Do Medical School Curricula Address Medical Students' Future Fertility?

To assess the current medical school curricula for the presence or lack of physician fertility education, and secondarily, perspectives on who should be responsible for informing students about potential future infertility.

Two different surveys were sent to medical students and curriculum leaders via REDCap. Student surveys were distributed by the snowball method as well as with the help of offices of Student Affairs. Contacts for curriculum leaders were identified on official school websites.

There were a total of 279 medical student respondents and 12 curriculum leader respondents. Most students were not aware of the term "physician infertility" (57.4%). Students reported that physician infertility (87%) and/or their own fertility were not discussed in school (86.6%). While 82% of students believe it is their own responsibility to be informed, 92.8% think it would be helpful if there were formal discussions regarding family planning. This echoes the results from curriculum leaders who reported that current curricula do not include physician fertility discussion (75%) and that students should be responsible for being informed of the consequences of delaying childbearing (75%). When comparing between the responses by male and female students, results were similar except for male students being less familiar of the term "physician infertility" (P <.02).

Despite widespread delay in childbearing due to the pursuit of a medical career, our study found that most institutions do not address family planning or potential physician infertility. The vast majority of students expressed an interest in education regarding their future fertility.