My abortion.

TRIGGER WARNING: abortion, chronic illnesses, spouse death, mental illness.

Loz Antonenko is an absolute powerhouse. Not only does she run a huge inspirational business, and online platform but she is an incredibly resilient, genuine and beautiful person.

Join Loz as she shares her life coping with her spouse's death, unexpected pregnancy, and illness's. And how she has come out the other side. 

You can feel the power that Loz encapuslates in her life through this episode.

You can reach me on Instagram at @uncommonex, with any questions you have.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to the Uncommon Exposé, where I want to change your life by sharing someone else's. If you've got an open mind, then please join me and my guests as we share their incredible, inspiring, true stories. Trigger warning. This episode discusses abortion, spouse death, mental illness, and chronic illness. If you or anyone that you know are struggling with these things, please seek help. Welcome to the Uncommon Exposé. I am so grateful. You are one of the first people that I have reached out to, to share their story. And I was so nervous. Really? Yeah. Well, I mean, like we've met before, but only at like an event. So it's not been like a, I know you very well. In passing. Yeah, exactly. And I guess fear of rejection as always. These stories that I share are never about me they're about my guests but there is a like oh what if she says no when I look like a moron or she gets really because on social media it can be really um like people are so it can be so aggressive and take the wrong point of view so you know not I think you're a beautiful person and I don't think that you would have but there's always that fear that you've been like who do you think you are messaging me about sharing my life no way um so I'm so grateful to you because you were like yes let's do this um so I'm very grateful to you for sharing this with me. Thank you. So I will get you to introduce yourself and we'll just start wherever you want to start.

SPEAKER_00: 1:43

I'm Loz Antonenko. I am 40, or as I like to say, approximately 36 plus GST.

SPEAKER_01: 1:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:50

And I've had an abortion.

SPEAKER_01: 1:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:52

So that's not a story I share very often with people in public because it's not a conversation topic that comes up frequently. Oh, how are you going? You know, like, you know, I think in terms of my life and the trajectory that it's taken. I've had more major life plot twists than a binge-worthy Netflix series at this point.

SPEAKER_01: 2:15

We could do a series on you, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 2:16

Honestly, it's insane. And it's not something that I wear as a badge of honour on my sleeve, but it's a testament to the fact that I think when you don't realize your capability and your capacity to be resilient through challenges, when you were faced head on with just situation after situation after situation, it becomes quite the identity spinner for you to realize on the other side of those challenges. Oh my gosh, like I did that. Like I got through that. And, you know, the time I made a decision to terminate a pregnancy was one of those times and those moments in time where, you know, I reflect on it with very mixed emotions. I was 31 and My husband had just recently passed away from suicide. So Brian had passed away two days after my 31st birthday. That was in March 2016. And I was on a work trip not long after that in April. And I had taken one of my work colleagues. And, you know, we were good friends and, you know, we bonded. And we had to go pick up this piece of equipment. And we'd been staying together Anyway, one thing led to another. And yeah, I didn't realize that I'd fallen pregnant. And I remember I was on contraception. You know, we use all the protective measures that you are using at that time in your life when it's very confusing and that all failed. And I remember I didn't get my period. And it was odd because at this time in my life, my periods were very all over the place. So I had what you would call dysmenorrhea. So So my menstrual cycles were out of whack. I had been on an off oral contraceptive, not for contraceptive purposes, to manage PCOS. I was very used to the fact that I never knew when I was going to get my period. It was just my life from the age of 13. I had chronic PMS. I was diagnosed with PMDD where I'd just be this moody, hangry bitch for three weeks of every month. There was one week when I actually got my period where I wasn't cranky and horrible yeah and so I was on this trip and didn't really think anything of it and you know weeks went by and I didn't get my period so you know I was just like oh well it is what it is and I remember it was about week six and I was starting to get incredibly unwell my ulcerative colitis so I have a autoimmune disease I have a few autoimmune diseases which are very common in women

SPEAKER_01: 5:10

it

SPEAKER_00: 5:11

had been progressively getting worse by this point I think for three solid weeks in a row I just was pooping blood I was I mean that's what happens when I get a flare up I always get a flare up around the time of my period so every month I'm like faced with having a period and then pooping blood. It's horrible. It's horrible. This is my reality. And it had flared up beyond control. I was prescribed like really heavy oral steroids to try and manage it and it wasn't going away. I had developed massive migraines, like completely debilitating migraines. But then I put all this stuff down to the fact that I was still deep in a process of grief and unpacking it again. I was performing my grief of the suicide of my husband through spreadsheets and realizing that if I just kept going and being busy and picking up stuff for my business, you know, we were on this work trip together, you know, I wouldn't have to feel anything.

