Family planning impact on medical students’ surgery interest and current policies in the United States: A scoping review

Previous reviews have examined female residents' experiences while ante- and postpartum. However, to our knowledge, no review exists that synthesizes medical students’ perception of family planning during surgical residencies. We wanted to synthesize current literature on the perceptions of family planning of medical students interested in surgical fields and current medical school policies or resources related to family planning. A scoping review was performed of databases including MEDLINE (OVID), Scopus, and PubMed in April and September of 2023. Studies were excluded if they were conducted outside the US, occurred before 2003, were opinions, reviews, or editorials, included only non-surgical specialties, focused on only attending years or training years after medical school, and only mentioned “work/life balance” or “lifestyle.” 2295 studies were identified, and a final 19 studies were included. Four major themes were identified among the studies, including family planning as a barrier to a career in surgery, fertility, onsite childcare, and parental leave. Most studies examined general barriers medical students perceive about surgery and included at least one survey question related to family planning. Only two studies focused solely on medical students’ knowledge of oocyte preservation, one on on-site childcare at medical schools and one on parental leave during medical school. There is a lack of research examining medical students’ knowledge of family planning during a surgical residency and current childbearing policies and resources offered during residency. •Family planning impacts medical students' interest in pursuing surgical specialties.•The majority of studies focus on impact of family planning barriers to pursuing surgery.•Identified major barriers include: time constraints of family planning, fertility, onsite childcare, and parental leave.•Lack of research on medical student knowledge of parental leave policies in residency.