The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

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Good morning, Las Vegas, and welcome to the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan, thank you once again, for waking up bright and early to join me for a conversation that I hope you will find provocative and informing. As well as engaging, we are closing out black maternity black maternal health week, I should say. And I thought it would be fitting and appropriate to have a conversation centered around just that culminated in our combined with black health in general for women. So that's what we're going to be talking about this morning. And I am very excited to welcome a young lady that I had the pleasure of discovering just the other day and she agreed to get up this morning. And join me I'd like to welcome to the show, Christy Lee Scott. Good morning, Christi.

Unknown Speaker 1:32
Good morning. Good morning. And thank you for having me on.

Unknown Speaker 1:35
Thank you for you know, being willing to share your story with with Las Vegas. I'm with me. As I mentioned, it is the end of black maternal health week. And there's been a lot of focus on that. This week, Vice President Kamala Harris was here, stopping for her cause and the cause of the nation met party to talk about the importance of health. And for those who know me, they know that my history is and then we'll get into a bit of yours. And we'll just share this morning. My history is that I'm a breast cancer survivor. And that space as a breast cancer survivor, bled into my maternal options. I'm a three times survivor. So it started in my 30s and went from age 32 to the third diagnosis being when I was 38. And that diagnosis included having to it was right around the time that I wanted, I decided that I think I want to be a mom, I think I want to you know, see what this is like I thought I made someone get married have kid or just be that ultra independent woman and have a kid, right. And so I began to look at those options. And just as I was gearing up to get my head wrapped around it, there came the third diagnosis with breast cancer. Yeah, so I was faced with and because of the timing of my journey. It's like I had a surgery in July to to deal with the the cancer, the tumor and my breast on the right side. But all at the same time. I was needing to start chemotherapy within three months of the surgery. So by October I had to begin chemo. So in this short window from roughly July to October, so I yeah, that short lob roughly three month window, I had to decide whether or not to start IVF. Yeah, so I because literally, I had the surgery, I was ovulating. And I had to start chemo. So all of this was happening at the same time. So I also had to decide who should be the father of this child who's God fearing enough friend enough, stable enough financially settled enough intelligent enough? attractive enough? Little scary babies. I'm just kidding. But I had to really think and who did I have a solid enough relationship that if anything happened to me, because there I am. I'm a breast cancer survivor. And I'm a breast cancer patient. What if something else happened? And I didn't make it to raise my child to 25 or be there till she or he turned 30? Who did I think I wanted to do? Oh, all of these questions needed to be answered in a window of three minutes. So I literally really did start the IVF process. And I paid 1000s of dollars to think about what I wanted to do because I didn't have time to sit around and think about starting or not starting. So for me I started. Yeah, and it was like paying while going through it. Your ending is much brighter than my ending because you also entered into the space of IVF to have children. Yeah, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 4:53
well first, say Congratulations on surviving cancer three times. That's amazing in itself. And you're truly a testimony to people that are going through or that have been through. So congratulations on that. And I'm so I'm so grateful to have opportunity to have that conversation and to know that you made it through that. Yeah, so So you were saying that you saw while you were doing treatment or right after surgery, you decided to start the process? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 5:27
So for me. For me, it was almost want to like back up a little bit. And just, okay, let's pick up small PAM, we're gonna do something a little like not in flow. But that's the quick snippet on me. So I want to teach you. So just lay a little bit out of who you are. And then we'll go like, unpack how we line up to be so similar. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 5:57
So so my name is Tracy, Christie Lee Scott. I am a mom of twins. By way of IVF. And I'm a wife, I'm a mom and I decided to go through that IVF journey when I was 25 years old, I decided to go through it because I felt like if I got any older, it would probably be probably be harder. And I didn't want it to be a situation where I kept trying, I kept trying, and it wasn't working out because of age. So I decided to go at a younger age or start at a younger age. And fortunately, when I did start IVF, I was pregnant, the first try of IVF, which did cost $20,000. But how I began the journey, I have a partner, and my partner and I decided that we wanted to have kids. And and I completely understand trying to figure out who the donor was gonna be, in some cases, where other people is who the father would be if they have that relationship with their parents. But for me, we decided on a donor, we did have a friend that was interested. But legally, it was the little too complicated. And, and so we decided to go the route of the donor, we

