Ep20 - Addressing Infertility: Perspectives From A Female Physician, Dr. Chrissy Guidry

The Pursuit of Health Podcast

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During this episode of the Pursuit of Health Podcast we pick up on our topic of Infertility as a Health Concern with a remarkably accomplished guest physician, Dr. Chrissy Guidry. After years of medical and surgical training in Louisiana, Ohio and California, she is now the Medical Director of the Emergency General Surgery & Advanced Trauma Life Support Service at Tulane Medical Center and the Associate Program Director of General Surgery at Tulane University. As an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Tulane School of Medicine she serves as a mentor and advocate for many young student physicians. Amongst her many accomplishments and innumerable services on professional committees, she has recently added a focus on addressing Female Infertility Amongst Physicians. She explains that she has been carrying out this effort in collaboration with the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) who has recently made a concerted effort to bring this issue out to the public and the medical profession. This began with an AMWA-sponsored Physician Fertility Summit at which Dr. Guidry was amongst the many guest physician leaders and speakers shedding light on this little discussed topic.

During our visit with Dr. Guidry, she bravely shared with our audience her own personal issues regarding infertility so that others may know that they are not alone. She explains that Female Infertility amongst physicians is 3-4 times higher than the general population and that much research is needed to understand both the causes of this medical condition and how to best prevent and treat it. Dr. Guidry reveals many of the obstacles, biases and misconceptions regarding infertility and family planning amongst physicians. She stressed that this is an issue that can seriously affect women physicians and their families. She advocates for early awareness of this issue amongst those she mentors and her colleagues. Together, Dr. Fethke and Dr, Guidry agree that physicians wishing to have children are more well-rounded and healthy people when they are able to do so, thus improving their professional and personal lives.
Through organizations like AMWA and RESOLVE, Dr Guidry is optimistic that the issue of Physician Infertility is now out in the open. She strongly believes that physicians have a unique platform to address this issue for themselves and the public at large in order to improve awareness and access to infertility-related medical care. She looks forward to a day when physicians can study and practice in environments that are supportive and proactive for all physicians who are in need of evaluating their fertility as a significant component of their physical and psychosocial health. Dr. Guidry poinantly finishes our fascinating and emotional discussion by emphasizing, “ It is time for this discussion to be out in the open so people know they are not alone.”

Finally, Dr. Guidry wants everyone to be aware of the upcoming AMWA and RESOLVE sponsored three seminars occurring in February through April 2022 entitled Moving the Fertility Conversation Forward.

We at the Pursuit of Health Podcast can be reached for audience feedback on this episode as well as past and future episodes. We can be reached at drfethkemd on Facebook and Instagram, as well as our website at drfethkemd.com.

Refernces:

1. Marshall AL, Arora VM, Salles A. Acad Med, 2020;95(5):679.
2. Stentz NC et al. J Womens Health. 2016;25:1059.J Womens Health (Larchmt)2016 Oct;25(10):1059-1065. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2015.5638.
3. Chandra A et al. www.cdc.gov/nchs/ data

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