SPEAKER_01: 6:17

What was the space of time, sorry, between your husband passing and this work trip?

SPEAKER_00: 6:22

About a month.

SPEAKER_01: 6:23

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 6:24

okay. So Brian died on the 6th of March, 2016. His funeral, I think, was on the 12th of March, 2016. And, you know, I still had a business to run My father and I had had a falling out six months before. My father and I were in business together. My father had hit me at work in the face over a bedpan, not having a price on it. My father was taking me through this court process. I had put a DBO ad on him. Then my husband passed away. And then just prior to this work trip, my grandfather then passed away. And so this work trip, it wasn't even a quote unquote work trip. It was just some form of respite for me to escape. my life there was a patient lifter that we were procuring for my business so like through all of this I had like lost my business partner my dad was trying to take me to court trying to make me bankrupt then my husband died and then my dad blamed me for my husband's death and my husband's family were trying to take me for basically assumed that they could claim all of his assets as part of the estate it was just a really complicated time and then my grandpa he was quite he was older and I was going through that so like I had all of this stuff my body was in this chronic state of acute inflammation I had urinary tract infections going off left right and center I had just been to hospital for a urinary tract infection had an operation to stretch my urethra and to sterilize my bladder and you know I was not in a really good physical state I was very unwell and mentally like just holding myself together with duct tape and just sheer bloody mildness and And I had this business that my dad and I started in 2007. So it was nine years old at this point, more than that. Yeah, nine years old. And it was really important for me to keep that going. So despite all this, keeping the business going, we needed to procure this patient lifter for our hire, our rental pool, and it was down in Byron Bay. And so when my dad had hit me at work and my husband had committed suicide, they were both were sort of working in the business and then they weren't. I didn't have anybody to work for me so I hired Mick to fill their role and he was just– he had no idea what he was actually doing. And we were just like– and we were really close and I'm like, I've got to go down to Byron. I don't want to drive by myself. Like I'm stupid to– like I'm not in a good head space. But like I'm a stupid driver. Like I don't want to drive the big truck. Can you come with me? We'll stay down there. We'll get like a place at Byron and, you know, oh just I need I need to get away he's like yep that's cool we're good friends yeah and we went and picked up this patient lifter

SPEAKER_01: 9:11

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 9:12

so it's like a hoist that gets people out of bed it was a really great buy we stayed at bar and one thing led to another got really drunk you know slept together

SPEAKER_01: 9:20

and

SPEAKER_00: 9:21

it was great yeah it was great just a little bit of distraction yeah I didn't know that Michael would become my husband

SPEAKER_01: 9:27

no at this

SPEAKER_00: 9:28

point right

SPEAKER_01: 9:29

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 9:29

you know yeah and the you know the second great love of my life but you know it was a confusing it was a confusing moment it was confusing time I don't remember most of it because I got incredibly intoxicated that night you know as you do as you do right and it was just such a it was such an honest break from the bullshit you know having to when somebody dies I mean nobody tells you all of the things that you have to do and especially if they die unexpectedly you know and at an age where you're not expecting somebody to die

