Ep 128: Fertility Trends Among Active Duty and Veteran Service Members with Dr. Samantha Estevez & Katrina Nietsch

In honor of Veteran’s Day, today’s episode explores the under-addressed topic of fertility care for active duty and veteran service members, the challenges they are likely to experience, and how to ensure they are better supported as patients. Joining us to discuss this subject is Dr. Samantha Estevez, a Clinical Fellow at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York, and Katrina Nietsch, a medical student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. We discuss their fortuitous collaboration before delving into their recent abstract titled, Supporting Our Troops: 20 Years of Fertility Trends Among Active Duty and Veteran Service Members Seeking Fertility Care at a Major Urban Fertility Center. Tuning in, you’ll learn about Katrina’s long history with the military, what led her to medicine, and how she partnered with Dr. Estevez to explore fertility and fertility care within the veteran population. We take a look at the limitations that veterans or active duty service members might experience when seeking specialized fertility treatment and how our guests went about researching this topic. We also reflect on the important role of advocacy and policy initiatives in this area, and how they are pushing the Veterans Association (VA) and government to recognize and address pressing issues facing female service members and veterans. Join us for an eye-opening conversation about an urgent topic that should be receiving much more attention!