Having a female doctor is better for your health, but not for hers.
Disclaimer: I respect and appreciate my male colleagues. No hard feelings gents, but bear with me as I get real in this article.
Let’s break it down with some sexy stats.
Several studies, including from Annals of Internal Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and even a fancy meta-analysis (yep, the holy grail of evidence), confirm that you’re less likely to die and less likely to be readmitted to the hospital if your treating doctor is a woman.
Surgeons, don’t feel left out, y’all have some sexy stats too. Turns out, if your surgeon is female, you’re at a lower risk of adverse events 90 days and even a year after surgery. Translation: less likelihood of death, which we can all agree is a good thing. Additionally, a Swedish study showed that female surgeons are less likely to leave you with post-operative complications such as a bile duct injury after a gallbladder surgery.
Why are female docs making all the difference? Some hypotheses are as follows:
- Longer Visits with patients
- Less Interrupting
- Adherence to Guidelines
- Shared Decision-Making
if your surgeon is female, you're at a lower risk of adverse events 90 days and even a year after surgery
Now before you dump your male doctor remember that quality medical care boils down to the doctor-patient relationship, regardless of gender. Sure, stats tell us general trends, but let’s face it: a long-term, trusting relationship with your current physician is priceless.
And for those of you who are lucky enough to already have a female doctor—rejoice! A little appreciation for that person who listens to you and respects your autonomy goes a long way.
Now, before we get too carried away with how awesome female doctors are (and we are awesome), let’s talk about the not-so-sexy stuff: The toll this all takes on our health.
Here are some facts that are not-so-sexy (like I wrote in the beginning, I would keep things real):
- Burnout Rates: Female physicians experience burnout way more than our male counterparts. Shocking, right? I mean, who could have guessed that taking care of everyone else might eventually take a toll on us?
- EMR Overload: Studies show that female primary care physicians are inundated with 25% more requests from both patients and staff than male doctors. This results in longer workdays with uncompensated and unacknowledged tasks that are still critical for high quality patient care.
- Longevity Gap: Here’s the kicker: While in the general population women outlive men, female doctors have similar mortality rates to male doctors, and this is more pronounced in female physicians of color.
What does this all mean? For corporate medicine leadership, it means the need to support female physicians more, compensating them for spending more time with patients (quality over quantity), compensating them for the extra emotional labor, and acknowledging the different ways female doctors deliver care.
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Yeah, I know—I am laughing too. I’m already looking for my unicorn because I’m pretty sure that’s what it would take for that to happen. The corporate medical system is not going to just allow female doctors to spend more time with their patients because that will mean less money lining the insurance-based system’s pockets.
The horror of diminished profit is unacceptable to the corporate medical system that does not care about silly things like patient outcomes and the health of their workforce.
So here’s my advice to my sister doctors: consider leaving the corporate grind that’s happy to chew you up and spit you out for a profit margin. It’s not just about being a good doctor, it’s about protecting your health, both physical and mental.
Here are some options: Consider opening your own, or join an existing, Direct Primary Care or Direct Specialty Care Practice. Talk to a lawyer about becoming an independent contractor or corporate entity, so that you can keep your job within the system but not as their employee. Build a personal brand to leverage your negotiating power within the system. Do you have 100K Instagram followers, let your boss know at your next contract negotiation!
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I chose the DPC route 5 years ago and I have not looked back. You could not pay me a million dollars go to back to corporate.
The pitfall is that as a female physician it is very easy to jump out of the corporate frying pan and into the DPC fire. Many of us female doctors struggle with debilitating people-pleasing, boundary setting and enforcing, and prioritizing our health and family. Women are socialized to put the needs of others first and this mentality is reinforced exponentially in medicine. Gee, I wonder if this is contributing to our health and burn-out rates being in the crapper?
In the DPC model, where there is no “buffer” between the doctor and the patient, the line between access, convenience, and quality can very quickly cross into unrealistic, demanding expectations from high-utilizing and even potentially abusive patients. And let’s be honest doctor friends, this is more likely to happen to female-identifying doctors than our gent colleagues.
Female-identifying physicians need tools and resources to build sustainable, burnout-proof DPC practices. The DPC movement is awesome, but our increased access and availability means it is important to set boundaries and sustainable expectations from the beginning, especially for female doctors. It took me years to do this without feeling guilt and shame.
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You can’t pour from an empty cup, ladies!
And on a personal note: in 2023, I lost my mother unexpectedly. I found myself in the hospital answering texts, sending prescriptions, and even doing telehealth from a bathroom (don’t ask, but it was the only place with a door) while she lay in the ICU dying. Something inside me broke.
Fast forward two years later, and I’ve restructured my practice. I’ve implemented systems to streamline tasks, hired new help, and even outsourced social media to my daughter (yes, she’s my favorite nepo baby). My team, patients, and I are better for these changes.
Lady docs, let’s continue delivering amazing care to our patients.
But let’s also self-advocate and create systems to do all this without harmful self-sacrifice.
I love being a doctor, but not at the cost of my health or my family. Because at the end of the day, a healthy me means better care for my patients.
You can’t pour from an empty cup, ladies!
