The voice of infertility: a review of fertility podcasts

Abstract

Over the past several years, there has been a significant increase in the popularity of podcast use. The purpose of this study was to review the availability, content, and authorship of podcasts on the topic of fertility and to compare those hosted by physicians vs patients. A search for podcasts relating to the term ‘fertility’ was performed using 10 podcast platforms. Information relating to each podcast was recorded. Chi-square was used for comparison of proportions and the Mann-Whitney test for continuous variables. Of the 133 podcasts that met inclusion criteria, the most common subject was patient education (62%), followed by fertility awareness (30%), and Third Party Reproduction (13%). A majority of podcasts were hosted by patients (40%), holistic health professionals (28%), and physicians (16%). When comparing podcasts hosted by physicians vs. patients, there was no difference in overall content (p = 0.07), frequency of episodes (p = 0.77), number of episodes (p = 0.63) and number of listener ratings (p = 0.47). We conclude that many fertility podcasts exist with most hosted by patients describing their fertility experiences. Understanding the landscape of fertility podcasts will allow physicians to identify areas of interest and create content which educates and enhances connection with patients.

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