High Infertility Rates in Female Surgeons
Recent articles from Stuff and JAMA Surgery spoke about higher rates of infertility and pregnancy complications in female surgeons.
The JAMA study that the Stuff article was based on is not well-conducted research. It compares female surgeons to the general population. It is suggested that higher infertility rates are related to operating theatre risks. It is an incorrect way to conduct research.
It's like comparing apples with pears saying that apples are not as sweet fruit as pears. This research is done more for clickbait than to look into this question seriously.
First of all, if we look at risks associated with working in the operating theatre, we would need to compare female surgeons to other female physicians.
Other female physicians will not be exposed to the operating theatre hazards, but are likely to have similar lifestyles. This would look like comparing which Braeburn apple is sweeter, the one from this orchard or the other one. I feel like there will not be a significant difference.
If operating theatre hazards are associated with increased infertility, then we should also look at other operating theatre staff like OT nurses, anaesthetists and anaesthetic technicians.
Do they also have increased rates of infertility? If so, wouldn't it be their lifestyle? My gut feeling is that the lifestyle will be the cause than working in the operating theatre.
There was a better study done in 1972, which showed that infertility rates in anaesthetists who were working were higher than in those who were not working during their pregnancy.
However, infertility rates of all working doctors were similar. It is a very old study, and things have most likely changed as well.
Often fertility issues are related to long working hours, women's age (women with professions or careers like this are usually older when trying to conceive), lifestyle, stress levels, domestic violence and so on. Also, male fertility plays an equal role in a couple's fertility.
Male alcohol consumption during the conceiving process affects fertility and chances of pregnancy as much as female alcohol consumption.
I also dislike the way newspapers publish articles that are skewed towards negativity to certain professions. The JAMA newspaper article almost hints that females should not be surgeons or other similar professions as they will end up infertile.
Women are already marginalised at work. We already earn and get promoted less than our male counterparts. We need to change workplace attitudes that are celebrating superwomen or supermen and their work ethic of working long hours to save lives.
Another thing is we need to change the perception that having lots of money is the most important thing in our lives and therefore we should be working long hours to have higher earnings.
If we all work equally, are treated equally and celebrated for our professions and what we do, there might be less female health professionals experiencing burnout and higher infertility rates.
It is also important to mention that the biggest cause of infertility in young women is domestic violence.
So maybe we should be tackling this problem first? Women should not be seen as baby machines and criticised that they are infertile. It’s not just her fault, there are multiple causes for infertility. Both people in the relationship and society as a whole have a role to play.