The Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellows are who we thought they were—highly proficient

Abstract

Few things are more taboo in reproductive medicine fellowship training than allowing fellows to perform live embryo transfers. Although regional and program differences exist—be it via insurance mandates, training culture, and program volume—nearly 1 in every 5 fellows graduate without performing a single live embryo transfer, with most performing <10 transfers during the 3 years of subspecialty training (1). The most commonly cited reasons for this shortcoming in clinical training are concerns for compromised pregnancy rates and patient satisfaction as well as the evergreen “that is just the way we have always done it.” Regardless, the fact remains that most graduating reproductive endocrinology and infertility (REI) fellows have performed more salpingectomies than embryo transfers.