awareness
Stereotypes of physical appearance for women in medicine
By Olivia Charles, MS4 “Do you play basketball?” “What are you doing here?? You should be modeling!” “You’re wasting your height.” If I had a penny for every time someone said one of those lines to me during my journey through medical school, I could probably pay off my student loans entirely. I was always slightly taller than my peers since I was a kid, but I really had my growth spurt in high school. Being 6’ as a woman tends to attract a lot of attention–attention that for me was unwanted for a long time, particularly during my time in medical school. There has not been a single day where someone hasn’t asked me how tall I am, if I played sports, or what I'm doing in a hospital when I should be on a runway. While coming from a sincere place, these “compliments” always felt backhanded to me....
A Common Silence: Perspectives on Pregnancy Loss During General Surgery Residency
by Cleo Siderides, MD and Caitlin J. Cain-Trivette, MD Pregnancy loss is a painfully common experience among surgical trainees, yet our institutions remain poorly equipped to respond with support and compassion. Surgical trainees are more than twice as likely to experience pregnancy loss than the general population,1 yet no formal safeguards exist to protect trainees enduring these sentinel events. Cleo’s first pregnancy ended in a missed miscarriage at 9 weeks, followed by six weeks of medical and surgical management amidst the relentless pace of residency. The day after I took medication to induce a miscarriage I was on a 24-hour trauma call, bleeding through my scrubs to the point that I tied a jacket around my waist between cases. I emphatically stated that no, I did not feel like I needed to step away from work. I saw the hardship as a way to prove my grit and worth as...
Bridging the Gap: Female Surgeons in Malawi and the Power of Representation
By Dr. Sharon Cheryl Bonya Female surgical trainees face structural and cultural barriers that extend far beyond the operating room. They are not just training to master technical skills, they are also navigating expectations, isolation, and leadership in spaces where their presence still surprises many. In Malawi and across much of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), female surgeons face a double burden: under-representation within the surgical workforce and the cultural headwinds that make leadership, mentorship, and progression more difficult. Despite recent gains in training capacity in East, Central and Southern Africa, women surgeons remain a minority with implications for patient trust, communication, and equitable access to surgical care. According to the NHS workforce data, women make up about 17% of general surgery consultants in the United Kingdom. In the United States, women account for roughly 22.6% of general surgeons, based on figures from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). These numbers...
Show Up for Yourself: A Message to Women Surgeons Living with Disability
By Dr. Elizabeth Perazza Imagine ringing in the New Year, celebrating 25 years as a successful surgeon. You place a ruby-studded tiara on your head, proud to be 55 years old, 30 pounds lighter, and stepping into your power as Queen Bee—the new sheriff in town. Among over 100 surgeons, OR nurses, and technicians, you stand tall as the next Chief of Surgery. Then, six months later, everything changes. You begin to feel as though you’re slipping away—paralyzed, bedridden, and mentally foggy. You’re dizzy even while lying down. A tingling sensation creeps from your mouth to your toes. Your eyes hurt to open, and you feel exhausted just from breathing. You’re disoriented whether your eyes are open or closed. You undergo a spinal tap, waiting anxiously for results. Then the diagnosis comes: Multiple Sclerosis. Positive oligoclonal bands confirm it. That day, I became another name on the list of those...
I am Superwoman, I can do it all, but should I?
By Dr. Ashley Toussaint Since I was young, I’ve been called a “workhorse.” I’m the one people rely on to get things done, to do more, be more. If something needs to be handled, I’m your woman. That mentality has pushed me through life, and it has served me well. I was a Division 1 athlete in college, then went to medical school, and now, I’m a general surgery resident. That same mentality has carried me through my residency, too. I’ve had two kids while in residency and am currently expecting my third. I delivered both of my children the same day I worked at 40+ weeks pregnant, 18 months apart. I managed to breastfeed and pump for both of my daughters for over a year each. It wasn’t always easy, pumping while rounding on patients, operating, even driving to work. There were days when I did laparoscopic and robotic...
