Posted by Danielle Fox
on May 22, 2026
Read time: 3 minutes
For anyone meeting you for the first time - tell us a little about you both?
Kat: We’re Kat Lestage (33) and Gabriel Egan (34). We met in Dublin, Ireland over 12 years ago and have since lived all over the world together — from Texas (where Kat is from), to Vietnam, Philadelphia, and London. A few years ago, we finally landed back in the west of Ireland.
Gabe: Kat is one of the co-founders of OVA, and I'm the Head of Commercials for a specialty joinery company — as well as my very important role as Chief Sperm Officer at OVA.
Take us back to the start - what has your babymaking journey looked like for you both?
Gabe: After two missed miscarriages, a subchorionic hematoma, two D&Cs, and a long list of recurrent miscarriage testing, we finally welcomed our first daughter, Enya, in 2024. We’ve always been open to having as many children as God wants to bless us with, but given the challenges we faced before our first, we definitely weren’t expecting Kat to get pregnant again just one month after her cycle returned.
Kat: What followed was probably a very familiar experience for anyone pregnant after loss: about 100 pregnancy test strips over the next eight weeks. I diligently tracked every line to make sure it was darker than the last. We definitely wouldn’t recommend this approach — it adds far more anxiety than reassurance. That being said, we eventually made it to 12 weeks, then 20, and before we knew it, we were in the final trimester of a completely uneventful (in the best way!) pregnancy.
Looking back, were there any small or simple changes that ended up making a big difference for each of you?
Kat: Absolutely. The number one thing we both prioritized was sleep. Stress from work, anxiety around another potential loss, and honestly just years of partying had really taken a toll on our sleep quality. I started acupuncture and Gabe took up running, and both helped us clear our minds and sleep more deeply. Cutting out alcohol for a while also made a huge difference.
Gabe: Getting our supplements right had an enormous impact too. OVA’s final formulas were ready for us to start taking a few months before we got pregnant with Enya, and neither of us has missed more than the occasional day in over three years. We don’t take anything else because it covers everything we need for egg health, sperm health, pregnancy, postpartum, and general wellbeing.
Kat: We genuinely credit our ability to conceive quickly and sustain this recent pregnancy to the fact that we’d been consistently taking OVA for years before she was conceived.
Not everything is serious all the time - were there any moments of joy and positivity, laughter, or surprises along the way?
Gabe: Well… we had a lot of sex. Even when we were at our lowest following the losses, the fact that we had to keep having sex to get pregnant again inherently brought positivity, intimacy, closeness — and let’s be honest — plenty of moments of “joy” to the process. 😉
Trying to conceive can easily take over… how did you each find balance and still make space for “normal life” and each other?
Kat: We realized that when we were least focused on the outcome and most focused on each other, our outcomes were actually the best. So we took control of what we could — eating better, sleeping more, and taking OVA consistently — and tried to let go of as much of the rest as possible.
Gabe: We also constantly reminded ourselves that babymaking is fun when you’re not trying to make a baby… so why can’t it still be fun when you are?
How has this experience changed the way you think about becoming parents or the kind of parents you want to be?
Gabe: Going through multiple losses before our first child taught us how to grieve together for the first time. It brought us closer than ever and made us stronger as a couple. By the time we entered the newborn — and now toddler — trenches, we felt ready to face anything because we’d already navigated something incredibly difficult together.
Kat: During this pregnancy, we’ve learned how to let go a little more and not live in fear of worst-case scenarios. We’ve learned to trust ourselves, trust our children, and ultimately trust God, because we believe the future holds great things for all of us.
Gabe: These are the kind of parents we want to be: ones that have a strong partnership, are trusting, and are filled with optimism about the future.
If you could sit down with someone who’s just starting out - or who’s finding it really hard - what’s the one thing you’d want them to know?
Kat: Trying to conceive was the hardest thing we’ve ever gone through as a couple. It challenged us mentally, physically, and emotionally. But we also grew enormously through it, and we wouldn’t take back the challenges we faced because they ultimately brought us closer together.
