Dr. Wenzel on the lack of resources for pregnant urologists

In this interview, Jessica L. Wenzel, MD, MPH, highlights additional findings from the study, “Occupational Radiation Exposure During Pregnancy: A Survey of Urologists on Perception, Experience, and Practice Patterns,” for which she served as the lead author. Wenzel is a fourth-year resident at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

Video Transcript:

We had an open answer section of our survey as well, just trying to see if there was anything

we might be missing in the questions we were asking. The really big point that came from respondents was that access to PPE is lacking. Most people personally use ALARA principle. So, ALARA is ‘as low as reasonably achievable’ when it comes to radiation. There was a consistent request for more access to knowledge [and] access to guidelines. And then additionally, a fear of early disclosure of pregnancy came up repeatedly. This was often cited in relation to accessing PPE, because if you're asking for maternity lead, and you don't know where to get it, that kind of gives people the hint that you might be pregnant and you might not be telling people yet. A lot people had fear of that and were uncomfortable with that. So, I think the implications for this are 1, access is really poor to the proper tools to safely navigate pregnancy. And then I think the other thing implication is that access can be improved. There are other specialty societies that lay out guidelines for what should be accessed. I think as urologists, it's a little bit hard to advocate for what you need when 1, you don't know necessarily what you need, because you don't have those guidelines yourself, and then 2, your specialty society doesn't have anything published that you can use to advocate for yourself when it comes to administration or whoever might be supplying that PPE for you.

This transcription has been edited for clarity.