i had a heart to heart with my dad (an ob.gyn), about the state of ob.gyn and what lies in it in the future. i'm off telling him what's really popular and competitive these days (derm, rads, ENT,etc.) and he was telling me how back in his day applying for residency..things like general surgery and ob.gyn were popular and competitive while getting into fields like rads wasn't as bad.
it just kind of made me think of the cyclical nature of things. albeit, specialties like neurosurgery and ENT are perennial competitve specialties but it's interesting to think how things can fluctuate over the decades.

one thing particular of interest was how we discussed how there is an overwheming majority of females in ob.gyn, and how we theorize that the average work-hour output will decrease due to females comprimising work hours for raising families, etc. With this, super-imposed with decreases in ob.gyn graduates....one could suspect a scarcity of ob.gyn's in the market when the current practiontioners retire.

on another note,
i'm kind of torn up right now about thinking of what kind of specialty i'm going to end up in. i've been quite hard-core into ENT,..good grades/publications/presentations,etc...
and now all of a sudden i'm thinking about other career opportunities. now i'm thinking about things like being able to live close to my parents so i can take care of them when they get older, high salary, californian weather, and other things...and i'm struggling between deciding to go do this academic researcher head-neck surgeon thing versus a community ob.gyn close to my family in california and with higher pay.

personally, i see everything as cyclic. and, in my view, ob/gyn is at the bottom of the trough right now. docs retiring early, low interest with med students, ridiculous malpractice insurance...as for the majority of practicioners being female, i do agree that this population may have a different trend in work hours, duration of time in practice, etc than the male population. so, all things point to less ob/gyns for the population.

and, still, over half the population needs these docs!

with all the problems facing ob/gyn today, there will still always be a need. and, with declining interest resulting in declining availability of an important service, there will have to be changes. i see the cycle really only having one direction to go. and, if things like malpractice start to get better, with the 80 hour residency rules, etc...interest in the field will likely creep back up agian. i just hope it all happens after i get a residency spot!

as for your other question, i don't know what to say. i never had any desire to do anything remotely academic. i am hoping i can live near my family in warm California weather, and be a primary care ob/gyn, so i can understand that part of your mind....you just need to find out what will make you happier as an individual. what are your needs? good luck!:cool:

One of my residents (a guy) is taking over his father's practice when he gets out. I think that's pretty cool, personally. OB/Gyn is an awesome medical/surgical specialty if you get rid of all the environmental misery (work hours, stress, nurses, malpractice). I wouldn't do it for those reasons.

I think what makes it such a tough specialty is that OB/Gyn has done a pretty good job protecting its turf from generalists and other specialties and the effects of managed care, and now are faced with the challenge to be the EVERYTHING-doctor to women, ranging from providing primary care to high-risk obstetrics to gynecologic surgery/laparoscopy to endocrinology to surgical/medical oncology to urogyn. I mean, the field is CRAZY and the demands placed on general OB/Gyn are huge if you don't subspecialize. With such a huge turf to cover, I'm not surprised that some docs just can't do it all without maintaining some sort of competency. So you have a wide field with a lot of patients and doctors who are stretched thin trying to keep up with the latest... man, that's tough.

wow pelvis vs the head 2 different aspects of the body. CA malpractice is not as bad as former years the mid 80's-90's were brutal. Alot can be said for family. You'll soon realize you wished you'd spend more time at home once mom and dad get sick... suddenly all those high paying jobs and long hrs won't matter. You're smart to contemplate this now.


OB will always be female dominated but males have an easier time securing top residency spots as competition is not as great.

Good luck with your decision

D

Quote from Diane L. Evans:
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OB will always be female dominated but males have an easier time securing top residency spots as competition is not as great.
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What do you mean when you say males don't have as difficult of a time matching at more prestigious places?

Is there a difference in admission stats depending on whether you're a male or female applicant? :confused:

Thanks.
-jayman

Alot of programs are trying to even out the ratio of males to females... There are few men applicants leading to what Diane said. On the majority of my interviews I was out numbered by females 5 to 1 or so.....

I wondered about this as well.

I would have gathered as the male/female ratio in the field became super lopsided the residency programs would start to practice a sort of "affirmative action" in favor of males.

Judd