By Katie Senter, M.D., Pediatric Resident at UCLA Medical Center

As resident physicians across the University of California prepare to participate in historic Unity Break actions this week, I’ve been thinking about the benefit that made it possible for my wife and me to build a family.

My wife and I want children. Like many couples, we’ve spent years talking about when and how we would start a family. But as a queer couple, biology makes that journey more complicated. And as a physician-in-training, the timing has always felt impossible.

I am a third-year pediatric resident at UCLA and will remain here for another three years as a pediatric rheumatology fellow. My wife is a scientist and a few years older than I am. During my first years of residency, she was finishing her Ph.D. We knew that if we wanted the option of having biological children together, we needed to think about fertility preservation sooner rather than later.

The problem was cost.

Like many residents, we were living on a trainee salary while carrying the financial pressures that come with years of education and training. Egg freezing can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Without UCLA’s fertility benefit, we simply would not have been able to do it, even for one round of egg freezing.

That benefit kept open a door that my wife and I thought might be closing.

Because of this benefit, we were able to freeze her eggs and preserve options for our future family. Without it, we would have faced an impossible choice: abandon our plans for parenthood or take on significant additional financial strain during residency.

As Pride Month begins, I am reminded that LGBTQ+ families have spent generations fighting for the right to build families of our own. For queer couples like my wife and me, fertility preservation, surrogacy, and adoption support are not luxuries. They are often the only pathways that make parenthood possible.

Physicians are increasingly delaying childbearing during medical training. Residency alone can last anywhere from three to seven years, with additional fellowship training often extending that timeline even further. Many physicians finish training in their mid-to-late thirties. Female physicians experience infertility at higher rates than the general population, and studies have identified financial concerns, medical school debt, workplace stigma, and the demands of training as major reasons why this delay happens.

For some residents, fertility benefits mean preserving the ability to have biological children. For others, they help cover adoption costs or make surrogacy possible. As someone living with multiple chronic illnesses, including Type 1 diabetes and psoriatic arthritis, having access to family-building options such as surrogacy is especially important. For queer families, these benefits are often not optional. They are one of the few pathways available to parenthood.

Yet today, as UC resident physicians negotiate our first statewide contract, benefits that residents fought hard to win, including these fertility benefits, are under threat.

That is one of the reasons I am participating in this week’s Unity Break actions alongside hundreds of resident physicians and fellows across California.

These actions are about more than benefits. They are about whether the physicians who dedicate their lives to caring for others are allowed to build families of their own.

University of California executives often speak about diversity, inclusion, and supporting LGBTQ+ communities, especially during Pride Month. Those commitments should extend beyond statements and celebrations during Pride Month. They should include protecting the family-building benefits that allow LGBTQ+ physicians and trainees to build families of their own.

My wife and I were fortunate. Because of this benefit, we still have options.

Future LGBTQ+ residents deserve those same opportunities.

This week, resident physicians across California are standing together to remind University of California executives that supporting LGBTQ+ families, supporting physicians, and supporting patients are not separate commitments. They are one and the same.