Impact of employer-covered planned oocyte cryopreservation on decision-making for medical training

Abstract

Purpose: To characterize how employer coverage of planned oocyte cryopreservation (POC) might impact medical career decision-making.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was distributed to all medical students at two large academic programs in December 2022 to better understand attitudes towards childbearing, POC, and how employer coverage of POC might influence future career decisions.

Results: Of the 630/1933 (32.6%) medical students who participated, 71.8% identified as women and 28.1% as men. More women (89.2%) than men (75.1%, P < 0.001) felt pressure to delay childbearing. Regarding childbearing, women more than men were concerned about the physical demand of residency (76.5% vs. 50.8%, P < 0.001), stigma in residency hiring practices (41.2% vs. 9.0%, P < 0.001), and parental leave interfering with team dynamics (49.6% vs. 20.9%, P < 0.001). Respondents were more likely to pursue POC if it were covered by residency employer health insurance (60.0% vs. 11.6%, P < 0.001). Women were more likely than men to state that employer-sponsored POC would influence their residency ranking (46.0% vs. 23.7%, P < 0.001), pursuit of additional degrees (50.9% vs. 30.5%, P < 0.001), and pursuit of fellowship training (50.9% vs. 30.5%, P < 0.001). Additionally, 25.4% of women and 19.8% of men felt their choice in medical specialty would be impacted by employer-sponsored POC.

Conclusions: Medical students, particularly women, feel pressure to delay childbearing during medical training and are concerned about future fertility. Both male and female students were interested in employer-sponsored POC and more likely to pursue it with financial coverage. Further research is needed to determine the full impact of employer-sponsored POC on medical career decision-making.

Keywords: Cryopreservation; Family planning; Fertility; Gender disparity; Medical education.

Fig. 1

Interest in POC by intended medical specialty (N = 630). Note: Surgical and non-surgical groups are non-exclusive groups and thus a P value cannot be derived for group averages; surgical vs. non-surgical classification aligns with surgical specialties formally recognized by American College of Surgery (with the addition of interventional radiology) [23]. POC planned oocyte cryopreservation

Fig. 2

Career decisions likely to be impacted by availability of employer-covered POC (N = 630). POC planned oocyte cryopreservation