Women Surgeons at Greater Risk of Pregnancy Loss, Study Finds

The demands of the profession appear to clash with the process of starting a family. “There’s a health risk in it.”

Dr. Eveline Shue had always been a standout surgeon, but her most joyful moment at the hospital came when she could finally share some personal good news with her colleagues: After five cycles of in vitro fertilization, she was pregnant with twins. At 24 weeks of pregnancy, she and her husband began to make plans for their future family, purchasing car seats and picking out names. All the while Dr. Shue kept working 60-hour weeks in the hospital. At 34 weeks, she realized that the operating room shifts were wearing on her body and took a brief leave. Two days later, her mother walked into her home and found her unable to speak. Dr. Shue, 39, had suffered pre-eclampsia and a stroke. She was rushed to the hospital, got an emergency cesarean section and then underwent brain surgery. Her babies survived, as did Dr. Shue, but it was a wake-up call to her surgery team. “I began to ask myself, What could we as a group have done to prevent this from happening?” said her colleague Dr. Eugene Kim, a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.