Life in New York City is fast-paced and hectic – even more so if you’re a beloved public figure. That’s the case with Astra, the afternoon radio personality on 92.3 AMP FM, one of the biggest radio stations in the New York City market. When she’s not spinning tracks or bantering with her fellow on-air colleagues, Astra is updating us on all things pop culture: a musician’s antics here, a celebrity’s scandal there – and she does her homework both within the studio and without, making appearances at events, nightclubs and such. Astra consumes and disseminates pop music and news through the air and online to a potential audience of millions.
And like any other resident in the NYC metro area, Astra has learned to balance her private and professional life. For her, that meant exploring all possible pathways when it came to how and when to start her family.
“Besides my career considerations, I’ve definitely thought about starting a family, and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to have a child down the road,” Astra said in a recent interview. After talking with a few colleagues, she attended a seminar on fertility services.
“There were a hundred people there!” she recalled, with some surprise. “Like me, they wanted to know what our options were, and besides getting answers to my questions, I also realized this was a subject we should be talking about on the air. Obviously, a lot of people are interested in infertility treatments, but didn’t know how to get them done.”
Having found some answers during the seminar, Astra’s next step was meeting with Dr. Maria Constantini-Ferrando at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey (RMANJ) to discuss through the services available, and carefully considering each – eventually settling on fertility preservation – specifically egg freezing.
“I was aware of this service, but I didn’t know how it worked or whether I was even a suitable candidate – and Dr. Constantini-Ferrando answered all of the questions I had, even giving me information I didn’t know to ask for,” said Astra. “That basically allows me the chance to have kids down the road, when I am ready.”
Besides doing their own research, Astra urges women and men who may have questions about fertility services to consider speaking with experts in the field – like those at RMANJ – not just to get answers, but to begin planning a path forward as soon as possible. To help educate her fans, Astra even blogged about the experience, from her first consultation to egg retrieval.
And while egg freezing has received more attention in the recent years, the end goal for all patients is a successful live birth, and outcomes can vary based on patient, treatment type, and clinic. To help find a provider, experts recommend that women like Astra check with an independent third party like the Society for Assistive Reproductive Technology (at SART.org), which presents unbiased success rates for both physicians and practices.
“The sooner you speak with a fertility specialist, the sooner we can begin to determine a plan to achieve the success you are looking for,” said Dr. Constantini-Ferrando, who is based out of RMANJ’s Englewood office. “From IVF and IUI to egg / embryo freezing, semen analysis and genetic screening, RMANJ offers a full slate of fertility services and we will be with you every step of the way.”
Today, you can hear Astra on the radio from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays, and thanks to the help from experts like RMANJ, she can plan not just a continued career on the air, but for a family in the near future.
“Life moves fast and I know my biological clock is ticking,” she says. “It’s good to know that I, and many other women and men out there, have options.”