Leukocyte said:
Just how bad is the life of an Ob/Gyn? What would you say are the stress factors in Ob/Gyn?
Can you lead a normal happy life with lots of free time to pursue other outside interests?
Thanks.
you can lead whatever kind of life you want in any specialty. it is up to you to decide where and how often you work. the catch is, that in order to do that you will be giving up something else...for example, if you want to work less, you will make less. it would be tough to practice ob and not have busy call nights...
but, you can do straight gyn, or work with planned parenthood, or even with kaiser, and get reasonable hours and pay, with a humane call schedule. or you can go solo, and not share call and work your butt off. or anywhere in between...
i think lifestyle issues are a pretty over-discussed topic. you can adjust anything to fit your life. the question is whether you would be happy in the specialty while you are working...it would be very difficult for me to do 40 hours a week of derm, but much more interesting and satisfying to do 60 of ob/gyn. so, in my case, the ob/gyn "lifestyle" is better.
it seems like you have some pretty different specialty alternatives...i think you have some soul searching to do, and you should really think about what specialty you are interested in, and what you see yourself doing for the rest of your life. it is a pretty important decision.
