delchrys said:
if a guy wants to go into that specialty, more power to him. just like male massage therapists, however, fresh male OB/GYNs are going to find it increasingly difficult to build a client base.
a quick medline search provides some evidence against this excerpt from your post (see abstracts below). it appears that a small majority of women prefer a female gynecologist, from this quick search. in my personal experience, most women prefer a competent ob/gyn of either sex. some will absolutely prefer a male, some will absolutely prefer a female. no judgement on these facts, people are fully allowed to make a choice. but, to state that opportunity is shrinking to be a male in this field is simply not true. all the evidence that i have seen published, as well as my personal experience in the field, make it very, very clear that this field is open and receptive to qualified, compasionate doctors, regardless of sex.
Determinants of women's choice of obstetrician/gynecologist.
J Womens Health Gend Based Med 2002 Mar;11(2):175-80 (ISSN: 1524-6094)
Zuckerman M; Navizedeh N; Feldman J; McCalla S; Minkoff H
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
INTRODUCTION: There has been a reported increase in women's desires to have female medical providers. It is unclear if this finding extends to obstetrician/gynecologists or how important gender is relative to other factors in choosing a provider. This study seeks to address these issues. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In community locations in Brooklyn, New York, 537 women completed a questionnaire regarding demographics, gender of their current provider, and whether they considered age, gender, experience, location, or cost to be the most important factor in choosing an obstetrician/gynecologist. They rated their current experience and the importance of gender using a 10-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Overall, 61% of participants preferred a female provider. The proportion did not vary with gender of the interviewer or participants' age. A female provider was preferred by 56% of Protestants, 58% of Catholics, and 58% of Jews and by 74% of Hindus and 89% of Muslims (p = 0.02). Regardless of whether a woman preferred a male or a female provider, 38% of participants felt strongly (7-10 on Likert scale) that gender was important. There was no difference in satisfaction with current provider between women who preferred a male or female provider. Gender was as important in choosing an obstetrician as experience or cost. Almost as many women with a female provider indicated a preference for a male (46%) as women with a male provider who preferred a female provider (54%). CONCLUSIONS: A slight majority of these women, particularly those who are Hindu or Moslem or currently use a female, prefer female providers. Only a minority of these women feel strongly about their preference, and women with male providers are as satisfied as are women with female providers. Gender of provider was about as important as a physician's experience in choice of clinician.
Women's provider preferences for basic gynecology care in a large health maintenance organization.
J Womens Health Gend Based Med 1999 Jul-Aug;8(6):825-33 (ISSN: 1524-6094)
Schmittdiel J; Selby JV; Grumbach K; Quesenberry CP
Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (Northern California Region), Oakland, USA.
To examine women's preferences for the type and sex of the provider of basic gynecological services and the correlates of these preferences, we mailed a cross-sectional survey to 8406 women in a large group model health maintenance organization (HMO) in northern California, with a response rate of 73.6%. Four questions asked women the type (obstetrician/gynecologist, nurse practitioner, or primary care physician) and sex of provider who performed their last pelvic examination and their preferences in type and sex of provider for these examinations. This was a random sample of female HMO members 35-85 years of age who were empaneled with a primary care physician from one of three categories: family practitioner, general internist, or subspecialist. Of the 5164 respondents who received their last pelvic examination at Kaiser Permanente, 56% had seen a gynecologist, 26% a nurse practitioner, and only 18% their own primary care physician for the examination. Of these women, 60.3% reported preferring a gynecologist for basic gynecology care, 12.6% preferred a nurse practitioner, 13.3% preferred their own primary care physician, and 13.8% had no preference. Patients of family practitioners were more likely to prefer their own primary care practitioner than patients of other types of doctors. The strongest independent predictor of preferring a gynecologist over the primary care physician was having seen a gynecologist for the last pelvic examination (OR = 28.3, p < 0.0001). Other independent predictors of preferring a gynecologist were younger age, higher education and income, and having a male primary care physician. Of respondents, 52.2% preferred a female provider for basic gynecological care, and 42.0% had no preference for the sex of the provider. Preferring a female provider was strongly and independently associated with lower income, higher education, nonwhite race, having a male primary care physician, having an older primary care, physician, and having seen a female provider at the last pelvic examination. In this HMO, a majority of women reported a preference for seeing an obstetrician/gynecologist for their routine gynecological care, despite having a primary care physician. This most likely reflects the strong influence of previous patient experience and that familiarity with a particular type of provider leads to preferences for that type. This medical group's structure probably also affects preferences, as in this HMO, primary care physicians can be discouraged from performing pelvic examinations. Many women do prefer female providers for pelvic examinations, but a large percentage have no preference. These women often see male providers for basic gynecological care. As managed care places increasing emphasis on providing integrated, comprehensive primary care, this apparent preference for specialty gynecological care will require further study.
Janice,
