If you don't have kids, you've probably noticed the words childfree and childless everywhere.

They show up on social media, in podcasts, in articles, in movies, and in conversations about women's lives after infertility. And even if no one has ever asked you directly how you identify, you've likely felt something when you hear those terms used.

Maybe you pause.
Maybe you feel tension.
Maybe you think, I don't know how I feel about that.

In this episode of The "So Now What?" Podcast, you slow that moment down and look at what's really happening underneath the words.

This conversation is not about choosing the "right" label. It is about understanding the meaning you are giving to the terms childfree and childless, and deciding whether that meaning actually supports the woman you are becoming after infertility or IVF did not result in a child.

You explore why identity feels so tender after fertility treatments end, why language can feel so loaded, and how a single word can start to feel like it is being asked to explain your grief, your growth, your peace, and your future all at once.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Why the term childfree can feel empowering for some women and completely misaligned for others.

• Why the word childless can feel truthful while still carrying old stories of disappointment or being perceived as less than.

• How some women reclaim their lives without kids by changing the word they use.

• How other women reclaim their lives without kids by keeping the same word and changing what it means to them.

• Why you are not reacting to the word itself, but to the meaning you believe the word gives you.

• How you get to decide how much power any label has over you.

You will also hear Lana share why she personally identifies as childless, and how that word honors the truth of wanting motherhood while still reflecting a full, meaningful life without children.

Most importantly, this episode reminds you that whether you identify as childfree or childless, you have permission to feel proud of the woman you are. Proud of how you kept going. Proud of how you learned to hold complexity. Proud of the life you are building, even if it looks different than you once imagined.

You are not your terminology.
You are not unfinished.
You are not behind.
You are not less than.

You are whole.

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode

The Other's Day® Brunch
A beautiful, connective event for women without children, happening May 9, with a special Friday night experience added this year.
Check for updates or join the waitlist here:
👉 https://lanamanikowski.com/othersday

Free Resource: Top 27 Things People Say When You're Childless and How to Respond
If you have ever found yourself navigating unsolicited advice, intrusive questions, or "helpful" suggestions about becoming a mom, this guide is for you.
Download it for free here:
👉 https://lanamanikowski.com/thingspeoplesay

If this episode resonated with you, make sure you are subscribed to The "So Now What?" Podcast so you do not miss future conversations about navigating life after infertility and building a meaningful, grounded future without the children you dreamed of.

I hope you have a beautiful week. I love you, and remember that it is never too late to discover your meaning.

When fertility treatments end without a baby, you don't just grieve the child you hoped for. You grieve the future you were building your life around.

In this episode of The So Now What? Podcast, you explore post-traumatic growth after infertility and why it matters for women who are childless not by choice. Not in a toxic-positivity way. Not as a lesson you were supposed to learn. But as a way to understand what happens after years of trying, waiting, and living in a fertility holding pattern.

If you've ever thought, I'm not the same person I was before IVF, this episode helps you understand why—and what becomes possible next.

• Why infertility and fertility treatments do count as trauma, even if no one ever named it that way

• How years of IVF, IUI, medical procedures, and waiting shaped your nervous system and identity

• Why the end of fertility treatments feels so disorienting, not just sad

• What post-traumatic growth actually means and what it does not mean

• The seismic "rebuild" moment that happens when the life you planned no longer exists

• The five areas where post-traumatic growth often shows up after infertility

• Why growth is optional, not required, and only happens when you feel safe enough

• How to move forward without erasing your dream of motherhood or minimizing what you endured

• What it looks like to find a starting point again after the fertility holding pattern ends

You didn't go through infertility to grow.
You didn't suffer for a reason.
And you don't need to reframe your loss to justify moving forward.

Post-traumatic growth simply explains what happens when your assumptions about the future break and you're left asking, So now what?

This episode helps you see that wanting forward movement does not mean you're forgetting what mattered. It means you're ready to stop living in permanent disappointment and start building a life that feels connected, grounded, and meaningful—on your terms.

This episode reflects the core work you do inside Thrive After Infertility, the coaching program created for women who have completed fertility treatments and are ready to stop feeling incomplete because fertility treatments failed.

Inside Thrive, you learn how to:

• Move out of the fertility holding pattern

• Reconnect with your body and nervous system

• Navigate relationships in a world full of parents

• Create meaning and direction for the decades ahead

Growth doesn't come from time passing. It comes from learning how to intentionally rebuild after loss.

If you've ever been told, "You can always adopt," or "Everything happens for a reason," and didn't know how to respond, download the free guide:

The Top 27 Things People Say When You're Childless (and How to Respond)
👉 Get the free guide here: lana-manikowski.com/thingspeoplesay

If you're childless after infertility and growing older feels unsettling, this episode invites you to move from fear to intention and imagine a future that feels grounded and meaningful.

Childlessness after infertility and growing older can bring up fears you never expected to carry. When motherhood didn't happen, aging is often framed as something to brace for rather than something you get to shape. In this episode of The "So Now What?" Podcast, you're invited to move from fear to intention as you explore what it means to grow older without children, reconnect with your body after IVF failed, and begin imagining a future that feels meaningful, grounded, and entirely your own.

This episode was inspired by a simple question I overheard while out to dinner: Has getting old been like you expected it would be?
For women who are childless after infertility, that question can land deeply. Not because aging itself is the problem, but because the future no longer comes with a default storyline.

Together, we talk honestly about the physical fears of aging, the existential questions that surface when IVF fails, and how reaction mode can quietly shrink your sense of possibility. Most importantly, you'll be invited to consider what it might look like to participate in your future, rather than brace for it.

This conversation isn't about having all the answers.
It's about giving yourself permission to imagine again.

• Why growing older without children is often framed through fear

• The physical aging fears many women carry after infertility and why they make sense

• How fertility treatments can leave you feeling disconnected from your body

• What existential fear really means when motherhood didn't happen

• The difference between bracing for the future and imagining it

• Why reaction mode helped you survive infertility but doesn't have to be permanent

• How childless women often have more agency than they realize when it comes to aging

• Questions to help you begin envisioning a future that feels intentional and grounded

If thinking about aging without children brings up tightness, fear, or a sense of "I don't even know where to begin," you're not doing anything wrong. You've already had to let go of a future you worked hard for. It makes sense that imagining what comes next feels complicated.

That's exactly why I offer Thrive Calls.

A Thrive Call is a free, 45-minute conversation where we slow everything down and talk honestly about what you want your life to feel like now and as you get older.

You don't need a full plan.
You don't need clarity before you book.
You just need a place to start imagining instead of bracing.

👉 Book your Thrive Call here!

If you're also navigating intrusive or exhausting conversations about motherhood, infertility, or "what's next," I created a free guide many women find grounding.

The Top 27 Things People Say When You're Childless (and How to Respond)
This guide helps you respond without overexplaining, spiraling, or losing your cool.

👉 Get the free guide here:
https://lana-manikowski.myflodesk.com/thingspeoplesay

Aging without kids doesn't automatically mean loneliness or decline.
It means you get to be intentional in ways most people never have to consider.

You get to decide what matters.
You get to decide where your energy goes.
You get to decide who you're becoming.

Not someday.
Now.

I hope you have a beautiful week.
I love you, and remember that it's never too late to discover your meaning.
I'll talk to you next week.