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We are here with Olympian and former pro football player,
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Melissa Ortiz. Welcome.
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Thank you. Happy to be here.
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We're happy to have you on.
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I'm a big fan of you as an athlete,
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but I recently saw your video covering your egg freezing journey and
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I really related to it.
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Why did you decide that now was the time to freeze your
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eggs? So I think there's a few reasons why I decided
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now was the time one age is a factor.
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So I'm 34 going on 21.
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But that's ok. I learned a little by little more about
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my own female body and what that entails and the fact that
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I do want to have kids at some point.
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But time wise and timeline,
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especially in my career,
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I don't want to have a baby right now.
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So when it comes to egg freezing,
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I learned that at 34 actually in your,
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in your low thirties or even in your twenties,
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it's the perfect time to do it.
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Why? Because you have more eggs and also better quality eggs
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So that was one of my range,
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main reasonings of, hey,
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I want to do this now,
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I want to make sure that I do focus on my career
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but I also set myself up that when the time is
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right. Whether that's two years,
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whether that's in 34 or five,
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who knows that? I say,
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you know, at 34 years old I had good,
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better quality eggs. They're frozen and if at any point and
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hopefully not, there's any troubles getting pregnant later on.
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I have my frozen eggs from when I was 34 and a
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good amount. So it was the best decision that I've done
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honestly as, as a woman and as someone that prioritizes her
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career, but also prioritizes her body over anything else.
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there are a lot of us out there,
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you know, that are prioritizing our career and and just
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you know, other things like buying a home first and
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you know, some of us are like,
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we still don't have a partner,
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you know. So it's like I'm in my thirties,
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like there's a timeline,
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there's pressure and then you're getting the pressure from your family too
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you know. So this is very,
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Yeah, the pressure is real.
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And as a Latina even more and I felt pressure as a
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woman, as someone who I'm married to a Puerto Rican.
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So his family is in Puerto Rinos Colombiana.
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And I just felt like it was always a question of when
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are you going to get pregnant.
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When are you going to have a baby?
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And deep down inside of me,
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it's like I want to do it when I feel ready or
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we feel ready as a couple and as a marriage and that
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really essentially, you know,
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motivated me even more to make a decision on what I wanted
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coming from a Latino family,
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this is, this is science and this is technology,
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And when you come from Latinos who are very traditional,
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usually women, especially coming back from my family,
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had kids at a younger age.
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So it was kind of like a shock.
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Actually, it wasn't kind of like a shock,
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But I think it's a shock like for anyone learning something new
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And once I fully explained what the process was,
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what it meant, they were so incredibly supportive,
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but I really, really had to educate them,
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like I had to educate myself.
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And I think that's just something that we have to remind ourselves
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as Latinos that yes,
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we live in a very incredible tight knit family or community.
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But there's time, there's a time and a place for everything
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and when it's something so personal,
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you really have to prioritize your decisions and what you want to
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whatever it is. And I know you've covered the World Cup
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Are you coming to the Copa America,
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we will see, we will see.
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Well, I guess in general,
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who do you think is in the Copa Home?
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I'm a dual national.
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So I'm a proud Americana Colombian.
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So if Colombia wins it,
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I'm happy if the United States wins it,
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especially as a host country.
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I'm happy, I think right now,
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Colombia is the dark horse of this tournament and I do really
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think Colombia is going to have a great tournament.
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There's two really exciting friendlies coming up and it's like the pre
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of America and I'll be covering that on TNT.
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So it's the US men's national team against Colombia and then it's
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the US men's national team against Brazil.
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and that's June 8th and June 12th.
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I believe so. Definitely tune into those games on TNT.
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And if you could go to the stadium and watch those games
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one of them is in Maryland,
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the other one in Orlando,
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it's going to be a five.
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And last thing where can people find you?
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I mean, I know you lugged the show but just if
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you want to plug your socials for your coffee company as well
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like that'd be awesome.
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The coffee company is at kickoff Coffee Co I,
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I don't know if you see it.
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You can either, I can see it and then my own
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personal one is at Melissa Ortiz five.
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But thank you so much,
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Melissa. We really appreciate you being on the show and sharing
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your journey with us and being super transparent with us on this
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subject. So thank you so much.
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