One in four women physicians report a diagnosis of infertility. One reason for this is physicians tend to delay attempts to become pregnant until “the time is right” for their career.  But, in the medical profession, it seems there is really no “good” time to have children. Parenthood, especially motherhood, is seen as an inconvenience during medical training and beyond. 

In this episode, Dr. Sophia Park speaks with hosts Dr. Mojola Omole and Dr. Blair Bigham about her personal struggle with infertility. And, Dr. Andrea Simpson, the lead author of a commentary in the CMAJ titled, “The inconvenience of motherhood during a medical career”  calls for systemic change in medicine to support parenthood.

Dr. Sophia Park is a medical biochemist at Royal Columbian Hospital and a Clinical Associate Professor at the UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. Andrea Simpson is an obstetrician and minimally invasive gynaecologic surgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital. She is also an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.

She co-authored her commentary with Drs. Maria Cusimano and Nancy Baxter. It is published in CMAJ: https://www.cmaj.ca/content/193/37/E1465

Episode transcript: https://www.cmaj.ca/transcript-211255

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