How the Joy of Volunteering Molds the Student Doctor
By Isabelle Casado Christmastime came around—I must have been about 8-years-old. My father had been collecting toys throughout the year. I remember watching him, month after month, quietly putting aside a little something here and a little something there. You can only imagine my excitement as an 8-year-old who thought she hit the ultimate gift lotto. Except—something better was soon about to happen. One evening, my father sat me down and said, ‘’Today, I am Santa’s helper. We’re going to an orphanage to deliver these gifts.” A few days before Christmas, we arrived at the orphanage. I remember seeing so many children around my age. We played, we danced, and we opened presents together. It wasn’t until years later that I truly understood the gift my father gave me that day: the joy of volunteering. Every year afterward, we volunteered together—at children’s hospitals, veteran centers, orphanages, and in various efforts...
Cutting Through Grief: How Surgery Helped Me Reclaim My Strength
By Meaghan Bethea The first time I stepped into the operating room after my husband died, I wasn’t sure I could do it. Everything felt too raw. Too loud. Too precise for a mind muddied by grief. The sterile light above the surgical table illuminated more than just anatomy; it revealed the parts of me I had been trying to keep buried. Heartbreak. Fear. Uncertainty. I was scrubbed in, masked up, holding retractors with steady hands, but inside, I was anything but that. In the summer of 2023, I had just completed medical sciences, passed Step 1, and was preparing to start clinical rotations. At home, my husband and I had found a rhythm. He managed the household so I could pursue my dream with full focus. We were building a life together with our son. Then, suddenly and without warning, two weeks before third year, he died. I became...
Finding My Flow: My Pursuit of Vascular Surgery in a Country Without Dedicated Vascular Surgery Training
By Dr. Swechha Bhatt My love for vascular surgery began in the very first year of medical school, when I studied hemodynamics. The intricate balance of pressure, flow, and resistance fascinated me, and somehow it all made sense. I carried this love with me into my clinical years, where the subject transformed from textbook diagrams into real patients and real problems. In clinics, every vascular case felt like a puzzle waiting to be solved. I often describe vascular surgery as “plumbing: it’s pipes, and you connect pipes.” Yet behind that simple analogy, I began to see the enormous gaps in access and awareness that patients in my country face. Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) would walk into our hospital with critically cold limbs, many at the point of requiring an amputation. I often wondered how different their lives could have been if they had recognized claudication earlier, or if...
The Six Percent Club
By Dr. Susana Vargas Pinto This is a special edition blog post presented in partnership with the Latino Surgical Society in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. For 57 years, Latino heritage has been officially recognized in the United States. What began as a week-long celebration in 1968 under President Lyndon B. Johnson was expanded to a month-long observance by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. Hispanic Heritage Month offers an opportunity to honor the significant role the Latino community has played in shaping and strengthening our nation. Although the terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. “Hispanic” typically refers to people with a connection to Spain or the Spanish language, while “Latino” encompasses individuals of Latin American or Caribbean descent, regardless of their proficiency in Spanish. The term also creates space for diverse ethnic and ancestral backgrounds, including those of European descent, to be acknowledged within...
Called to Step In
by Brett Weinstein *This story was shared with permission from involved parties. I didn’t wake up that morning expecting to deliver a baby in a car parking lot. I was a fourth-year medical student on a surgery sub-internship, just finishing a long day in the OR. When I walked through the parking lot, I noticed a couple frantically waving me down. The woman was in labor, her face clenched with pain, her husband pacing at her side, panic in his eyes. “Hi my name is Brett, I’m a medical student, can I take a look?” There was no time to wait for help. She was crowning. My heart pounded, but my feet moved before my mind caught up. I jumped into the backseat of their truck, barehanded, adrenaline roaring in my ears. For a moment, the world narrowed to just us – the mother, the baby, and me. Dark hair...
