Chiquita Lockley: Producer, Fertility Advocate & Filmmaker

“I believe you water the garden that you’re in.”

Chiquita Lockley

Chiquita Lockley is committed to empowering women. She’s the face and creator behind the documentary, “Eggs Over Easy: Black Women & Fertility.”

It all started with a trip to the gynecologist in 2016 and when the doctor simply said “Oh you have a birthday coming up. Your eggs are turning 41. Do you know what you want to do with them?”

That question left Lockley speechless. “I knew where my next vacation would be, where I was going for brunch that Sunday, I knew how my life was planned out for the next several months but eggs were not on that list,” said Lockley who never thought about her ovarian reserve, the eggs in her ovaries.

But it wasn’t until Lockley's favorite aunt questioned her about kids that really sparked her interest and research into fertility health.

As Lockley investigated, she discovered that there was just so much fertility information that she and the friends in her circle were either unaware of or just did not discuss publicly. That silence is nothing new in the Black community.

“We don’t talk about it and that goes back to slavery,” expressed Lockley. “In my research for the film, slave masters could make more money for an enslaved fertile woman of childbearing years. So there was more value placed on the woman who could bear children and so many would keep quiet.”

According to Lockley, four hundred years of that is what caused the silence around fertility and infertility.

To combat the stigma around fertility health and challenges, Lockley created the documentary, “Eggs Over Easy” with the hope that more women would talk about their fertility health with doctors and normalize those conversations with friends. 

“I believe you water the garden that you’re in. The conversation starts with us, and wherever you are, water your garden, meaning talk to the people in your circle. If we don’t talk about it, then we can’t be there to support one another.” 

In the film, women share their personal fertility stories as well as reproductive health options. By Fall 2021, Eggs Over Easy will be featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).  

Listen to what Lockley has to say to ambitious women who may want the career and baby.

Andrea Syrtash: Author, Journalist and ‘Pregnantish’

“There’s power in advocacy, power in our voices, and power in our community.”

Andrea Syrtash

Andrea Syrtash, an author, journalist and the brains behind Pregnantish, decided to turn her fertility challenges into a survival guide. Actually, her experience is in the form of an online magazine to help those struggling with infertility. However, before creatively working to destigmatize infertility, her story begins during her teenage years. That’s when Syrtash experienced heavy menstrual periods. She was also diagnosed with endometriosis at 14 and later told that conceiving a child would be a challenge. 

“As a fourteen year old, the last thing on my mind was motherhood,” said Syrtash who didn’t realize that the road to motherhood would be a roller coaster ride. 

By the time, Syrtash met her husband, she casually shared that it could take them a few years to have a baby. To her surprise, it took the couple much longer.

“The long story short is, I now have a two year old that took me almost a decade to have. It took me eight years, 18 fertility treatments, open stomach surgery to remove a fibroid tumor, pregnancy losses and a whole host of other things,” said Syrtash who eventually took the surrogacy route, when a relative became her gestational carrier. 

In 2019, Syrtash and her husband were blessed with a daughter and through her fight to become a mother, empowering others was always at that back of her mind. Just a few years before becoming a mother, Syrtash decided to launch Pregnantish,  a family building website to support those on the non-medical side of infertility. 

“I was five years into my struggle and frustrated that all the content that I was finding was medical related or personal blogs. I wanted to create an online space with content that was sourced, creditable, fact-checked, and was much more than my story,” Syrtash expressed.

Since 2017, Pregnantish has been committed to educating and supporting a community of folks who often suffer in silence. According to RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, one in 8 couples struggle with infertility. Through its network, Pregnantish connects some of those people and host “live” events that have been temporarily suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

However, Syrtash continues to move forward with her mission while many try to adapt to the “new” normal of social distancing. She’s currently working on a state-of-art fertility app that will further help and represent a diverse set of voices.

“Infertility has taught me that there are setbacks, but you have to stay present! There’s power in advocacy, power in our voices, and power in our community.”

Shervonne Coney: Founder of Black Women and Infertility

“I never knew how strong I was until I had to be strong.”

Shervonne Coney

Shervonne Coney is just like any other woman. She loves to laugh, have fun and be around loved ones. She’s a wife of 18 years, minister, sister, friend and student in school for mental health counseling. “Like every other woman, I wear many hats but it just so happens, I don’t wear the hat of mother,” said Coney who’s transparent about her journey to motherhood. 

Infertility became a stumbling block for her. It’s a disease with a set of different causes such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome. Coney’s diagnosis is “unexplained infertility” which can affect both men and women of every ethnic group and race around the world. This health issue often leads to distress and depression, as well as discrimination in some cultures. Studies show that black women are disproportionately affected by infertility in terms of access to care, treatment and support. In fact, black women are also less likely to talk about the fertility challenges they face, even though they are twice as likely to suffer from infertility than white women. To help women who suffer in silence, Coney decided to create her own group after running into a dead end to find support that represented her, where she lives in Massachusetts.  

“Essentially I never knew how strong I was until I had to be strong,” said Coney who founded the social media platform Black Women and Infertility. “I found myself struggling with infertility and I really just wanted an outlet to voice my pain.” The group started on Facebook as a private space for women in March 2015. “Initially, I had one member. Now, there are almost one thousand national and international members in my group,” Coney exclaimed. 

Her vision is to eventually become a powerful and impactful non-profit organization for women dealing with infertility, child loss and miscarriage. “I have to tell you that I always had this idea to create retreats for women. Basically an excuse for women to get away to focus on themselves and self healing,” Coney shared. Coney’s personal definition of motherhood has evolved since her struggle with infertility. “I think you are a mother when you give birth to a child of course, but also an idea or vision. A mother is someone who nurtures, supports and protects something she has birthed.” 

Although doctors may say Coney’s chances of becoming a mother are very slim, she relies heavily on her faith when it seems like the deck of cards is stacked against her. Coney looks to God and often reflects on His word and what He is doing in her life. With that strength, she encourages all women to find support where they can and to most importantly never decline help.

“A lot of time we want to process things on our own, but please seek help. There are so many people like myself, who would like to encourage you through this journey. There's validity in that.”

Dr. Jerisa Berry: Wife, Mother & Innovator.

“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