1 in 4 women who are physicians are infertile
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Anonymous
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/health/women-doctors-infertility.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“ one in four of those who had tried to have a baby had been diagnosed with infertility — almost double the rate of the general public.” “ Sleep deprivation, poor diet and lack of exercise — inherent to the demands of medical training and the medical profession — take a toll on women seeking to become pregnant.” “ We see older women who are celebrities in the news having babies, and we think it will be fine, but it’s not. Now we’re all having this realization that we don’t have control over our lives.” “ Female residents who do manage to get pregnant must also contend with poor health outcomes; many go into early labor or experience miscarriages as a result of the long hours and stress of the job. ” |
Anonymous
If only they had a medical professional to tell them of the importance of rest, exercise, and healthy eating... |
Anonymous
| Mostly due to delayed age at attempted pregnancy, due to the demands of medical training. |
Anonymous
| Interesting. Several women physicians I know had kids during residency or fellowship, which I thought was insane, but in retrospect was smart! |
Anonymous
I have been saying this about the general public for years. I would have thought that physicians would be better educated about biological realities, but apparently not. |
Anonymous
And difficulty finding a partner while doing all that training. Female relative is a surgeon getting married this year for the first time at 40. |
Anonymous
You’re saying they didn’t control for age in the study?! |
Anonymous
| This isn’t surprising if you are in medicine. Our training is intense and leaves little room for childbearing. I believe in just having kids whenever is best for me and not the system but it still took me a while to get pregnant during residency due to long hours and flipping schedules not making it conducive to TTC. Six weeks pregnant and working nights and eating crappy food is great either but what can you do if you want both medicine and a family? |
Anonymous
| ^is NOT great |
Anonymous
| They just wait too long to try |
Anonymous
Seriously—how is it possible that you’re all right that this is simply a failure to control for age? |
Anonymous
| My DH is a physician and we started dating while he was in medical school. He had a friend there who had her 3rd child during 3rd year (rotations). All I can say is: very supportive family! |
Anonymous
| Hard to manage and pay for childcare while a resident unless you have a high earning spouse or family member.. Then, you have to come to terms of not seeing your baby much. |
Anonymous
| Wow! Not directly relevant but an interesting anecdote, I am a lawyer and have lean PCOS, and have SIX friends from law school who have turned out to have the same diagnosis. All thin (not the traditional PCOS look / body)c all have issues with annovulation or very irregular ovulation, all had trouble conceiving. I know it’s more common these days but that strikes me as especially unusual - I’ve always wondered if there is something to the stress / not enough sleep theory |
Anonymous
| Not just women, a bug percentage of men over 25 have low sperm count. |