Family planning support, education needed for women physicians

Women physicians are more likely to experience miscarriage, infertility and pregnancy complications compared with the general population, yet only 8% of survey respondents received education on the risks of delaying pregnancy, data show.

The data, from an anonymous survey of more than 4,500 women physicians, add to a growing body of research that highlights the struggles women physicians face when they desire to plan a family.

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The survey data also showed that physicians who were educated on the risks of delaying a pregnancy were significantly less likely to experience miscarriage or seek infertility evaluation of treatment, Gwen M. Grimsby, MD, a pediatric urologist with Phoenix Children’s Medical Group, Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and colleagues wrote in the Annals of Surgery.

Compared with women in the general population, women physicians were more likely to have had a miscarriage (40.7% vs. 19.7%), more likely to have undergone fertility evaluation (35.2% vs. 8.8%) or infertility treatment (28.1% vs. 12.7%), and more likely to have had a pre-term birth (20.4% vs. 10.2%).

Compared with physicians in nonsurgical specialties, surgeons had fewer children, were older at the time of first pregnancy, had more preterm births and fetal growth problems, and were more likely to be discouraged from starting a family during training and practice. Grimsby highlighted these data in an article published in March in AUA News, a publication of the American Urological Association.

Healio compiled a list of other recent coverage related to family planning struggles among women physicians. Read these articles below.

Family-building difficulties among physicians, trainees ‘not hyperbole’

Many women physicians wait longer than nonphysicians to build a family. Additionally, more than one-third of physicians surveyed reported that the COVID-19 pandemic further delayed family planning. The impact of the pandemic will be felt for many years to come, according to Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD, clinical associate professor and special advisor for diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the department of medicine at Stanford University.

“Physicians often wait until after training to build our families, and this is problematic because the time of our training often coincides with our peak reproductive years,” Salles, told Healio. “Higher rates of infertility means that we have fewer children than other individuals and we have our first child at a later age than others. We are also more likely to require assisted reproductive technologies, which are very expensive, time consuming and emotionally laden.” Read more

Stress, childbearing delays: The struggles physicians face when starting a family

For physicians who desire children, the family-building journey is often complicated by infertility, stress, childbearing delays and professional pressures, Morgan S. Levy, BS, an MD/MPH student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Among physicians who delayed childbearing, 55.8% said they regretted doing so. Read more

Career-related pressures influence childbearing decisions among women physicians

In a survey of 1,056 women physicians published in JAMA Network Open, 75.6% of respondents reported delaying family building.

Among 36.8% of respondents who reported experiencing infertility, 51.4% reported using IVF. When asked what they would have done differently, 45.7% of women said they wanted to conceive earlier, 44.8% said they wanted to reduce their work hours, 38.8% said they wanted to take an extended leave and 28.4% said they wanted to pursue oocyte cryopreservation.

“These findings highlight a need for ongoing research into the reasons underlying delayed family building and infertility within this population and a need for targeted support to address the disparate and discriminatory experiences of women physicians,” the researchers wrote. “While there is clearly more work to be done, these data shed light on potentially critical areas for policy reform and future change.” Read more

References:

• American Urological Association. High Infertility Rates and Pregnancy Complications in Female Physicians Indicate a Need for Culture Change. Available at: High Infertility Rates and Pregnancy Complications in Female Physicians Indicate a Need for Culture Change - American Urological Association (auanews.net). Accessed: May 7, 2024.
• Lai K, et al. Ann Surg. 2023;doi:10.1097/SLA.00000000000005724.