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have to unpack all of this. So so that's our thread we jumped in. And we've we've hit you with a ton of stuff this morning. And what we're coming to you to talk about the thread that binds Christy and I is the IVF experience. I had a portion of it, she went the full journey. Both of our journeys were very emotional. I want to like get into pieces and parts because black maternal health week. It's on the line across the country, there's been some legislation in states down south where they've, I think they began to try to outlaw IVF and take it off the table as an option. And I remember when I was looking at it, I sat down with my pastor, who at the time was pastor Barbara Fowler of victory, and he's passed me rest, as well. Wow. And I sat down with him and I sat because I wondered in my spiritual space, whether or not IVF was a faith based Christians reasonable space to enter into and he sat with me and he said anything that God gives us the knowledge and the ability to create that some things that are blessed, allow us to bless ourselves through scientific process is not something that is not of God process. So he kind of basically, you know, kind of put me at ease and said, it would be basically my choice and it was nothing wrong with it or anything spiritually condemning about, you know, this consideration. So that piece of the puzzle was, you know, laid aside. Yeah, so that piece was laid aside. The crazy part for me was that I had to literally you mentioned the $20,000, I think I spent about $4,000, because I was paying to think about it. And the thing I think that is so tricky is IVF is completely elective, but for me, it's a breast cancer survivor. I used to be the president of the board of directors for Susan G. Komen, Nevada, the breast cancer organization. And one of the pieces of legislation that one of our board members tried to work on for another young lady when she was about your age when she 2625. The time you had your child was around the time she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which is very young. And one of our concerns was whether or not she would be able to have children. And so she wanted to see if there could be some type of legislation created to allow for And I really believe that that is the space that the disconnect between breast cancer and reproductive options is the disconnect that we really need to bridge the gap on because there's a connection between when women are pregnant they breastfeed, right? So have you had a complication with your breasts, you're affecting your reproductive space. And a lot of times when women are diagnosed with breast cancer, now we have the genetic testing and that lets you know whether or not you a lot, you know, the breast, the breast cancer was diagnosed in a single breast. But that genetic test allows you to know, at a 90% rate, whether or not you're going to be you're vulnerable to breast cancer developing in your other breast or in your ovaries. That's how you hear about the women who end up having a hysterectomy is right. If I don't have ovaries, I don't have eggs. Yes, right. So now here I am. 2526. In her case, facing breast cancer, in my case, I was 38 at the time, I ended up not being genetically predisposed. But yet my clock was ticking because my biological clock was ticking out because I was 38 deciding okay, now I want to have a child right. But now you need to do keep me now you need to have this breast cancer surgery, you need to go through chemotherapy and you need to be on oral medication for five to 10 years. Well, 10 years later how 48 Even at the minimum of five, I was going to be 4344 45 by the time it all wrapped up. That's a really late age to come back. And then breast cancer treatment can interrupt your your body's natural process and so your ovulation periods may not return. So it just closes the entire window. You never know what's going to happen. So I began to pay for IVF while I was thinking about it, I think I spent like four almost $5,000 to think I've never been so scatterbrained in my life. Like just sit back, I remember sitting in the room and a corner, just shaking trying to figure out what to do what to do, who do what to do, which friend what what to do. And it was crazy, it was really crazy. And my dad called me as I was trying to figure it all out. And I didn't even say anything to him because I never said, Dad, this is on my mind. And he just out of the blue light, the voice of God, if you will said if you start worrying about having a baby, and just go ahead and take care of yourself, everything will work itself out. And I was just looking at the phone like who told him I was worried. Because I didn't say anything to him. But my dad is a really interesting man who has this amazing intuition about his children. And so just like out of the blue without asking for any help and guidance. He just said if you start worrying about it, having a child having a baby, and just take care of yourself everything in life will work itself out. It'll it'll it's supposed to do and it kind of it calmed my spirit. Yes.

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Yeah. So you pay $4,000 to I

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was getting started because I stopped in the middle because I personally I stopped. So if I had finished, I would have spent the same 20 $25,000 You spent because I was staring at a bill of 25,000. And let us say that's elective folks. You can't write there's no insurance for this. That is, this is something that you want to do. You have paid for it. And it's like calling somebody to your house to do work. You when you call the plumber or a carpenter or an electrician. You pay him when he comes you have in half. It's kind of the same situation. Yes. But sometimes, like in my case. I don't know if you had time to plan. I was it was so under the gun for me. I either had so you see what I'm saying? I either had 20 or $25,000 laying around, right?

Unknown Speaker 13:56
Yes, yeah. And I can understand that, given the circumstances of your health at that time. You want to think about okay, if something happens, I want to hurry up and try to at least freeze my eggs or do something where I can go back and have that option to reproduce if I want to. So I can understand that was probably a very rushed and you know, hectic time of your life. I can absolutely understand that. I did have time. I'm a huge planner. I'm so grateful that I was healthy at that time. But I didn't have time to plan. My My situation was I didn't want to have kids after a certain age. I just I just thought about all the health risks that would come into play not only for myself, but also for the child. And I know there's some people you know, they don't have a choice and we have healthy, healthy babies that are delivered every day. By older moms and things like that. But I didn't, if I had the choice, I wanted to try to do this early, so that I had already had some of my own health concerns. So high blood pressure is a big thing in my family, right prior to my prior to me deciding to have a kid, my sister had just lost her child. And she had preeclampsia, which is when your blood pressure is very high throughout your pregnancy, and it affected the baby and the baby was born, unfortunately, is live for probably like a day. But this was all because her health was not being paid attention to well enough while she was carrying the baby. And those are things that we really have to especially black women, we really have to advocate for ourselves, we really have to, you know, get second and third opinions. And if your body you, it's your body, it will talk to you. And if you feel like something is wrong, you have to say something, you have to go and advocate for yourself. Because unfortunately, my sister kept saying My blood pressure is high or My head hurts like I'm having these bad headaches. And the entire time her blood pressure was very high, her entire pregnancy and makeup like that was overlooked. And I feel like well, we all felt like that was something that could have been prevented.

