By: Jessica Smith
For many women, IVF is presented as a medical process defined by protocols, timelines, and clinical milestones. But for Suzy Jackson, an award-winning digital health executive and women’s health advocate, the experience revealed something the healthcare system still too often overlooks: IVF may be clinical on paper, but it is deeply human in real life.
Jackson, Chief Commercial Officer at RVO Health and a longtime leader at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and patient experience, has spent years helping organizations design more human-centered health solutions. Still, it wasn’t until she navigated IVF herself that she fully understood the emotional and cognitive burden women carry when healthcare becomes personal.
“IVF isn’t just a treatment plan,” Jackson says. “It’s loneliness. It’s waiting. It’s uncertainty. And it’s managing all of that while the rest of life keeps moving.”
The Invisible Cognitive Load Women Carry
Beyond injections and appointments, IVF required constant coordination. Jackson remembers tracking medication schedules while traveling for work, deciphering insurance language late at night, and staring at bills that didn’t match what she had been told.
There were portal messages she rewrote more than once before sending, unsure how to ask questions without sounding difficult. That hesitation — that moment of second-guessing is where trust quietly begins to erode.
“When healthcare systems fail women, it’s rarely one dramatic moment,” Jackson explains. “It’s the accumulation of small frictions that make you feel like the problem for needing clarity.”
Experiencing the System at Its Worst and Its Best
At one point in her IVF journey, Jackson worked with a physician whose approach reflected what many patients silently endure. Appointments felt rushed. Communication was unclear. Billing issues piled up without explanation.
When Jackson asked if she could ask questions during one visit, she was told no.
“That moment stayed with me,” she says. “A patient isn’t a task to complete. A patient is a person trying to understand something deeply personal.”
Eventually, Jackson was able to switch providers, a privilege many patients don’t have. The difference was immediate. Appointments slowed down. Questions were anticipated instead of dismissed. Conversations felt grounded in respect rather than efficiency.
The medical objective hadn’t changed. The experience had.
When Life Doesn’t Pause for Treatment
IVF also exposed a reality healthcare design often ignores: illness doesn’t pause the rest of life. Jackson recalls administering injections in airplane bathrooms, hotel rooms, and backstage before speaking engagements.
She was still leading meetings. Still showing up professionally. Still expected to function as if nothing unusual was happening.
“People are never just patients,” Jackson says. “They’re parents, leaders, employees, caregivers. Healthcare systems rarely account for that.”
For Jackson, this disconnect revealed something deeper. Patient experience is not an enhancement layered onto care. It is foundational to whether care actually works.
How Her Experience Turned Into Action
What surprised Jackson most was not how broken parts of the system felt, but how preventable many of those moments were.
The difference, she learned, rarely came down to advanced technology or sweeping reform. It showed up in smaller, human decisions. Someone taking the time to explain what was happening. Space to ask questions without fear of judgment. Care that acknowledged the patient’s life beyond the exam room.
The realization now shapes how Jackson shows up in her speaking and advisory work with healthcare leaders, organizations, and women navigating their own health and leadership journeys.
In her talks, Jackson challenges teams to look beyond efficiency metrics and ask a more uncomfortable question: what does this feel like for the person on the receiving end? Not in theory, but in practice.
She encourages leaders to notice where cognitive load quietly accumulates, where patients or employees hesitate before asking a question, and where people are expected to perform resilience instead of being supported through uncertainty.
“These moments shape trust,” Jackson says. “They influence whether someone follows through on care, whether they feel safe enough to speak up, and whether they believe the system is actually designed for them.”
Why Women’s Health Deserves a Different Standard
IVF ultimately gave Jackson two daughters — now two-and-a-half years old and seven months old. It also sharpened her conviction that women’s health has too often been treated as transactional rather than deeply personal.
“Women deserve excellent medicine and excellent humanity,” she says. “Healthcare systems have to be designed to deliver both.”
Today, Jackson brings this perspective into boardrooms, conferences, and leadership forums, helping organizations rethink patient experience not as a feature, but as a responsibility.
Jackson uses her voice as a digital health leader, speaker, and advisor to advocate for more patient-centered approaches across pharma, health tech, and women’s health.
Her message is clear: better outcomes are inseparable from better experiences.
For women navigating their own health journeys, especially those that feel invisible or misunderstood, Jackson offers reassurance.
“You’re not difficult for asking questions,” she says. “You’re not asking for too much. You deserve care that respects your body, your mind, and your life.”
As healthcare accelerates and technology becomes more powerful, Jackson believes the human experience must remain central, a perspective she now shares through her speaking and leadership work, helping organizations rethink how patients experience care.
Because healthcare only works when it remembers who it is designed to serve.
Learn more at www.suzy-jackson.com or connect with Suzy Jackson on LinkedIn.
Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional for medical concerns or treatment guidance.
