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Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation

BACKGROUND: Previous literature demonstrates that female surgeons face difficulties in family planning, meeting breastfeeding goals, leadership and advancement opportunities. These issues have received limited attention in Canadian surgeons despite different maternity leave patterns compared to the...

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Autores principales: Naismith, Kendra, Ioanidis, Khrystyna, Dzioba, Agnieszka, MacNeil, S. Danielle, Paradis, Josee, Nayan, Smriti, Strychowsky, Julie E., Graham, M. Elise
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10207624/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37221615
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40463-023-00630-z
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author Naismith, Kendra
Ioanidis, Khrystyna
Dzioba, Agnieszka
MacNeil, S. Danielle
Paradis, Josee
Nayan, Smriti
Strychowsky, Julie E.
Graham, M. Elise
author_facet Naismith, Kendra
Ioanidis, Khrystyna
Dzioba, Agnieszka
MacNeil, S. Danielle
Paradis, Josee
Nayan, Smriti
Strychowsky, Julie E.
Graham, M. Elise
author_sort Naismith, Kendra
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Previous literature demonstrates that female surgeons face difficulties in family planning, meeting breastfeeding goals, leadership and advancement opportunities. These issues have received limited attention in Canadian surgeons despite different maternity leave patterns compared to the general Canadian population. We sought to describe the experience of otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons in family planning, fertility, and lactation and to identify the role of gender and career stage in these experiences. METHODS: A RedCAP(®) survey was disseminated to Canadian otolaryngology–head and neck surgeons and residents from March to May of 2021 through social media and the national listserv. This survey examined fertility, pregnancy losses, and infant feeding. Major independent variables include gender and career stage (faculty and resident). Dependent variables include respondent experiences with fertility, number of children, and length of parental leave. Responses were tabulated and presented descriptively to communicate the experience of Canadian otolaryngologists. Further, statistical comparisons such as chi-square and t-tests were employed to identify relationships between these variables. Thematic analysis was conducted for narrative comments. RESULTS: We received 183 completed surveys (22% response rate). 54% of females versus 13% of males agreed that career influenced their ability to have children (p = 0.002). 74% of female respondents without children have concerns about future fertility compared to 4% of men (p < 0.001). Furthermore, 80% of women versus 20% of men have concerns about future family planning (p < 0.001). The average maternity leave was 11.5 weeks for residents, and 22.2 weeks for staff. Additionally, significantly more women than men stated that maternity leave impacted advancement opportunities (32% vs. 7%) and salary/remuneration (71% vs. 24%) (p < 0.001). Over 60% of those choosing to pump breastmilk at work reported having inadequate time, space, and breastmilk storage. In total, 62% of breastfed infants were receiving breastmilk at 1 year. CONCLUSION: Canadian female otolaryngologists-head and neck surgeons face challenges in family planning, ability to conceive, and breastfeeding. Focused effort is required to provide an inclusive environment that helps all otolaryngologists-head and neck surgeons achieve both their career and family goals, regardless of gender or career stage. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40463-023-00630-z.
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spelling pubmed-102076242023-05-25 Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation Naismith, Kendra Ioanidis, Khrystyna Dzioba, Agnieszka MacNeil, S. Danielle Paradis, Josee Nayan, Smriti Strychowsky, Julie E. Graham, M. Elise J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg Original Research Article BACKGROUND: Previous literature demonstrates that female surgeons face difficulties in family planning, meeting breastfeeding goals, leadership and advancement opportunities. These issues have received limited attention in Canadian surgeons despite different maternity leave patterns compared to the general Canadian population. We sought to describe the experience of otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons in family planning, fertility, and lactation and to identify the role of gender and career stage in these experiences. METHODS: A RedCAP(®) survey was disseminated to Canadian otolaryngology–head and neck surgeons and residents from March to May of 2021 through social media and the national listserv. This survey examined fertility, pregnancy losses, and infant feeding. Major independent variables include gender and career stage (faculty and resident). Dependent variables include respondent experiences with fertility, number of children, and length of parental leave. Responses were tabulated and presented descriptively to communicate the experience of Canadian otolaryngologists. Further, statistical comparisons such as chi-square and t-tests were employed to identify relationships between these variables. Thematic analysis was conducted for narrative comments. RESULTS: We received 183 completed surveys (22% response rate). 54% of females versus 13% of males agreed that career influenced their ability to have children (p = 0.002). 74% of female respondents without children have concerns about future fertility compared to 4% of men (p < 0.001). Furthermore, 80% of women versus 20% of men have concerns about future family planning (p < 0.001). The average maternity leave was 11.5 weeks for residents, and 22.2 weeks for staff. Additionally, significantly more women than men stated that maternity leave impacted advancement opportunities (32% vs. 7%) and salary/remuneration (71% vs. 24%) (p < 0.001). Over 60% of those choosing to pump breastmilk at work reported having inadequate time, space, and breastmilk storage. In total, 62% of breastfed infants were receiving breastmilk at 1 year. CONCLUSION: Canadian female otolaryngologists-head and neck surgeons face challenges in family planning, ability to conceive, and breastfeeding. Focused effort is required to provide an inclusive environment that helps all otolaryngologists-head and neck surgeons achieve both their career and family goals, regardless of gender or career stage. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40463-023-00630-z. BioMed Central 2023-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC10207624/ /pubmed/37221615 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40463-023-00630-z Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Original Research Article
Naismith, Kendra
Ioanidis, Khrystyna
Dzioba, Agnieszka
MacNeil, S. Danielle
Paradis, Josee
Nayan, Smriti
Strychowsky, Julie E.
Graham, M. Elise
Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation
title Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation
title_full Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation
title_fullStr Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation
title_full_unstemmed Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation
title_short Canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation
title_sort canadian women in otolaryngology: head and neck surgery part 2—challenges in family planning, fertility, and lactation
topic Original Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10207624/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37221615
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40463-023-00630-z
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