Yale Complex Family Planning Fellowship

The mission of the Yale Complex Family Planning (CFP) Fellowship is to provide exceptional training in complex reproductive health care through evidence-based medicine, research, and advocacy.

The Yale CFP Fellowship trains and mentors the next generation of complex family planning subspecialists.

The Yale CFP Fellowship is a two-year, ACGME-accredited fellowship designed to train obstetrician-gynecologists as subspecialty experts in complex family planning. Our specific program aims:

• Provide mentored training in clinical or translational research, including defense of a primary research thesis by the end of fellowship.
• Train fellows to become excellent medical educators with the development of didactic and clinical teaching skills.
• Develop experts in pregnancy termination, pregnancy loss, and contraceptive care within an environment that serves medically and socially complex individuals.
• Foster skills in advocacy with didactic instruction and mentored opportunities.
• Provide exposure to national reproductive health issues and establish a connection to a rapidly expanding network of complex family planning experts.
• Expose fellows to groundbreaking, forward-looking research conducted across the spectrum of reproductive health care within the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine.
• Develop research mentorship skills through collaborative projects in which fellows mentor resident and medical student research under the guidance of CFP attendings.

Family planning has a celebrated history at Yale Ob/Gyn. A former chair of the department, Lee Buxton, MD, was arrested along with Connecticut Planned Parenthood's Estelle Griswold in 1961 for operating a contraceptive clinic at a time when providing contraception to married couples was illegal. This case, Griswold v. Connecticut, became the landmark 1965 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing the right to privacy in reproductive matters, laying the foundation for the Roe v. Wade decision. From this history, we draw inspiration for a new chapter of leadership in reproductive health, encompassing clinical care, research, advocacy, and education through the Yale CFP Fellowship.

We provide expert complex family planning and serve as a referral site for abortion care for medically complex patients, patients requiring care through 23 weeks and six days of gestation, and medical and surgical management for patients experiencing pregnancy loss. Yale is a tertiary referral center serving not only the entire state of Connecticut, but also patients with severe medical comorbidities, complex fetal anomalies, and limited access to reproductive health care outside the state.

We provide general and complex contraceptive care, with expertise in long-acting reversible methods and contraceptive options for patients with underlying medical issues. This includes removal of non-palpable/deep contraceptive implants and both insertion and removal of difficult intrauterine devices.

Yale CFP fellows provide care in both inpatient and outpatient settings at Yale New Haven Hospital. Second-year fellows also rotate at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.

The Family Planning Division at Yale School of Medicine has a robust research infrastructure to support CFP fellow research, including assistance with IRB applications, study database development, and participant recruitment under experienced research mentorship.

Yale CFP faculty are active investigators currently conducting research in the pharmacogenomics of hormonal contraception, alternate placement of the subdermal implant, pain management for IUD insertion, GLP-1 agonists and contraceptive use, novel non-hormonal IUD development, cervical ripening prior to second-trimester dilation and evacuation, and follow up after medication-abortion.

Current Fellow Research Projects include:

• Randomized Controlled Trial of Double Balloon Catheter for Cervical Ripening Prior to Dilation & Evacuation
• Contraceptive Use Among Individuals with Systemic Lupus Erythematous

In addition, fellows have access to Yale's rich research infrastructure including:

1. The Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (offers direct infrastructure support for clinical research in both the inpatient and outpatient setting and small grants for trainees/fellows)
2. Yale Center for Analytic Sciences (including biostatistics, epidemiology, health economics, health policy, health services and big data research)
3. Yale Division of Reproductive Sciences (internationally renowned basic science and translational research center with shared department equipment, including a Keyence contrast/fluorescence microscope and LI-COR Western Blot imager)
4. Yale Lazorwitz Laboratory (one of the few translational CFP laboratories in the nation, performing DNA/RNA extraction, pyrosequencing, and mass spectrometry [in partnership with the Keck MS Core]; open to trainees at all levels and well suited to support novel translational research)

Fellows will participate in weekly didactic sessions designed for CFP fellows to cover relevant topics. They will also participate in weekly grand rounds and M&M.

The Society of Family Planning has developed a didactic curriculum to ensure that complex family planning fellows receive appropriate training in clinical research. Fellows will also develop clinical research skills through close research mentorship.

In addition, incoming Yale CFP fellows have the opportunity to take the following two courses:

IMED 5625: Principles of Clinical Research: This intensive two-week course provides an overview of the objectives, research strategies, and methods of conducting patient-oriented research. Topics include competing objectives of clinical research, principles of observational studies, principles of clinical trials, principles of meta-analysis, interpretation of diagnostic tests, prognostic studies, artificial intelligence in medical research, qualitative research methods, and decision analysis.

IMED 5645: Introduction to Biostatistics in Clinical Research: This course introduces statistical concepts and techniques commonly encountered in medical research. Previous coursework in statistics or experience with statistical packages is not a requirement. Topics to be discussed include study design, probability, comparing sample means and proportions, survival analysis, and sample size/power calculations. The computer lab will incorporate lecture content into practical application by introducing the statistical software package SPSS to describe and analyze data.

Fellows will be mentored in advocacy and are encouraged to participate in the Yale Legislative Advocacy Program, which aims to equip residents and fellows with the knowledge and skills needed to advocate for state-level legislative change and offers didactic instruction in advocacy fundamentals. Fellows are also encouraged to participate in the Connecticut Reproductive Health Advocacy Day. In addition, fellows can apply for external advocacy opportunities such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Congressional Leadership Conference or Physicians for Reproductive Health Leadership Training Academy.

Yale is collaborating with other fellowship programs to restart the biannual Northeast Regional Family Planning Advocacy Training Seminar, designed to provide fellows with practical advocacy skills applicable at the patient, professional, and policy levels, planned for spring 2027.

Fellows will be an integral part of the educational mission of the Family Planning Section, teaching Yale medical students, ob/gyn residents, physician associate students, and advanced nursing students, as well as visiting students and residents from outside of Yale. The division participates in workshops, lectures, case reviews, and clinical teaching with learners at all of these levels across Yale.

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Visit the Living in New Haven website that provides information and links to tourism resources.

The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) coordinates the CFP Fellowship application process.

The Yale CFP Fellowship program accepts one fellow per year. The application deadline is 5 p.m. on May 31, 2026. Interviews may be offered on a rolling basis depending on receipt of applications.