Thank you for your advice! I matched into a Preliminary Medicine spot and applied for anesthesiology this year in the couple's match. I suspect the couple's match process contributed to me not matching- my partner successfully matched. I interested in pursing either field (specifically interested in Pain) and would greatly appreciate any other feedback you may have! Thank you
I did not go through couple's match, but from what I understand, you set the combinations and rank them. So unless you ranked the combination of "spouse-match, you-not match into anesthesiology (and match medicine prelim)" over "spouse-match, you-match" because you were restricted to literally 1-2 cities, there may be a bigger problem at hand. That would mean that you did not match, not because it was couple's match (and you were limited to 4-5 programs), but because the programs did not rank you high enough. I am not trying to offend you, but you need to figure out what you could improve on and fix it before you head into the next year's match. Although Anesthesiology became more competitive recently, it still is a field where most USMDs match without an issue.
Anesthesiology and PM&R are VERY different fields, and both are also very different from interventional pain. Perhaps you came across as someone who did not care about Anesthesiology training, and was using it as stepping stone to get to pain. I am not saying that is wrong, but many of those residents tend to not be great anesthesiology residents because their focus lies elsewhere, and many residency programs do not look at it favorably when applicants are 100% set on pain so early.
Do a thorough introspection and fix what you can, be the best medicine resident you can be (medicine foundation is important any field you go), network within your prelim institution (having a good reputation within your medicine department will help with this), and have more geographic flexibility when applying the next time around.
Good luck.
