This module helps physicians and trainees understand how the timeline and culture of medical education and training affect family planning and fertility, with particular attention to the prevalence of infertility and adverse reproductive outcomes among female physicians. Participants will examine how institutional and national policies — such as parental leave, schedule flexibility, and fertility benefits — shape equity, retention, and organizational success, and explore the range of options and evidence-based strategies available to support informed, individualized family-planning decisions.
By the end of this module, participants will be able to identify the reproductive risks tied to medical training timelines, evaluate relevant institutional policies, and apply strategies that foster inclusive, supportive professional environments for colleagues navigating family planning.
Objectives
Evaluate the increased risk of infertility and adverse reproductive outcomes among female physicians in the context of medical training timelines, and examine how the structure and culture of medical education influence the timing of childbearing — including how these decisions intersect with professional fulfillment, career advancement, and well-being across the career continuum.
Analyze institutional and national family-planning–related policies (e.g., parental leave, schedule flexibility, lactation accommodation, fertility benefits), and assess how progressive policy implementation impacts equity, physician retention, and organizational success.
Reflect on societal and professional expectations surrounding parenthood in medicine, including the experiences of physicians who are child-free by choice or circumstance, and explore strategies to foster inclusive, supportive professional environments.
Identify evidence-based strategies and resources to support informed, individualized family-planning decisions for physicians at any stage of training or practice.
The following resources serve as the core materials for this module, ranging from scoping reviews to practical management guides:
Objective 1: Fertility Outcomes Among Female Physicians
Objective 2: Institutional and Policy Impact
Objective 3: Professional Norms and Inclusivity
Objective 4: Strategies and Support for Informed Family Planning
Consider your current stage in medical training or practice. How does this stage shape the options you perceive as available, or unavailable, regarding family planning or caregiving?
Reflect on the explicit or implicit messages you have received about pregnancy, parenthood, or caregiving in medicine. How have these messages influenced your decisions or sense of belonging?
Looking across your career path, which risk factors discussed in the readings (e.g., delayed childbearing, rigid schedules, stigma, policy barriers) resonate most strongly with your experience or observations?
If you’ve had children, what drove the timing of when you decided to have children? Would you have changed it if you could have?
Designed for RAFT meetings, subdivided by module objectives.
General Discussion Questions:
What strategies have you or your colleagues utilized to accept and navigate fertility challenges? How have your various institutions helped (or hindered) this issue? Do you know anybody who has worked a shift while experiencing a miscarriage, and has our culture changed so that is no longer expected?
How do your colleagues (fellow students, residents, attendings, staff) talk about women and their pregnancies or family planning decisions?
Objective Specific Discussion Questions (Based on articles)