Surgeons have a high infertility rate and pregnancy complications – what are we doing about it in Australia?

The number of female trainees is on the rise, and so too are the issues surrounding fertility and barriers to family planning. Over the past decade, studies of surgical residents across the United States have demonstrated a strong prevalence of fertility challenges. Strenuous training requirements have American female surgical trainees delaying pregnancy, having fewer children, and reporting increased rates of pregnancy complications, infertility, and use of assistive reproductive technology. Similarly, a survey of British surgical trainees showed over a quarter of trainees felt unsupported by their department during pregnancy, while almost a quarter of both of male and female trainees experienced difficulty in arranging parental leave. Our recent article investigated how our long training programmes are affecting Australasian surgical trainees’ ability to start families, particularly when compared with other specialities. While we acknowledge there are limitations to online surveys, the results of this survey of 1099 doctors demonstrated that surgeons, when compared with physicians and GPs, are experiencing greater challenges in balancing work and family, across multiple areas of fertility and child-caring. Surgical training occurs in the prime reproductive years and as a consequence, when many trainees finally complete their training, they are living the real-world consequences of reduced fertility because of their age. This highlights the critical need for a cultural change that’s becoming increasingly important as the surgical workforce demographic changes. Training bodies are in a prime position to provide solutions to the many obstacles surgical trainees face in family planning. There are several ways the colleges and hospitals can support a more equitable future for its members who want to pursue parenthood.