Physician Fertility

National Infertility Awareness Week April 19-25, 2026

 Use the these resources below to advocate for increased fertility coverage.

Get involved with AMWA’s partner, RESOLVE.

Estimates suggest that 1 in 4 female physicians will experience infertility. As physicians who have had to face the possibility of being “involuntarily childless,” we firmly believe that everyone deserves the chance to have a family if and when desired. We can and should feel prepared to manage a career and have a family as suits each of us.

— Drs. Ariela Marshall, Vineet Arora, Arghavan Salles

“This is the journey of infertility. Huge highs and heart-wrenching lows, all accompanied by alternating hope and hopelessness. Once again, our only option is to pick ourselves up and try again.”

—Dr. Ariela Marshall (AM Rounds) 

The Need

1. 1 in 4 women physicians will face issues of infertility, which is double to rate of women in the general population.
2. Reproductive health issues, financial limitations, and the timing of motherhood impact career advancement and the physician workforce, as many women face the competing challenges of career advancement or building a family.
3. Knowledge is power. More than 53% of female physicians would have attempted to conceive earlier and 16.7% would have used cryopreservation to preserve fertility had they been aware that infertility might become an issue.
4. Though studies have not specifically explored fertility in male physicians, transgender physicians, single physicians, or physicians with same-sex partners, fertility issues are important for all physicians hoping to start a family.

Our Opportunity

The problem of infertility among women physicians is not a single problem to be solved. There are myriad, complex, and varied barriers to successfully creating a safe space for women physicians and trainees to pursue family building to meet individual needs. Thus, a multi-pronged, long-term, comprehensive effort is required to make the necessary changes to reduce this risk.

We have adopted five strategies as part of our call-to-action:

1. Awareness: Increase fertility education and awareness starting at the undergraduate medical education level and continuing throughout training and practice. Knowledge is power. 
2. Coverage at Work: Ensure there is insurance coverage for, and access to, fertility assessment and management, and treatment. Women physicians may be uniquely positioned to help advocate within their own institutions to improve fertility coverage benefits. Equip them with the tools that they need.    Equip them and other allies with the tools that they need.
3. Support system: Assure that there are physicians who can provide the empathy, understanding, and wisdom of having been there to guide those wanting information about and undergoing fertility treatments. This will go a long way to helping build a workforce that is healthy and well physically, emotionally, and financially. 
4. Research: Promote research that will show the long-term economic impact of addressing infertility needs, including the return on investment (ROI) for employers through improved workforce well-being and job satisfaction, workforce recruitment, and employee retention. 
5. Advocacy: Increase legislative efforts at the state and national levels to provide women physicians, in particular, and other underrecognized physicians facing fertility challenges, the resources needed to achieve changes in your institutions and utilize your positions to reach influencers and improve the culture of care around family-building in medicine.

Sources:

Kaye EC.  N Engl J Med 2020; 382:1491-1493
Marshall AL, Arora VM, Salles A. Acad Med, 2020;95(5):679.
Stentz NC et al. J Womens Health. 2016;25:1059.
Chandra A et al.  www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_025.pdf.
Kemkes-Grottenthaler A. J Biosoc Sci. 2003;35:213

View Our Recent Work

AMWA Honored by Resolve: The National Infertility Association

2022 Hope Award for Advocacy

AMWA has partnered with RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association to develop a Coverage at Work Toolkit.

This Coverage-at-Work Toolkit, tailored for physicians, will help physicians more effectively advocate for expanded fertility policies within their workplaces. You may also find general principles outlined in the Advocacy Coverage Tip Sheet helpful in achieving this goal. We also encourage all members to participate in RESOLVE’s Virtual Federal Advocacy Day held every May.

 AMWA was honored to partner with Shady Grover Fertility (U.S. Fertility) in their announcement of their Egg Freezing for Surgical Residents Program. 

Access to the Egg Freezing for Surgical Residents Program [https://www.shadygrovefertility.com/treatments/egg-freezing/surgical-residents-program/] will help extend family-planning options to a group of women in medicine who might otherwise not be able to pursue egg freezing. AMWA hopes that more programs like this will become available to women physicians and commends Shady Grove Fertility for its commitment to and support of women in medicine. 

Stories matter. Read about Dr. Erika Kaye’s incredible journey “With infertility, it took nearly 900 needles to bring my son into the world.” Share your stories on the AMWA blog or other platforms to raise awareness of the importance of this issue.

Credit: Erica Kaye (with permission)