How Andra Day's Role in Billie Holiday Biopic Pushed Her to Explore Freezing Her Eggs

Paramount Pictures Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday

She lost 40 pounds and started drinking and smoking to bring a hefty dose of reality to her starring role in the 2021 biopic, The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

But, in addition to scooping up a Golden Globe for her portrayal of the blues legend, Andra Day received some unexpected fertility advice.

"I lost 40 pounds and very quickly, not in the healthiest way," the 37-year-old singer tells PEOPLE about her transformation into the civil rights activist, who battled heroin addiction. "I don't typically drink or smoke, but I picked up smoking and drinking and wasn't sleeping or eating."

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"I went to visit a doctor before embarking on that journey just to make sure that my body was healthy enough to do something this drastic. And she casually mentions to me, and this was the first time I had ever heard anything like this, 'Hey, so you're about to put your body through a lot. I would like to suggest that you freeze your eggs.' "

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Courtesy of OWN Andra Day appears in OWN's new documentary, Eggs Over Easy: Black Women & Fertility.

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Day, who was 34 at the time, laughs at the memory. "First of all, that's not something you just mention on the fly. Like, 'Hey, freeze your eggs. Have a nice day.' But I think I was so overwhelmed by that I even had to pay attention to it, because I think we have this idea that we have a ton of [time], and there was not enough conversation surrounding it."

Day shares that story, and her decision to explore freezing her eggs, in OWN's new documentary, Eggs Over Easy: Black Women and Fertility, which premieres on the cable channel on Jan. 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Courtesy of OWN OWN's new documentary premieres on Jan. 4.

And the "Rise Up" singer, who admits she put the decision on the backburner while she poured all her energy into playing Holiday, tells PEOPLE that she only recently started "gathering more research," while "considering things like freezing my eggs."

"I probably should've [taken] the time to do it [then]," she says, "but once I started to look into it and how much it costs, and how involved it is, and the process of extracting all this, I was terrified. Also, on top of that I just was like, 'I can't. I'm Billie Holiday right now. I'm in [that] head space. I don't have time to focus on this.' "

Narrated by former child star Keshia Knight Pulliam, Eggs Over Easy is taking the time to have those conversations about fertility that have previously been taboo in the Black community. By speaking to experts, patients and couples alike, it explores a range of topics from fibroids and IVF to surrogacy and adoption. Day thinks these conversations are long overdue.

She says: "We haven't talked about it because there's sort of a stigma that it's a weakness if you need to take extra steps to try to have kids or if you struggle in any type of way. But it's just the body. You know, it's health. We shouldn't feel weird about going to get a checkup, we shouldn't feel weird about paying attention to our reproductive health."

Courtesy of OWN Keshia Knight Pulliam appears in and narrates the new documentary.

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Day believes that fertility treatments, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, should be "more accessible." "It's almost in a weird way like a punishment, if you can't have kids doing what people deem normal, which is insane. I think we just need to change the idea of what normal is."

"I think the idea of a normal pregnancy … that's just a journey," she adds.

Day isn't planning to have children right away, but at least now she knows she has options. "[We need to] educate ourselves, especially women in the Black community," the singer says. "A lot of information surrounding our general health, let alone our reproductive health … we haven't had access to."

"And there is a reason for that. America has a pretty rough history of gynecology [and] Black women. So, I think we need to make the effort and make strides to say, 'Hey, I don't want to be in the dark about my own reproductive health.' "