“I learned a long time ago that I had a voice that should be heard.”
Dr. Jerisa Berry, founder of SecureYourFertility.com, helps women take charge of their fertility health.
Dr. Jerisa Berry discovered her purpose, voice and power after facing fertility challenges.
Sometimes it takes trials and tribulations in life to bring people around to their purpose. When people dream of success, their visions are usually without the hurdles they will encounter in order to reach their desired goal.
This certainly holds true for Emergency Room physician, Dr. Berry who struggled with fibroids and endured several failed fertility treatments including intra-uterine insemination and in-vitro fertilization (IVF). However, even in her pain, the South Florida doctor along with her husband, Dr. Adam K. Berry decided to turn their personal fertility journey into a purpose-driven cause. “The abundance of women we met going through the process was immense and so many of them also lacked (fertility) knowledge and were clueless until there was a problem,” Dr. Berry expressed. In early 2016, she felt awareness was still lacking. So the couple decided to use their professional platform as the owners of Vital Care Medical Center to increase awareness about reproductive health in order to make sure women don’t miss opportunities to build families due to lack of fertility knowledge. “So many joke about putting off fertility and motherhood, but there are steps that can be taken to preserve it while many women build their careers or are single,” said Dr. Berry, who founded SecureYourFertility.com as well as an app for women in the race against their biological clocks to have children.
According to Dr. Berry, women who are prolonging motherhood should seek options to preserve their fertility even in their 20s. In fact, she says any woman who is under 35, should only try for 1 year to maintain pregnancy and if older than 35, give it 6 months. “Don't keep trying year after year not seeking official answers to the problem. The problem may be the male. You never know until you seek to know,” she exclaimed. The first in her family to become a doctor, she’s very familiar with how society often defines a woman’s success by her offspring, strength, leadership. “What I realized myself too is you can get everything you want, including being a mom, or a successful person and lose it all. I know so many mothers who have lost a child,” said Dr. Berry, who has been working tirelessly dealing with the current threat of the coronavirus. “There is a pandemic going on now in the world and people are losing a lot. It is very hurtful to place so much weight in anything. We have to be mindful of what we place so much emphasis on as nothing belongs to us... no thing, no house, no person and no child. Our purpose is not uniquely tied to any one person. So you can have a purposeful life without being a mom, without things, or popularity.”
A firm believer in God, and Jesus Christ as her savior, she’s committed to erasing the stigma of infertility and misconceptions associated with it as well. “I sometimes meet women who feel uncomfortable pursuing fertility treatments. I believe that God has allowed the advances in research and medicine, and encourage women to see it as another avenue to motherhood,” Dr. Berry explained. She said it’s important to release innate beliefs and control, and work on being open to fertility treatments. “Different physicians practice medicine differently. Because of this I'm an avid believer in getting a second and third opinion with displeasing news, diagnoses, and prognosis.”
To date, Dr. Berry has made great strides in educating women about their bodies. She has written several books and continues to uplift and empower ladies nationally. You can learn more about Dr. Berry or follow her work at drjerisaberry.com