Fertility Ob fellowships

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mountaindew2006

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Ok...just to be devils advocate. given the fact that not too many people want to do ob anymore given the high risk cases, etc. suppose, someone was to do a residency in ob/gyn..however, strictly do it in order to get into fertility clinic stuff. is it true thats where the big $$$ is ? secondly, is the malpractice ins high in that particular fellowship as it is in all other ob/gyn things?

thanks
 
Infertility fellowship better known as REI or reproductive endocrine fellowship is a 3 year fellowship training done after ob/gyn residency (4 years). To gain enterance into a fellowship is extemely competitive. General OB/Gyn programs do not typically offer you the training needed to pursue a "fertlity clinic practice" hence the reason why most enter into fellowship.

As far as malpractice it depends on the scope of your practice without doing obstetrics your malpractice would be less (perhaps $80,000 vs $120-140,000 in OH). However, treatment of infertility issues such as endometriosis, pelvic scarring, and fibroids whould require surgical intervention. To be honest I do not know of many solely in-vitro only practices. To properly treat infertility one must be able to have the endocrine and surgical expertise that one receives in fellowship training.
 
Infertility docs make big bucks. I know of some making 7 figures. It's true.
 
I'm actually, honestly, fairly interested in doing infertility work. If anyone out there knows what the fellowship and subsequent work is like, I'd love to hear.
 
ms. a said:
I'm actually, honestly, fairly interested in doing infertility work. If anyone out there knows what the fellowship and subsequent work is like, I'd love to hear.

From a career satisfaction point of view, REI is a great field. The other aspects you've mentioned are somewhat incorrect. Malpractice insurance (for me, anyway) in CA is about $30K and my practice is about 60% IVF, doing about 100 cycles/year. In eight years of practice, I have yet to be involved in any litigation nor pre-litigation (other than as an expert witness). Some of my colleagues do make over 1 MIL, but they work really hard.

I know of those working 30 hours/week who make 200-300K with no night call.

I'll go over the personal reasons why I feel career satisfaction is a strong part of REI in a subsequent post. To me, this is every bit as important, if not more than the pay / hours.

However, you must bear in mind that you do have to go into general OB/Gyn first with by no mean any guarantee of acceptance into a fellowship program.
 
ivfmd said:
However, you must bear in mind that you do have to go into general OB/Gyn first with by no mean any guarantee of acceptance into a fellowship program.

this may be an impossible question to answer... but relatively speaking, how hard is it to get into a fellowship in fertility or MFM? how many people apply but don't get accepted? what sort of things do they look at when they pick people? what sort of resume would you need to be somewhat assured that you'll be accepted. thanks
 
ivfmd said:
However, you must bear in mind that you do have to go into general OB/Gyn first with by no mean any guarantee of acceptance into a fellowship program.

Are there fellowship programs in Houston? Unfortunately, I will be forced to remain in Houston for the next 15 or 20 years and anything I go into will have to be here.
 
ms. a said:
Are there fellowship programs in Houston? Unfortunately, I will be forced to remain in Houston for the next 15 or 20 years and anything I go into will have to be here.

www.socrei.org is an informative site about Reproductive Endocrinology and the fellowship programs.
 
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