“It’s been a huge stressor but I have been able to have shifts covered. Of course, I’ve had to tell colleagues more of my personal life than I’d wish.”
Many women physicians with infertility don’t want to discuss their diagnosis. Many infertile couples in general keep their struggles private.
Why? Infertility carries with it a lot of shame and guilt. There’s still stigma about infertility, even in the medical field. I’m trying to change that.
As anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows, I have infertility myself. I openly shared my own infertility journey, and while in the throes of the treatments, I felt very inspired to help other women experiencing the same difficulties I faced. I thought about writing a book, starting a podcast or writing a separate blog.
But then… I had my miracle baby. Suddenly that was all I wanted to think about. I pushed the pain of IVF out of my brain for a while. I was lucky to be able to block out those difficult memories by focusing on the baby I had so desperately wanted and felt immensely grateful to now have.
But infertility has again been on my mind. I celebrated my IVF baby’s 6th birthday on Thanksgiving, and I’m currently preparing to give a talk on the subject at the White Coat Investor 2022 Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference.
When I first brainstormed content for the speech, I spoke with a few colleagues who had gone through their own infertility journeys. Then I got the idea to design a survey – one that would capture individual experiences and provide a safe space for women to anonymously share their biggest difficulties navigating infertility treatments and a medical career.
The response was overwhelming! Over 150 women wrote heartfelt comments about their experiences.
Some of the things they wrote left me crying. Some made me fuming mad.
Many of the women told me that just completing my survey was very cathartic for them. They thanked me for giving them a voice.
Having to undergo infertility treatments while being a physician presents a specific set of stressors. And if you’ve had no experience with either being a physician or having infertility, the issues are difficult to grasp. I’ve tried to capture this, along with unique physician voices, in this piece for Medscape’s KevinMD. The words only scratch the surface of what these women shared with me.
I’m extremely proud of this article. Please read and share. It highlights things we should all be thinking about in our workplace landscapes to deal with a problem that is more common than we realize.
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