Unknown Speaker 16:34
Absolutely, it was something that definitely could have been addressed. We talked about this. Earlier this week, I was part of a black maternal health panel that was held in the community a few days ago. And the conversation about the care black women receive compared to their counterparts. The way they're viewed, feeling seen versus unseen in her versus unheard is a really big issue. And doctors understanding the culture. That the message was was what you just say it you have to advocate for yourself because no one knows you better than you know, no one knows your body better than you. No one knows what you're experiencing more than you do. And if you don't talk about it, when I was going through my journey, I don't care what your health issue is. It's one thing to be going through everything to have a baby. It's high blood pressure, it's diabetes, it's it's anything you're dealing with. It's breast cancer, it's I don't care what you are faced with. When you're going through changes. You know that something is wrong before anybody else knows. When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, I started to develop headaches. And I, I asked for a baseline mammogram that was the whole thing but got it started. I lost my mother at 29. And my aunt on my dad's side, passed away shortly after my mom, they both had died from breast cancer that spread to the liver. My mother's also spread to her bones. And it made me want to go and get a baseline mammogram just to have something on the record to have a sense of at this point in life. I'm okay. Well, I was 32 by then my mother died when I was 29. I never thought for a second except I was having some mine I started to have these weird headaches. I never thought for a second. Anything was going to come back at that point. And it did. I didn't feel anything. You know, they were talking about the self breast exams. I didn't feel anything. There were actually three suspicious areas that the doctors couldn't even feel but the mammogram found it. Wow. 32 years ago, and I was starting to

Unknown Speaker 18:58
um, can you imagine the threat of IVF right now IVF expands right and the entire process has been threatened but you have people like you that are going through. I mean, you you made it through but there's people right now that are going through similar situations be some form of cancer or some type of life altering medical situation where Americans are where they have to think about maybe doing some form of IVF or some form of fertility, security where they where they can sit, you know, freeze their eggs or freeze their embryos with their spouse, you know, there have been or, you know, it's been threatened IVF exams right right now, but there are so many different reasons why people would love to store their embryos. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 19:51
And from a reproductive health point we have to fight because in my case when I my first one, I was looking at potential rate iation and taking tamoxifen and I, one of my questions to the oncologist was what will this do to my reproductive system? Because I was 32. And I didn't have kids. And I really thought, Oh, this is going to happen. Like all of these things are going to come to pass. Of course, I'll meet someone, of course, I'll get married. Of course, I'll have kids, right. So I asked her, and she did not have an answer, because at that point in time, there were no so again, the disconnect between breast health and reproductive health, there were no studies taking place to take a look at the impact breast cancer was having on a woman's reproductive system. Of course, maybe the reason being is they normally they were traditionally routinely saying start having mammograms at 40. But what happens when you start to get diagnosed young and the 40? What happens when that begins to happen to people? Because that's what happened in my case, and it's happened to other women, they were young. Yes, absolutely. But we don't know what these things do so so to take away other choices, when you're in the face of it, you can't just say well go through this experience, go through your, whatever your health condition is, and then wherever you come out on the other side, then you see what you have left, and you roll the dice on that. I just think it's so important that affordable health care is available to women that conscientious healthcare is available to women that people dial in. And I say when they give you something, take a look at that medication. For me, it made a huge difference to study the medication I was being put on. Because I needed to understand the side effects. Because when they give you medication, the same medication treats multiple, multiple ailments. So you could be getting it for one thing, and someone else is getting it for I don't know, God knows what gout for whatever reason, you know. And if you don't know what to say, if you don't take the time to learn about what's been given to you, it's much harder for you to realize how it's changing in your body and how it's affecting you.

Unknown Speaker 21:59
Yeah, I absolutely agree. And I think that it's also important for people, even if they're not going through it or have not gone through it, the threat of reproductive health, right. So just reproductive justice in itself. It's a battle for everybody. I think that everyone should be involved in this fight because it can affect not just us but our generations to come. If we don't step in now. And you know, Pfeiffer situations, we're talking about a young woman, you started off with breast cancer at 32 years old. And yes, there's other young people, but that is not as, you know, again, you can't you can't get a mammogram until you're really 40.

