gender differences
Common Is Not Always Normal: An OB/GYN’s Reflection on Women’s Pain and the Silence We Inherit
By Busra Ozkaya, MD There is a sentence many girls hear from the time of their first menstrual period: “This is normal. It is just part of being a woman.” Most of the time, this sentence is spoken with kindness. It is meant to comfort a young girl, to ease her fear, and to remind her that she is not alone, but over time, the same sentence can become something else: a quiet curtain drawn over pain. As an obstetrician-gynecologist, I have learned that the word “normal” must be used carefully. Common is not always normal.Familiar is not always harmless.Pain that changes a girl’s or woman’s life deserves more than reassurance alone. During my OB/GYN training, I met many women who had carried pelvic or menstrual pain for years before giving it a name. Some had missed school, work, family responsibilities, or important moments in their lives because of symptoms...
Before I am a Surgeon: Choosing Womanhood Without Leaving Surgery Behind.
By: Daniela H. Rodriguez Manrique "Since you want to become a wife and have kids," he said, "are you sure you want to do surgery?" I smiled politely, but I cannot recall what I said next. The only thing I remember is the question lingering in my mind after I left the operating room. "Do I want to be a woman, or do I want to be a surgeon?" Prior to this moment, I had not imagined that these two identities could be mutually exclusive. For the first time, I had doubts about becoming a surgeon, and as a medical student, I questioned if pursuing surgery meant I had to sacrifice the woman I wanted to become. Many women in surgery have encountered some version of this question. Sometimes, the question is asked out loud. Other times, it is implied. As I think of a future surgical residency, I have...
Does Gender Bias Still Exist in Surgical Residency
By: Dr Swathy Elangovan, M.S General Surgery It's 2026, a time where the world is AI driven. Advancements and innovation drive people to more effective living. But it is a known fact that Surgeons can never be replaced by AI. Thus the course of surgical training remains crucial in saving the lives of patients. Both females and males residents have to be competently trained and given equal operating chances so that when they become an attending in the future, they would have the confidence to treat patients individually. The scalpel doesn’t know whether the operating surgeon is a female or a male .Then why the discrimination. One thing hasn't changed. The treatment against women in the field of medicine, specifically surgery, where buttering, flattery and fawning take an upper hand over sheer hard work, truthfulness and raw talent. You might be the best female out there in the course of...
Issues faced by the female surgical trainees in developing countries
By Dr. Eshana Samaranayake Across South Asia, women are still a small minority in surgical training programmes, and that imbalance shapes daily experiences in ways that are easy to miss from the outside. ‘‘Surgery is for men’’ I have wanted to become a surgeon since high school, but when I prepared for the entrance exam I heard frequent warnings from family, friends, and colleagues. Much of it was well-meant, yet it rested on an assumption: surgery is too demanding for women to balance with personal life, especially where women are expected to carry most household responsibilities. Those expectations sometimes made me doubt myself, not because I lacked interest or motivation, but because I wondered how I would fit into a role society does not always picture for women. I feel fortunate to have been selected for surgical training, and I am now in my third year of general surgery residency....
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....
How to Be an Ally
By Cori DeLisi, DO On May 28, AWS came together with the Association of Out Surgeons and Allies in our Cutting-Edge Conversations webinar to answer the question “How can we be allies to the LGBTQ+ community as trainees and surgeons?” If you identify as an ally because you implicitly support your LGBTQ+ patients and colleagues, consider what others see of your allyship and how far your impact reaches. Here we expand on the webinar’s takeaways for AWS members with added perspectives from Dr. DeLisi, a trainee who has been on both sides of allyship around sexual and gender minority identities. I’m Cori (they/them), a general surgery intern in Pennsylvania. After coming out as non-binary in medical school, I faced this dichotomy of trying to introduce myself with my pronouns while also feeling worried about shifting the conversation away from patients, learning, or healthcare in general. After excluding my pronouns from...
What Transition Taught Me About Gender, Power, and Medicine
By Jailyn Avila, MD, FP-AEMUS, RDMS One afternoon, when I was a young attending at a large academic center, I was paged to the trauma bay to receive a patient in traumatic shock. Our team of 10-15 multidisciplinary medical professionals assembled in the trauma room as the medics wheeled our patient in, solely focused on saving the patient's life. Immediately after the medics brought the patient into our trauma area, my senior resident asked for the patient's history, after which the medic paused and stated, “You have really pretty hair.” My senior resident then politely asked the medic to continue their report, ignoring the inappropriate and unprofessional comment. After stabilization and disposition, I attempted to locate the man who had been so inappropriate with my resident, but his team had already departed. I circled back with my resident, who acknowledged the experience and how inappropriate it was, but she informed...
Visibility and Possibility
This is a special edition blog post presented in partnership with the Association of Out Surgeons and Allies in celebration of Pride Month. By: Aeryn Kangas-Dick MD I knew I was transgender since I was a child, but I never had the language to say what that meant. All I knew was what I saw on television— transgender people were often played for comic relief, or sometimes for shock value. Role models were few and very far between, and I had certainly never heard of a transgender surgeon. During my planned research year between my second and third years of surgical training, I was called to serve as an ICU resident during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. As many did after confronting the horrors of this experience, I realized I didn’t want to spend more time pretending to be something I wasn’t. However I was...
As a female surgeon, can I actually have a child-and when?
by Dr. Deepa Patel This is a special edition blog post presented in partnership with the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Female surgeons serving a dual role as mothers are no longer a rarity, as over one third of us have a child during residency. Despite these statistics, I continue to hear that many female medical students avoid careers in surgery as they think that pursuing such a career would hinder their ability to have children. Hearing these concerns surprises me. I have always considered my career a top priority but did know that at some point, I also wanted children. I never considered these goals in opposition. As a young attending about to have her first child within 2 years of finishing a colorectal fellowship, I have found that balancing pregnancy with a career is possible-but needs to be...
Challenges Females Face in Medicine
By Camellia Russell Biological sex is an unchangeable aspect of who we are, yet it continues to shape the opportunities we encounter throughout life. Despite progress, many cultures and societies still espouse old-fashioned beliefs about gender roles, especially when it comes to leadership. In particular, women are often expected to prioritize home life over career ambitions, with roles like "leader" or "surgeon" still largely reserved for men in many fields. Medicine, in particular, has needed to evolve faster. While women now make up approximately 20-25% of surgeons in the United States, this percentage still needs to be equitable. Women surgeons often face daily challenges, from juggling demanding work schedules with motherhood and family to battling deep-seated biases. Also, many patients may look at female surgeons as less capable or skilled than their male counterparts due to long-standing gender stereotypes. According to research from the University of Kansas, women in academic...
