Residents on Reddit: Attitudes and Intentions to Undergo Oocyte Cryopreservation

Objective: The purpose of this study was to survey resident physicians’ experiences, attitudes, and concerns with undergoing oocyte cryopreservation (OC). Design: Cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: We queried “r/Residency,” an online resident physician community with 259,000 members on the social media website Reddit, for recent (2022-2024) posts related to OC for fertility preservation. We applied thematic analysis using an inductive approach to 4 threads (150 comments) dedicated to OC. The following themes were identified: questions, barriers, personal experiences (PE), and exchanges of advice. Results: Users most asked questions included cost and coverage (23.8%, n=25)), fertility testing (6.7%, n=7), and scheduling logistics (5.7%, n=6). Twenty-two posts (14.7%) identified barriers to OC, which included cost (77.3%, n=17), scheduling (40.9%, n=9), program support and flexibility (27.3%, n=6), side-effects and complications (13.6%, n=3), and psychological stress (13.6%, n=3). Thirty-eight posts (25.3%) reported PE, 17 (44.7%) of which disclosed their specific program’s coverage. Specific benefits discussed included medications, retrieval, ultrasounds, and storage fees. Fifteen posts (39.5%) disclosed their PE with OC and 6 (15.8%) shared their experience with fertility consultation. Forty-two (28%) posts exchanged words of advice and support. Users recommended scheduling a fertility consultation (33.3%, n=14), freezing embryos (21.4%, n=9), seeking psychologic support while undergoing OC (9.5%, n=4), and scheduling OC during certain rotations (7.1%, n=3). Conclusions: Members of an online resident physician community identified several barriers to undergoing OC while in medical training. They shared their own experiences with IVF and OC and make recommendations to seek fertility consultation, freeze embryos when possible, and to seek support while undergoing OC.