Women in cardiology

[alyonka2004]

For you girls out there; you can not be pregnant or trying to get pregnant during cath rotation.
Think about it before you start fellowship. (unlike myself)

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[drbon]

ouch, that's not good. what are you going to do??

 

[ProgCoordinator]

For what it's worth, several years ago we had a fellow who was pregnant and we managed to rework the program's rotation schedule that year in order to accommodate it and, of course, her subsequent maternity leave.

 

[mytirf]

As you know, the radiation exposure declines exponentially with how far you are from the radiation source.

Actually it decreases by the inverse square of the distance.

-MT

 

[Is It Lupus?]

So being pregnant during Cards fellowship is possible? That's good to know... how many months do Cath rotations usually entail? Are these rotations spread out throughout your 3 years of fellowship, or do the usually occur in the 2nd/3rd years?

As for lifestyle, how often are you called off-hours as a fellow and as an attending? The only female cardiologist at my hospital is pretty hard-core about all this stuff, saying that if you want kids Cards is probably not for you, and that if you don't like being woken up in the middle of the night, Cards is definitely not for you. Thoughts?

 

[Is It Lupus?]

Wow, thanks so much! Very enlightening... and encouraging at the same time. Working part-time while having young kids would be pretty much ideal for me. I'm just putting my toe in the water as far as Cardio goes right now (since I still need to wait for the Match to find out where residency will take my fiance and I!). But I'm trying to start researching my post-residency options since we know we want to wait till AFTER residency to have kids.

The financial aspect is also not surprising, but good to know. Another female physician whose brain I've picked regarding raising a family is a pediatrician who works part-time. Her husband is an investment banker and they have two toddlers, and while they live comfortably, she says she is not able to start saving for their educations yet. A lot of stuff, I know, but it worried me about the possibility of working part-time.

Mdgrl, did you run into a lot of groups who were disappointed in your decision to work part-time and put your family first? Or was your job search after fellowship fairly easy? Also, do you think that it is a slight disadvantage to choose NOT to go the interventionalist route since stents are such a major part of the field? Do you just refer your patients who need PTCA to another member of your group who is an interventionalist? Thanks again for your input.

 

[Is It Lupus?]

Good luck to you - I know it's a stressful time trying to make these decisions, but it's exciting, too, when you have all those options in front of you. I think a woman can be a cardiologist and have a family too, but you may have to be a bit of a trailblazer wherever you are to open people's eyes to see that there are other ways to do things besides how all the men have been doing it for years. I would say be clear about what you want, but also have ideas about how to do it, and you can win people over.

Thank you SO much again for the advice and encouragement. It's so nice to see a woman working her butt off to get to Cards and STILL be able to have a family and make it work. You're an inspiration to all of us!

 

[yogini9]

I am so glad I found this forum. Maybe someone can give me some advice. I am a PA and I work in a cath lab. I get access, assist in interventions. In other words, I am exposed to radiation a lot. I understand the principals of sheilding, distance etc and am pretty careful. The problem is I am trying to get pregnant and I realized I won't know one way or the other for at least 2 weeks if I have conceived. My program insists that pregnant females, fellows acutally, do out of lab work when their pregnancies are confirmed. I am nervous about the change my pregnancy will cause, but more importantly I am worried about any potential risk to my child. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I am a nervous wreck in the middle of each month!

 

[RandyCardio]

Hello Hello,

I am fresh from High School and starting at VT fall 2009. My counselor said that majoring in Biological sciences or Bio chemistry will put me on the right track for med school and I believe her but I would like to know some more about what to do after my next 3 years at VT. I am hoping to do Invasive/Interventional Cardiology. I decided on Cardiology in the 7th grade so Im not just looking into it... it's basically the plan. I guess what I'm saying is what kind of educational path should I anticipate?

Thanks!

Randy