WHY are so many OBs and gynaes male?

[SpeedyGonzalez]

Any answers, anyone? Is it just about the career ladder thing - that women find they can't manage family life so well in those professions? Are the male ones just desperate to gawp at a lifetime's worth of fanjo?

I've had one female OB in my life - she was marvellous, had 3 kids, too. Apart from her? All men.

Does it work the other way around with doctors of male plumbing?

Most women doctors become GP's for obvious reasons, children and more familiy friendly hours. The admission of women into medical schools has increased alot over the past several years so it should level off soon.

But where are all the female GPs?
My last surgery had 1/11 and she was p/t and my current surgery has 5 and no women. Next door surgery has 1/8.

I doubt it is to get the chance to fiddle about all day I would imagine that it's quite the opposite and they get sick to death of seeing them.

I am reminded of that bit in an episode of Friends where just such a doctor asked rachel? what she did for a living, and she said waitress, and he said ok, well, don't you have times where you get home and you think "if I see one more cup of coffee..."

we have more female docs than male in our surgery but the male ones are all full time

Yes, and they don't see them at their best, do they?

the torn ones, the poorly ones, the whiffy ones...

It's enough to put you off for life

Myself and dh were only chatting about this last week after my OBS appointment (am pregnant). Really wondered too..

The training hours to become a consultant or a surgeon are so ridiculous that a woman has to choose career or babies (unless she has a massive income to cover a nanny)...no, really, the length of time to train is silly and you can't take breaks to fit in having children without taking about 5 years longer to train.

I bet it seemed like a good idea at the time though

My (male) cousin is a consultant OB. He gave me a pessary ring as a teether for DS1 when we went for lunch one day. I must have had a face a bit like this.

The on call for obs and gynae is really bad, so v family unfriendly. A consultant friend of mine (in Oncology which is fairly family friendly, so more women) has 3 kids, and his wife is just finishing her training now, and even though they have a nanny they have childcare issues as she has to do a lot of night on call in the hospital, and still do the ward round in the morning.

Career obstetrician V GP

Career obsterician

1. likely nights on call with increasing hospital attendance even as a senior as your juniors become relatively speaking, inexperienced due to the changes in training structure
2. trickier working part-time
3. big litigation risk
4. much longer training, meaning many more years until you have semblance of control over your life

GP

1. On-call minimal and not as stressful
2. Litigation much reduced again in relation to obs
3. Flexible working/part-time working much easier
4. Get to be your own boss/have far superior autonomy sooner

I loved obs and gynae and was good at it.
Don't regret for 1 second changing to primary care it all comes down to work /life balance for your overall happiness

I have to say that I have seen quite a few junior docs at the gynae dept and only one that I can think of (out of 5/6) was male. But yes all the senior gynae consultants I have seen were male. I guess that concurs with what DR says?

Midnightexpress! I saw your post in 'Threads I'm on' and it looked like this:

"My (male) cousin is a consultant OB. He gave me a pessary"

Thank god I clicked and read on!

Darrell - you have presented very informatively what I suspected was the case. How sad that women like you who are gifted in an area of medicine are not able to continue the shine in that area, but I'm glad you found a solution that works for your whole life.

. That really would have been . Especially when I only went round there for lunch.

PMSL! They do say there's no such thing as a free lunch.

I was then going to say something about your cousin having odd pesary-related proclivities but decided against it since he is your cousin.

I know that the UK has some fast track options now, but it seems incredibly difficult to get into medical school when you're older and to survive it.

For women, I think it's a tricky option. It's about seven years of very intense training and study, and many unsocial hours. Given that we only have about twenty years of peak childbearing years and that once we have babies and young children, most of us would quite like to see something of them, I think it's sadly very challenging for women who want to become doctors, particularly if they don't go straight to university at 18. Similarly, I can see why plenty don't go on to become consultants. It's simply about time being too finite.

I wish there was a more flexible approach. I looked into med school here in the US but it just seems like an impossibility with young children - you have to put your heart and soul into it and be up for long night shifts. It's considered a stamina test as much as anything.

Such a shame. I think health services would have a lot to gain by helping mature female students get into a career in medicine.

I worked in a medical admin management type role (suitably vague) and I sometimes pondered why so many of the Obs & Gyn Drs were from Nigeria.

Never found out.