DMD #63 | Infertility, Identity & Finding Alignment in Medicine

This episode is sponsored by Lightstone DIRECT. Lightstone DIRECT invites you to partner with a $12B AUM real estate institution as you grow your portfolio. Access the same single-asset multifamily and industrial deals Lightstone pursues with its own capital – Lightstone co-invests a minimum of 20% in each deal alongside individual investors like you. You’re an institution. Time to invest like one.–Dr. Erica Bove is double board-certified in OB-GYN and Reproductive Endocrinology — but her most powerful insights come from lived experience.After being told early in life she may never conceive, Erica’s personal fertility journey reshaped both her career and her philosophy of care. As a new attending, she recognized a troubling pattern: patients weren’t failing treatment — they were drowning in anxiety, fear, and nervous system overload.That realization led her to integrate coaching, mindset work, and nervous-system regulation into infertility care — especially for physicians who struggle to become patients themselves.Episode HighlightsBeing told you may be infertile — while training to be a doctorThe mental load of infertility in medical trainingWhy anxiety blocks comprehension and healingReframing infertility as a disease, not a personal failureCoaching physicians through long, unsuccessful fertility journeysAlignment as burnout preventionLearning to say no — and why your “yes” must be full-bodiedMotherhood, divorce, and redefining successWhen stepping back clinically allows deeper impactTop 3 TakeawaysInfertility doesn’t mean failure.Burnout doesn’t mean weakness.And alignment — not perfection — is the path to sustainability.About Dr. Erica BoveErica Bove, MD is a double board-certified OB-GYN and reproductive endocrinologist, physician coach, and educator dedicated to helping physicians navigate infertility, loss, and identity shifts in medicine.She serves as faculty and program director at the University of Vermont and is the founder of Love & Science Fertility, a coaching practice that supports physicians facing infertility when traditional treatments alone aren’t enough. Drawing from both clinical expertise and lived experience, Dr. Bove integrates evidence-based medicine with mindset work, nervous-system regulation, and values-based coaching to help physicians restore hope and alignment during some of the most challenging seasons of their lives.Dr. Bove is especially passionate about helping doctors learn how to become patients themselves—reducing shame, isolation, and burnout while empowering them to reconnect with their bodies, their purpose, and their humanity.Learn more at https://loveandsciencefertility.com Physician & patient referrals: https://www.loveandsciencefertility.com/patient-referral-formAbout the Host:Dr. Peter Crane is a board-certified physician, educator, and storyteller with a heart for service and a calling to spotlight doctors who make a difference—in their communities, in medicine, and in the lives they touch.Through Doctors Making a Difference, he brings you into intimate conversations with physicians who have overcome challenges, redefined success, and found purpose in and beyond the clinic. His goal is simple: to help more doctors stay in medicine by showing them what's possible.About the Show:Doctors Making a Difference is more than a podcast—it’s a movement to highlight the good, the gritty, and the deeply human side of medicine.In every episode, Dr. Peter Crane interviews physicians whose stories defy the script. From burnout recovery to bold career pivots, health challenges to quiet leadership, this show honors the truth that healing begins with connection—and doctors, too, deserve to be whole.Visit: doctorsmakingadifference.comLMC Series Note:Living with Metastatic Cancer (LMC) explores the science, decisions, and day-to-day realities of life with advanced disease—through candid physician–patient conversations. The Doctors Making a Difference Podcast is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for medical, legal, or professional advice. Always consult appropriate experts regarding your unique circumstances. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.