SPEAKER_01: 9:57

there

SPEAKER_00: 9:58

was an entire list of things that you have to go through like planning a funeral trying to get money out of someone's bank account because he had a He had his own bank account and stuff, getting super. He had life insurance. All of this stuff, it's confusing. It's complex. There were a lot of people involved. And people tell you– I had some good friends say to me who had been through a similar experience at an older age, it's the part after the funeral that you're going to need support for. Everybody will be there after the funeral and then they will expect you to get over it. And it's not even like that cut and dry, but it's when you lose somebody that you're married to, there is– There is no time for grief until after the funeral, and that's when you finally start to deal with it. And I'd kind of hit that point. And so, you know, performing this grief in Byron Bay, respite, and I was really sick, had no idea what I was doing, and that was it. And so all of these weeks later, after going through all of that, got really sick, didn't think much of it, and then thought, I'm just going to do– Mm-hmm. And it came back positive. I was like, oh, fuck. What is this? And so thinking, okay, well, I don't trust a pregnancy test. I called my mum. My mum's a midwife. I said, okay, this is where I'm at, which is go get a blood test. You need to go get a blood test just to double check. So I went and saw my doctor. They ask you the usual questions, you know, about pregnancy and stuff. And I said, look, can I please get some blood tests? And so I was pregnant. And by this stage, I wasn't very far into a pregnancy. I was actually only about six weeks into this pregnancy. So it was really hard for me to draw that line. What was stress-related problems that I was dealing with? What was related to the pregnancy? And this perpetuated for a couple of weeks. And I got to the stage where I couldn't even function. I was so incredibly unwell physically. And in my head, I'm going, I don't think I could carry this pregnancy. I think this would actually kill me. And that was a really valid point. Was this your first pregnancy? Yeah. But just the toll that it was taking on my body because I was in such a stressed state as it was. And I'm thinking... could I even carry this to term?

SPEAKER_01: 12:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:20

What if it all imploded? What if I didn't make it through? I had stories of other girls that I'd known who had the same chronic diseases that I was dealing with, like ulcerative colitis, who then developed full-blown Crohn's disease as a result of being pregnant. Not that they would ever regret that, but, you know, there were certain case studies where I was like, I just don't want to, it was just such a high risk. And so I spoke to Michael. And he'd actually been through this before with a previous partner. So, you know, he said, look, I know a really great place if this is what you want to do. Like I– sorry. I– it's your decision. I will support you in whatever it is that you want to do. It was such a big trigger for him because– going back and forth, you know, what do we do? Do we try this? Knowing that he already had a child. So Michael is 15 years older than me and already has a daughter and she's 10 years younger than me at this time. And we're just having this conversation and I said, look, Let me sort of sleep on it. Give me a week. And I'll make a decision at the end of that week. I said to him, I'd like to actually terminate the pregnancy. And so I remember going into Brisbane. I think it's Murray Stokes or something like that. It's a place where you go. And my only experience of this place is that it was right across the road from the vet that I used to go to, this holistic vet. And I used to always see these anti-abortion protesters out front. And so that was my only association with this place. And I felt so judged and so shamed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the best thing that I could do right now for myself and the circumstances. And so I just kept holding myself to that. And I fully prepared to go there and have all these pro-life protesters. And they weren't there. And I remember Michael driving me to the clinic and he started crying. He started crying. Oh, wow. Because it was such a trigger for him. You know, his last partner went to the same clinic.

SPEAKER_01: 14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:53

And, you know, he was really brave and courageous to take me in there and he dropped me off and he sort of took me in and they said, oh, come back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, I remember going in there and they're really nice and filling out the paperwork. I had no idea what I was going in for. Mum kind of explained it, but, you know, you don't really know it until you go in there. And I remember having the procedure and waking up when they give you the curette and I I just remember this massive sigh of relief that felt really burdened by this, oh my God, what have I done? What could this have been? What could this life have been like with us and this child potentially? What if it didn't work out anyway? What if my pregnancy hadn't carried through to full term anyway? I remember going back home and I bore my eyes out for like three weeks straight. I was just so mentally tormented. I think the weight of the decision Yeah. grandfather. I'd lost the three strongest paternal figures in my life. And at that point, you know, I'd lived by a very masculine system of achievement and defined myself through my intellect and my ability to drive and push and strive and hustle. And here I was figuratively and literally collapsed in a heap, unable to function and Michael was just there and, I mean, he was confused. We had our moments and we would argue over things. But then I ended up going to Sydney. not long after that, after the three weeks. And I had some work. I had a workshop or something on that I was doing. I can't even remember what it was. And I was really close to Michael's daughter because, you know, she was actually closer in age to me than I was to him. And I got this call from her in Sydney. I was going on a walk in the morning before I had this event. And she called me. She said, I have to tell you something. And I remember sitting down and she goes, I'm pregnant. So this is literally like three weeks, do you know what I mean, after I terminated pregnancy. And... You know, she was in a relationship with this guy. He was lovely, lovely, very quirky guy. And Brittany, this is my stepdaughter's name, said, so what are you going to do? She goes, I don't know. You know, I think that I can do this only in her, you know, 21 years old.

SPEAKER_01: 18:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:01

And it's interesting because I reflect on Brittany and how she came into the world because Michael was in a relationship with Brittany's mum. Michael was a touring musician in his 20s. Like, no care in the world, no responsibility, left home at 15, you know, touring. with these bands for years and years and years, getting into clubs illegally, you know, sex drugs and rock and roll, sleeping with lots of women. I mean, you know, like that's what you do, right, when you're on the road. And he had this girlfriend and, you know, grade A Klingon and, you know, he never really wanted to settle down with her but she fell pregnant to him by ways where he was very upset that it had happened. There was a little bit of non-truths. Deception. Yeah, I don't even know if that's a word to use, but, you know, she stopped taking contraceptive pill and didn't sort of tell him as far as I understand. And she fell pregnant and, you know, they had a baby together and that was Brittany. And so Michael was a father around the same age that Brittany fell pregnant. And, you know, I remember having these family conversations and it was good because, you know, I was able to have these really great mature conversations with her. She decided that she was going to have a baby and And so, you know, Brittany gave birth to baby Amity and it was just so exciting. And I got to, you know, become G-Ma. And so Amity was born on the 1st of January. whenever it was, I forget, 1st of April actually. So it must have been after April. But the timing is just– this whole part of my life is such a blur. It was all weeks and weeks we're talking here.

SPEAKER_01: 19:42

But

SPEAKER_00: 19:44

Amity, she's this child that exudes such a level of confidence that I've never seen in a young woman. She's eight now. And– It's funny because Brittany has subsequently split up from her baby daddy and is now getting married to the neighbour. So, you know, she's sort of shacked up with her neighbour. And it's funny, you know, watching history repeat itself. But for the benefit of Amity who, you know, is this young girl finding her way, she's got such beautiful people around her. She's got all these adults that have all repartnered and she's got– all these cousins and and this massive extended family and you know I look at her and even though we're not biologically related she is more like me than any other person in her family like she's really bold and loud and

SPEAKER_01: 20:42

you

SPEAKER_00: 20:43

know she loves to dance and sing and she carries on and she tries lots of things even when she's scared she does acrobatic like aerial gymnastics and stuff and so you know I used to want to do that stuff as a kid wanted to do cheerleading but you know I did dance and gymnastics and acting and, you know, it's really great to be able to have that maternal input somewhere. And it's funny, not long after I terminated my pregnancy and found out Brittany was pregnant, Mick and I decided that we weren't going to have children and he went and had a vasectomy.

SPEAKER_01: 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:17

Best decision we ever made.

SPEAKER_01: 21:19

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 21:20

And, you know, Michael and I have now known each other. We got married on July the 4th, 2010 in the middle of the Grand Canyon. It was a very random– we had no plans to get married at all. It was a very random thing that happened. We had this big three-week holiday that we'd planned, and we were going to New Zealand to go skiing and snowboarding, which we'd not done before, together. And then we were going to America to visit his brother, who was living in West Hollywood at the time, doing hair there for Hollywood. And then we'd go to Grand Canyon and go to Vegas and do the thing that you do in Vegas. And then we had a week in Hawaii. And when we're in New Zealand, you know, we had this hire car and we'd had a couple of beers and we were like back down to this Lake Taupo, what's called. And, you know, Mick's like, oh, just come down here. And like we had a couple of beers in our hands and he then starts talking in riddles and saying I'm the yin to his yang and the sun to his moon and all this stuff. I'm like, what are you even saying? And then he asked me to marry him. No ring, no preparedness, nothing. the way that it needed to be. And so... We went back to our cabin. We had an Airbnb with no television, but it had internet. And we were thinking, what would be the most stupid, outrageous way we'd get married? And we're looking at all these things in the wedding packages and it came up like, oh, catch a chopper to some place in the Grand Canyon. We could only get, it's only accessible by chopper. And they have permission from the owners of the land who are indigenous people and, you that. It's in a package, had a photographer and everything. We're like, let's just book that. And so we did that. And, you know, the next week we're flying out to America and we didn't tell anybody, you know, we basically eloped. And yeah, he got a ring from the porn shop that's on the show on TV. They weren't there. And yeah, we got married in the Grand Canyon on Independence Day. And there were fireworks because it was Independence Day. So we had like all these fireworks. It was amazing. And then our honeymoon was in Hawaii. Oh my God. But it's You know, I guess the whole experience of our relationship and what it represents is that we experience so much trial and pain and suffering at the beginning of the time that we met each other. You know, I met Mick in 2014 working at the same place that I met Brian, you know, at the Ipswich PCYC and I was teaching Zumba and Mick was teaching music and we'd sort of seen each other for years and years and years prior to that. Never really knew each other's names and met and became really good friends. And, you know, going through the suicide of my first husband, my dad hitting me at work, you know, the death of my grandpa, me being sick, terminating a pregnancy, the other illnesses and diseases that I acquired over those years and medical acronyms after my name. You know, we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro together. You know, that in itself is insanely challenging personally and as a couple. And then the way that we had our wedding, like it basically set the tone for our entire relationship and so here we are you know over a decade after we met. And we just lived this amazing child-free life. And so I still have Brittany. She's getting married next year to the neighbor. They want to have a child together. And, you know, I get to see my beautiful granddaughter, you know, whenever I get to see her, you know, hanging out, doing fun stuff. She gets to see the best of me and experience GMA and Popstar the way that she needs to, to get that side of her life, you know fully engaged and immersed in fun yeah and mick and i just live in this state of constant random joy and happiness and we manage through all of the difficulties and you know we've just come back from two massive weekends of gigs we're in a band together um you know i sing backup vocals sometimes and you know he plays drums and our life is highly unpredictable i mean we've engineered it in a way where there's just no space for kids we have two two seater vehicles yeah You know, and it's interesting because I think when society throws expectations on you, especially as a female, you know, who are you? What are you supposed to embody? And deciding to go against that even though there's this constant expectation. I remember for many, many years people are like, you're going to have kids. I'm like, no. Oh, no, you'll change your mind. You'll change your mind. I was sick and tired of those fucking comments. I constantly was getting people saying, oh, no, no, no, no, you'll have kids. And I'm like, no. Even as a girl... Kids were never in my life plan.

SPEAKER_01: 26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:11

Having children, it was never, ever in my life plan. I never used to play with dolls. Like if you gave me dolls, I'd chop their hair off and give them tattoos and nipple piercings.

SPEAKER_01: 26:20

Oh, that's so good.

SPEAKER_00: 26:21

My sister found a Barbie doll from when we were kids and re-gifted it to me on my 40th birthday. It was the best present I've ever seen. She wrapped it all up like I had no idea it was in there and it was just this demented Barbie that I just completely maimed. And so I have it and when I get off on stage and I present as a speaker I use it I have this Barbie car that I use just as a prop there's relevance to the story that I tell

SPEAKER_01: 26:46

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 26:46

but I have my Barbie in the Barbie car

SPEAKER_01: 26:49

trash Barbie

SPEAKER_00: 26:49

yeah and we've all had that right but that was me as a kid you know I used to build Meccano and Technic Lego and and go-karts and BMX ride and you know I never was in that sort of feminine archetype I still struggle as that as a 40 year old woman I think that I wear a lot of pink now just pink came to me pink was is this color and pink and bright yellow, which conflict. And, you know, it's interesting looking at how I've embodied what femininity means. It's not being a mother and a caregiver. I'm not great with kids. I'm good at singing songs, but I don't have the endurance to manage kids for long periods of time. Like they really tire me out, like at a cellular level. Like I just don't. you know, I have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia that I've been managing and, you know, give me 24 hours with a kid under 10 years old and I'm absolutely flat like I'm pooped. Yeah. But give me 24 hours with someone under 10 years old and I'll have the best, funnest time and we'll sing and we'll dance and we'll make up stories and we'll have little skits and we'll do all the stuff. But, you know, if that's my contribution, then that's what it looks like. But I think it comes down to knowing your lane knowing your alignment. And for me, having impact on this world outside of procreation, it makes it a little harder because then you've got to go, okay, well, what is my legacy if I'm not going to do it by having children? Can I still leave my mark on this world? What does that look like? How can I be authentic and aligned? And people are always like, oh, my God, you look so good for 40. I'm like, straight up, I have no kids. And they're like, oh, right, right, you got that. But it's interesting because, you know, I've tend to gel more with older women who have got kids now that have left home and have become empty nesters. And so they're for the first time trying to find and reaffirm their identity. My identity has been forged through, you know, all of the challenges, brain tumors, heart surgery, widowhood, you know, all of the things that I experienced at such a young age. And I'm really blessed and grateful that I have been able to experience those so young to find my identity without waiting till I'm in my late 40s, early 50s for children to leave the nest and for me to go, oh, my God, who am I? What is this marriage, this relationship I have, you know, with this other person or myself or, you know, who am I without my kids and that identity and that hat that I was wearing for all of those years? Like I found that without that, which I actually think is great. I wouldn't have it any other way. I can