Unknown Speaker 22:43
Right, definitely

Unknown Speaker 22:44
want us to get a mammogram. But you know, it can affect it. I think the the stashes like one in eight women are one in seven women will get breast cancer throughout their lives. I mean, that is a very, very high number. And it's

Unknown Speaker 22:58
a it's a very, it's a staggering number. And black women died disproportionately to the to others to breast cancer, more so than others. But even in the space of, you know, what you went through your choice. And this maternal health space and black women being in that space and having healthy children. Were, I think it's three or four times likely to, to die than white women. When we're talking about but you know, birth mortality. Yeah, as far as we're 14, it's four times higher compared to white women, for us in this state. In our state alone, right here than white women, black women are more likely to die in childbirth. And I mean, numbers like that are staggering. But I want to also kind of get a little light in here, because you went through your journey, and you had twins. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 23:56
I did. I ended up having a boy and a girl. And I will say this, I was very vocal, very aware very, I made sure I paid attention to everything. If I felt something, I would say something. And, you know, like I said a few minutes ago, maybe it was because of my sister and her situation, her experience maybe that scared me because that happened about six, six or seven months prior to me becoming pregnant. So So I was very anybody listening anyone that even if you know someone that's going through IVF or just being pregnant by itself, you know, you have to just pay attention to your body and your health in general. But so I did I did get pregnant the first time I was so grateful because I do not have another $20,000 You may try again.

Unknown Speaker 24:52
So let me ask you a question on that because I thought when they harvest it, because when I was going through it, it was about About 25, right? But it came with three tries. So Oh, wow. Yeah, at the time, my included three times that I could if the first one didn't take, I would have the option of trying again, I had three tries in this $25,000 base, unless I'm remembering it incorrectly at this point. It's been many years now. But yeah, there were multiple opportunities to do it. So

Unknown Speaker 25:30
I guess it depends on the fertility clinic that you're working with. But I will say this, if you have once you start IVF process, there's different phases of the process. So what they first do is they ask you if you want to do medicated or unmedicated IVF and most younger women are encouraged to probably not even worry about doing medicated IVF because it's a higher chance that they'll probably end up getting pregnant anyway. The first try, right? But you know, when you're a little older, you want more help and these many medicines that they have to help you produce more eggs because every woman most women,

Unknown Speaker 26:21
right, somebody dropped the

Unknown Speaker 26:24
only one the only dropped one egg per cycle, right? Have you been you have those women that are anomalies where they they naturally meaning when I say naturally they unaided pregnancies where they end up dropping two eggs. And they may have twins, right, or they drop three eggs and they naturally have those triplets, you know. So you would have some of those women, every cycle that a woman's body goes through, will drop one egg and it waits for the sperm to meet. And so in the case of IVF, I chose medicated and i chose it because I didn't have more money to spend. I wanted to do you

Unknown Speaker 27:08
want it to be so you increase your chance catch you. Okay, there are so much we are getting into the last couple of minutes that we have to talk about this this morning. It's crazy how fast time flies when you get into the the yeah, good, good parts of these conversations. But mostly, I wanted to just have a little conversation about it. Because like I said black maternal health week was this week, we're closing it out. And I thought it was valuable to bring some attention to reproductive rights, access choices, awareness, self awareness, noting that. And also because I think these things should be part of insurance options, especially when there are other factors affecting was forcing you into this space, because in a way, they're not separate issues. If I'm dealing with one issue. The one might also though, and I'm insurance, insurance is covering my breast cancer, but it's not as short and covering the other thing that breast cancer was affecting. And so that's, you know, that's the crazy part for me, because 300,000 people lost health insurance a few years ago. And if we don't continue to have a democracy, we're looking at 3 million more black people possibly not having health insurance, or the Affordable Care Act being completely rolled back. And those things are just frightening. But, Christie, we're down to the last minute, what I want to say to you is thank you for spending some time with me this morning talking about this really valuable subject at the end of mentor black maternal health week. And congratulations to you on becoming a mom and knowing what you want it and knowing it is such an early age and going after it.

Unknown Speaker 28:50
Thank you. Thank you for having me. And hopefully we have more time next time. To

Unknown Speaker 28:56
come back and unpack a little bit more of this. I'll have you back just to talk a little bit more about motherhood and just self awareness and the importance of advocating for yourself in the healthcare space. But thank you for sharing your story with me and allowing me to share my story with you. And Vegas. Thank you for sharing this time with us and listening in to our stories. Have a great week. And I look forward to you listening in next week at another edition of the scoop with me Tanya Flanagan here on K u and v 91.5. Jazz and more I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tony Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle TA and YAFL a na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai