Women’s Mental Health: Reproductive Psychiatry, IVF & the Biased Healthcare System

How can we optimize mental healthcare for women and their loved ones? How can we support women through their reproductive lifespan and the course of preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum? We answer these questions and more with Dr. Lucy Hutner, an internationally recognized expert in women’s mental health. Dr. Hutner covers the role of reproductive psychiatry and how she diagnoses and treats a variety of conditions experienced by women and LGBTQ birthing parents. We discuss the transformations that come with parents undergoing IVF treatment and dive into myths surrounding medications for the pregnant woman. Dr. Hutner received her MD from the University of California, San Francisco. She completed psychiatry residency training at Harvard (MGH/McLean), where she was one of the chief residents, followed by fellowship training at Columbia. Dr. Hutner is a leader in the emerging medical specialty of reproductive psychiatry, which focuses on the mental health needs of women throughout the reproductive life span, including preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. Dr. Hutner was the Associate Director of the Women’s Program at Columbia, is on the leadership team of the National Task Force for the first standardized digital curriculum in reproductive psychiatry, and she is the co-editor of the first textbook in reproductive psychiatry, to be published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2021.