SPEAKER_01: 29:31

see why you are making an absolute mark with the way that you talk. Like I've got goosebumps. so many times through you talking just then, like through the whole thing. You are so impactful as a human. Thank you. Yeah, like I've got them even now.

SPEAKER_00: 29:52

Wow. Well, thanks for holding space.

SPEAKER_01: 29:55

No, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_00: 29:56

Not shared that one before. It was. And people will judge me for it. People go, oh, you're a baby killer. You know, okay, I will hold that. Maybe, maybe that's what I am. But I'm also somebody that has experienced a life that You can't relate to, I can't relate to your stories, you know, but we have empathy and what's in you is in me and what's in me is within you. And, you know, in, in parts of Africa, they call that Ubuntu, you know, and it means that there is something that we share, you know, as humans and empathy. No matter what our decisions are, what our belief systems are, what our values and expectations are of ourselves and our places in the world, we all have a place. We all have pain. We all have purpose. We all have suffering. We all have sadness. We all can experience joy and love and the spectrum and the glittery rainbow of all of the things that life can offer us in between. But when it comes down to people making judgment, that's on them. Yeah, You know, like I've been through worse. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 31:03

your shitty little opinion from

SPEAKER_00: 31:04

your shitty little computer. But it's not even like, you know, people, people, I don't invalidate people's opinions. Like people will, you know, cast an opinion from a guise of anonymity behind a keyboard typing vehemently. And I look at those people and I think like, wow, imagine living your life. Yeah. With those projections and those ideologies that are so ingrained in your lens of the world which comes from a place of hate and fear and all of those negative connotations you versus us and I just don't choose to subscribe to that you know you can coexist with those types of people and those opinions but I will always think that that person is just they're so inadequate with themselves that they just have to project that because they don't know how else to manage it I was once one of those people you know not behind a keyboard but you know I think that rather than letting life beat you down you know does it make you better or does it make you I agree wholeheartedly. I agree. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 32:40

thank you thank you so i always like to finish the podcasts um with if you could either go back in time and visit younger laws and share a piece of advice or guidance or perhaps someone who's going through a similar situation as what you went through it might not be exactly the same but what would you love to impart to them to help them and support them through that journey

SPEAKER_00: 33:04

what a great question thanks there is nothing so hard and heavy in your life that you've either gone through or going through or will FaceTime time in the future that is so intense and that there isn't a time, a place, a space or a face for you to share that with. Through sharing, we learn and we cultivate collective consciousness where we can bring all of our pain, our fear, our suffering, our grief cases into reality and manage them through the power of narrative. Talking therapy is such a powerful tool. Whether it's that you're going to share it like this or you're going to share it by writing something, there's always a time, a space, a place and a face for you to do that. And maybe that time isn't now. Maybe the space isn't here. Maybe the face isn't right. That's so interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 34:19

Yeah, perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on first off, as I said in the start, and being so vulnerable and sharing this journey with me. The amount of abortions that women have, I don't know the statistics, but I know there are lots of women who have a lot of shame surrounding their experience. And I think that the way that you have approached your life and that situation and have come out so incredibly blissful as a human now is is going to really help some women who are feeling really alone. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 34:53

Thanks. It's been an honour and a pleasure. And yeah, I can't wait for more people to hear this.

SPEAKER_01: 34:59

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us today as we share these stories. Make sure you follow us on social media at UncommonX and hit subscribe. You can always DM me with any questions or follow up information you would like from any of my guests.