ArticleCanadian Urological Association journal = Journal de l'Association des urologues du Canada2021
Infertility insurance: What coverage exists for physician trainees?
Article in Canadian Urological Association journal = Journal de l'Association des urologues du Canada, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Fertility planning for women in medicine: a call for an active approach.International journal of women's dermatology · 2026Review
- When states require fully insured employers to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF), what do self-insured employers provide?Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2026Article
- Physician infertility: a structured literature review.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionWe aimed to describe infertility insurance coverage provided to male and female fellows working at institutions that offer advanced infertility training.
methodsFaculty and fellows working within U.S. and Canadian andrology or reproductive endocrinology and infertility (REI) programs were contacted and asked for a copy of their institutional health insurance summary of benefits. Documents were assessed for coverage of diagnosis and treatment, shared costs, and maximum lifetime coverage for infertility care.
resultsInsurance policies from 24 institutions were reviewed; 16 of 24 (66%) institutions covered costs related to the diagnosis of infertility. Six institutions (25%) offered coverage for diagnosis but not treatment. There were 15 (62.5%) institutions that offered some amount of coverage for the treatment of infertility, and the average lifetime maximum was $16 100. Only six of 24 (25%) plans explicitly described a covered male-specific treatment, which included sperm extraction (12.5%), varicocele repair (4.2%), and sperm cryopreservation (8.3%).
conclusionsFor physician trainees, infertility insurance coverage is not universal, policies are not transparent, and treatment for male factor infertility is often omitted. With high costs of infertility treatment, variable insurance coverage, and debt and time constraints, residents and fellows are a particularly vulnerable population that may experience significant financial toxicity when faced with infertility.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.