REI Training

What REI Training Actually Means

When people search for "REI training," they may mean several things. On this site, REI means Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility, the obstetrics and gynecology subspecialty focused on hormonal disorders of reproduction, infertility, assisted reproductive technology, and the anatomic and genetic conditions that affect conception and pregnancy. If you are new to the field, the overview at What Is REI? covers the basics, and What Does REI Stand For? clarifies the terminology.

REI training is therefore a multi-year physician pathway, not a short course or an online credential. It culminates in board certification through the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG). This article walks through that pathway, shows how fellowship content maps onto the issuer's published blueprint, and explains how to organize your preparation across training years.

The Training Pathway: Medical School to Fellowship

According to the ASRM 2025 statement on the definition, training, and scope of practice of the REI subspecialist, the U.S. pathway has three major stages:

1. Medical school leading to an MD or DO degree.
2. A four-year obstetrics and gynecology residency, which provides the general foundation in obstetrics, gynecologic surgery, and primary care for women.
3. A three-year REI fellowship, where trainees concentrate on reproductive endocrinology, infertility evaluation and treatment, ART laboratory and clinical work, reproductive surgery, and research.

Note the distinction in sources. The ASRM document is a professional-society summary of training and scope; it is not an ABOG exam blueprint. The blueprint, covered below, is what defines examination content. For eligibility details, see REI Requirements: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Why the fellowship is three years

The length reflects how much the subspecialty combines. A fellow must be fluent in basic science (hormone structure, assays, pharmacology), clinical endocrinology (thyroid, neuroendocrine, ovarian and adrenal disorders), laboratory-adjacent skills (gamete and embryo biology, ART techniques), reproductive surgery, and genetics. Few other subspecialties span bench-level physiology and operative gynecology in the same training program.

What Fellowship Teaches: Mapping Training to the ABOG Blueprint

The ABOG REI blueprint, linked from its exam-blueprints page, is a four-page document with six primary categories and 27 subcategories. It does not print percentage weights, and it does not split content between the written and oral stages. It also carries no printed revision or effective date, even though the file URL contains 2026. That makes it a map of scope rather than a scoring recipe.

Here is how the six categories correspond to what fellows do day to day:

For a deeper tour of each content area, see REI Exam Domains: Complete Guide to All 6 Content Areas.

Two Exam Stages After Training: QE and CE

REI certification through ABOG has two distinct stages, and the common blueprint does not allocate content separately between them:

• The Qualifying Examination (QE) is the written exam, delivered through Pearson VUE.
• The Certifying Examination (CE) is the oral exam.

Because the blueprint is common to both stages and the stage-specific logistics (fees, registration windows, exact format details) are governed by the applicable current ABOG bulletin, you should always confirm those numbers with ABOG directly rather than relying on any third-party summary. For cost framing, see REI Certification Cost: Complete Pricing Breakdown, and for scheduling context, REI Exam Dates: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.

What the 2026 calendar looked like

An ABOG update presented at the 2026 SMFM Program Directors Meeting lists the 2026 subspecialty QE on July 20 and the CE during April 13-17. Treat these as historical 2026 dates, not as a promise about future administrations. Continuing-certification participation is required to remain certified after the initial credential.

What recent outcomes suggest

The same ABOG presentation reports a 2025 REI first-time QE pass rate of 100% (N=55) and a CE pass rate of 94.7% (N=57). The presentation's QE repeat and overall cohort counts are internally inconsistent, so no reconciled overall rate should be quoted. These figures describe a small, highly selected population of fellowship-trained candidates; they are not a guarantee, and they say little about how demanding preparation feels from the inside. For more on interpreting them, read REI Pass Rate: What the Data Shows and How Hard Is the REI Exam?.

The Thesis Shift for 2026 Graduates

One of the most practical training-related changes comes from the ABOG update: for fellowship graduates from 2026 onward, the thesis moves from CE eligibility to QE eligibility. Earlier graduates retain their prior requirements.

What this means for fellows:

• If you graduate in 2026 or later, plan your scholarly work so the thesis is complete early enough to support QE eligibility, rather than treating it as a later hurdle.
• If you graduated before 2026, you keep the earlier pathway; verify your own status with ABOG rather than assuming.
• Program directors and fellows should discuss thesis timelines from the first year of fellowship, since research and clinical demands compete for the same hours.

Domain-by-Domain Priorities for Fellows

The following blocks use the six blueprint domains and the published subcategory names to flag what a trainee should be able to explain fluently. The blueprint lists topics, not weights, so no domain should be assumed to be "minor."

Candidates often ask for a compressed review sheet once they have worked through these areas; the REI Cheat Sheet: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts is a useful companion, and the longer REI Study Guide: How to Pass on Your First Attempt goes deeper on tactics.

Aligning Study With Fellowship Years

Because fellowship is clinically demanding, the most effective approach is to let your rotations drive your reading, then consolidate by domain as the exam approaches. This is the one place a schedule is worth sketching; the specifics below are an editorial suggestion, not an official ABOG timeline.

Written questions reward recall and reasoning; oral examination rewards structured, verbal case management. Practice both. You can drill written-style items on the main practice test site, and the full REI practice question bank lets you target one domain at a time.

Where Trained REI Subspecialists Work

Training leads to a fairly well-defined set of practice settings. Without inventing numbers, the common ones include:

• Academic medical centers, combining clinical work, teaching fellows and residents, and research.
• Private fertility practices, often centered on IVF programs and ART laboratories.
• Hospital-affiliated reproductive medicine programs, which may integrate endocrine, surgical, and fertility preservation services.
• Multi-site fertility networks and group practices, which recruit board-eligible and board-certified subspecialists.

For openings and employer types, see REI Jobs. On compensation, the REI Salary Guide: Complete Earnings Analysis discusses earnings in more detail, and Is the REI Certification Worth It? frames the return on a decade-plus training investment. If you want the credential itself explained, start with REI Certification and What Is REI Certification?.

Frequently Asked Questions