méndez anymore, but she said she has already discussed freezing her eggs with her grandmother, since she had her doubts because of her religion. But since her birthday is coming up on Friday, June 26, she decided to go through with it. "I want people to understand that I am fertile. People don’t think I can have kids," she shared, adding that she wants to do this just in case for the future. "If for whatever reason I can’t, because of age, then the eggs are there for me."
Chiquis' doctor urged her to get it done sooner rather than later.
Chiquis has been talking about going through this process for years, even before she was married to Lorenzo, but she kept putting it off. “We can’t postpone this anymore,” her doctor said. “You are one of the most transparent people I’ve ever met, and you can see the love exuding for your life. You’re going to want to do this one day, and the more we wait, the more complicated this becomes.”
The doctor said that the longer you wait and not do it, it can become a problem in the future. The doctor added: "This is typical. Many women start this and they try to forget about it, they try not to talk about it. You’ve gotta just do it and get over it."
They spoke about the side effects.
Chiquis expressed her concerns, saying that she was scared to go through with it in case she couldn't work during the two-week process, and that she thought it might make her "crazy," but the doctor said she had nothing to worry about. “These medications do not do any of those things to you whatsoever. You are going to get bloated, though. I want you to feel bloated,” the doctor said. “The more eggs you make, the bigger your ovary gets, the more bloated you feel.”
Dr. G explained the process.
This is a subject that a lot of women don’t feel comfortable speaking about, and some people are scared to go through it. The doctor explained that the process is not as scary as it seems. It's a total of 10 to 12 days of small injections, starting with the first day of your period. After that, doctors do an ultrasound, then the quick process begins. You're breathing on your own. There is a needle at the tip of the device, and it sucks out the eggs that are sitting in the ovaries. You decide whether to freeze the eggs on their own or make embryos. You can freeze them indefinitely. If you have a partner, Dr. G suggests making embryos. Embryos have a 76% to 84% chance of implanting, the doctor said.
Chiquis' relationship status came up during the conversation.
A conversation with a friend in her 40s who is having trouble getting pregnant convinced Chiquis to go ahead with the procedure. Right now, Chiquis' relationship with her husband Lorenzo Méndez is not stable, but the doctor didn't know. "In this situation, we should make embryos,” the doctor said, referring to her marital status.
"Right now my situation, I haven’t talked to you about this, so my situation is a little funny right now, without saying too much," Chiquis added. The doctor said that in the case of women who are single or aren't 100% sure about their partner, he suggests freezing the eggs instead of making embryos, and then adding the sperm later. "You can introduce the sperm when you want to," the doctor advised. "Protect your own fertility." By choosing to freeze your eggs if there is any doubt about the person you are with, you will have more felixibility, because you can't reverse an embryo once the sperm is inserted.
Chiquis is helping other women start with their own process.
They spoke about the cost, and it is expensive, around $10,000. The doctor is currently running a summer special that brings it down to $6,000, and there are financing options to help pay for the procedure. Chiquis said she understands that for some women the financial aspect might be what is holding them back from going through with the procedure, so now that she is going forward with it, she decided to chip in to help someone else. "I’m willing to help out two people, two women that want to freeze their eggs. I’ll put a $1,000 down payment to start their process; that way it brings it down to $5,500," she said. The doctor then said his clinic would match her donation and bring it down another $1,000.
