Parenthood Your Way: Reflections from the Women’s Dermatologic Society Forum 2026
Authors: Amaris Geisler, MD, FAAD and Mary L. Stevenson, MD, FAAD As doctors, we spend our careers counseling patients, offering education, and encouraging proactive health decisions. Ironically, many of us know little about our own reproductive health and family planning options – including fertility preservation and parental leave policies – even though medical training overlaps with our prime family-building years. 1 Should I freeze my eggs during residency? Will parental leave affect my training? How do I pursue parenthood while building a practice or an academic career? are questions that often go undiscussed. The Women’s Dermatologic Society is in a unique position to educate, mentor, advocate, and redefine what success in medicine looks like. Success is no longer measured solely by publications, promotions, leadership titles, or clinical productivity. It is also reflected in whether physicians feel empowered to build lives that align with their own values. In 2001, t...