Darcy Esiason’s Story: Navigating CF & IVF with humor & grace

For many couples in the cystic fibrosis community, building a family means facing infertility—and deciding how to move forward when biology makes things harder, yet again. In this episode, Dr. Ahmet Uluer, Lauren Harvey and Andrea Gavin Becker dive in with Darcy Esiason—CF spouse, mom of two, therapist, and director of the Boomer Esiason Foundation’s IVF Grant Program. We talk about choosing to be with someone with CF, love, and what it takes to stay grounded through the stress and uncertainty of IVF.

Darcy shares the story of how she and her husband, Gunnar, met, fell in love, and navigated the realities of infertility—from the science (and yes, the scalpel) to the surprising moments of laughter, spirituality, and grace that carried them through. She also talks about the work their foundation is doing to make IVF possible for more people with CF—one beautiful baby at a time.

It’s a story about persistence, partnership, and finding joy and humor in unexpected places—including driving a vial of testicular tissue across town before sunrise. Whether you’re navigating IVF yourself or just curious what family-building looks like when CF is part of the story, don’t miss this episode.

Darcy Esiason

Darcy is a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, and serious illness-related mental health issues for children, adolescents, and adults. Ms. Esiason has worked in both outpatient mental health clinics and in residential facilities. She has expertise in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills (DBT), motivational interviewing (MI),  play therapy, and animal-assisted therapy. She has a special interest in the inclusion of caregiver/loved ones in the development of evidence-based behavioral therapies for specific disease states. 

Her research focuses on the development of mental health assessment tools and interventions tailored to the lived experience of specific diseases, including cystic fibrosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.

She is a speaker and blogger on topics related to serious illness, mental health, and caregiving. She is also Director of the Boomer Esiason Foundation IVF Grant Program which has awarded 40 IVF grants and led to 13 babies (with more on the way!) since it's inception in 2023.

Darcy is Mom to two energetic kids and two dogs, Blinky and Blitzen.