May 1, 2024 – Makenna was eager to schedule an appointment with her gynecologist after she moved to a new city and developed symptoms that she thought could be a yeast infection. Makenna, who asked to be identified only by her name, said she was already uncomfortable seeing a male gynecologist, as many women are. I decided on a male doctor who was covered by insurance.
What happened next left her confused and traumatized. Makenna, 28, said that during her examination, her doctor put on her gloves, inserted his fingers inside her and smelled her. After doing this, he told her that she had bacterial vaginosis, not a yeast infection. She said there was little other dialogue or questions before this took place.
She switched to a female gynecologist and never looked back.
Makenna is not alone. Many women prefer seeing a female doctor, not just for gynecological issues. And research conducted over the past few decades shows that people, especially women, may have better health outcomes when they see a female doctor.
Large-scale studies recently published in journals Annual report of internal medicine Researchers looked at data from 770,000 records of Medicare patients hospitalized between 2016 and 2019. Through this analysis, the researchers found that both male and female patients were less likely to die and had lower readmission rates 30 days after discharge when their care was guided. female doctor. And female patients benefited more from seeing a female doctor than male patients.
It is not known exactly why this disparity exists, but it likely has a lot to do with a lack of understanding of women's pain from the beginning of medical training, as well as the life experiences that female doctors bring to the table. Manije Berenzi said. MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of California, Irvine.
„Every female doctor has had a female patient at some point in their life,“ she says. „Sometimes I need more time to process what's going on and how to express it. I'm taking my time and trying to figure it out.“
The study, led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Tokyo, found that about 10.23% of patients died under the care of female doctors, compared with 8.4% of women and 10.15% of men. It turned out that it was 8.2%. A male doctor is treating.
One of the lead authors, Atsushi Miyawaki, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medical services research at the University of Tokyo, also has several theories about why these results are the way they are.
„Female physicians may help reduce embarrassment, discomfort, and sociocultural taboos in sensitive examinations and conversations during female patient examinations,“ she says.
However, the study authors also note that while still statistically significant, the data show a very small difference. Berenzi said she took the results with a grain of salt and wouldn't be surprised if many of her male colleagues did the same.
„There's clearly a trend as more and more papers of this kind are coming out, so this just opens the door further and tries to get to the heart of the problem,“ she said.
However, the results are consistent with a series of previous studies on this topic.a 2018 survey The study also found that among more than 580,000 heart patients admitted to emergency rooms in Florida, men and women were less likely to die if they were seen by a female doctor. Women treated by male doctors faced the worst conditions.another study A report published last year that analyzed more than 1 million surgical patients concluded that patients treated by female surgeons were less likely to have adverse outcomes at 90 days and 1 year after surgery.
This is thought to be primarily due to differences in communication styles between male and female physicians.a review Decades of research has shown that female doctors tend to have longer conversations with patients (on average more than two minutes longer) than male doctors.
„It was so weird to see how women reacted to me as opposed to men. By limiting my screen time and trying to make direct eye contact, , even just an extra minute or two can make a big difference,” says Berenzi. “I think there needs to be a really fundamental change in how we assess female patients, especially when it comes to pain assessment.”
It also makes sense that women tend to feel better after seeing a female doctor, considering the stories of female patients who felt their symptoms were ignored or not taken seriously enough by male doctors. It's good.For example, in some cases, women visiting the ER had to wait approximately 30% longer Rather than seeing a doctor when a man feels chest pain, 25% less likely Receiving strong painkillers after visiting the emergency department for sharp abdominal pain.
Today, more and more women are becoming doctors, and recent estimates show that the number of women becoming doctors is increasing. more than half Number of student organizations in medical school programs. And the number of female doctors has increased from 28% in 2007 to more than 37% in 2021. data indicates. Still, this number still does not reflect the gender demographics of the population as a whole.
„At a societal level, we need to continue our efforts to increase the number of female doctors, which can lead to improvements in women's health,“ Miyawaki said.