May 1, 2024 – After Makna moved to a new city, she thought she might have a yeast infection and was desperate to make an appointment with her gynecologist. Mekenna, who asked that her first name only be used, chose a male doctor who took out her insurance, even though she already felt uncomfortable seeing a male gynecologist — as many women often feel.
What happened next left her confused and traumatized. Makena, 28, said that during the examination, the doctor put on gloves, inserted his fingers into her body and smelled her. After doing so, he told her she had bacterial vaginosis, not a yeast infection. She said few other conversations or questions had been asked before then.
She switched to a female gynecologist and never looked back.
Makena is not alone. Many women prefer to see a female doctor, and not just for gynecological problems. Research over the past few decades has shown that people — especially women — are likely to have better health outcomes if they see a female doctor.
A large study recently published in the journal Science Annals of Internal Medicine The researchers examined data from 770,000 Medicare patient records who were hospitalized between 2016 and 2019. Sex will be reduced, and readmission rates will be reduced 30 days after discharge. Female patients benefit significantly more than male patients from being seen by female physicians.
“While we don’t know why this difference occurs, it may have a lot to do with a lack of understanding of women’s pain from the beginning of medical training and the life experiences that female doctors bring,” said Manijeh Berenji, a co-author of the study.
“Every female doctor has been a female patient at some point in her life,” she said. “Sometimes we need more time to process what’s going on and how to shed light on it. I try to take the time to analyze the problem.
The study, led by researchers at UCLA and the University of Tokyo, found that about 10.15% of men and 8.2% of women died under the care of female doctors, compared with 10.23% and 8.4% of patients treated by men. Doctor treats.
Atsushi Miyawaki, MD, PhD, one of the study’s lead authors and an assistant professor of health services research at the University of Tokyo, also has some theories as to why these results look the way they do.
“Female physicians examining female patients may help alleviate the awkwardness, discomfort, and sociocultural taboos associated with sensitive examinations and conversations,” she said.
But even the study’s authors noted that while the data was still statistically significant, the difference was very small. Berenger said she had reservations about the results and wouldn’t be surprised if many of her male colleagues did the same.
“We’re seeing more and more of these papers coming out, so this is just opening the door further and trying to get to the heart of the matter, because there’s clearly a trend here,” she said.
But the results are consistent with numerous previous studies on the subject. A Learning in 2018 More than 580,000 heart disease patients admitted to Florida emergency rooms also found that men and women had lower mortality rates when they were seen by female doctors; women treated by male doctors fared worst.other study An analysis of more than 1 million surgical patients published last year concluded that patients treated by female surgeons were less likely to have adverse outcomes 90 days and 1 year after surgery.
This may be largely due to differences in communication styles between male and female doctors. A review Decades of research show that female doctors tend to talk to patients longer than male doctors (average face-to-face time is more than 2 minutes).
“It’s so weird to see how women react to me, but not my male counterparts. Even taking an extra minute or two, trying to limit the time you spend looking at a computer screen, trying to make direct eye contact, can make a big difference. “I think there needs to be a real fundamental shift in the way we assess female patients, especially when it comes to assessing pain. ”
It also makes sense that women tend to have better health outcomes after seeing female doctors, given that female patients feel that male doctors ignore their symptoms or don’t take their symptoms seriously enough.For example, in some cases, women who go to the emergency room must wait Extended by nearly 30% are more likely than men to see a doctor when experiencing chest pain, and they 25% less likely Received strong pain medication following an emergency room visit due to severe abdominal pain.
Today, more and more women are becoming doctors, and recent estimates suggest they are now wearing makeup More than half Student body for medical school courses. The number of female doctors increased from 28% in 2007 to more than 37% in 2021. data show. Still, this number does not yet reflect the gender demographics of our general population.
“At a societal level, we need to continue working to increase the number of female doctors, which can lead to better outcomes for women’s health,” Miyawaki said.
