A question about Surgeons and Age to start residency.

[Pier.C91]

Good Evening,
I currently type from Europe, so i apologize if maybe this is a only US forum, but i'd like to hear opinions about if it's possibile to start a surgical residency at around 33/35 years of age (for instance General Surgery, Urology or Ob/Gyn). Do you know any Surgeon who started their residency program at this age, or is it too late? I'd really like to hear some witnesses from Medical students, Doctors and Surgeons. I thank you a lot if you could answer my question and wish you a good time.

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[deleted480308]

Good Evening,
I currently type from Europe, so i apologize if maybe this is a only US forum, but i'd like to hear opinions about if it's possibile to start a surgical residency at around 33/35 years of age (for instance General Surgery, Urology or Ob/Gyn). Do you know any Surgeon who started their residency program at this age, or is it too late? I'd really like to hear some witnesses from Medical students, Doctors and Surgeons. I thank you a lot if you could answer my question and wish you a good time.

lots of people do it

 

[Skiiiiiing]

I know a guy who was 52 when he started. He was a surgeon in his home country, surgery tech here

Even retiring at 65, 8 years of say 300 after taxes beats 13 of 60 after taxes. That leaves desire.

 

[Dares Dareson]

It's definitely possible. I'll be 36 at med school graduation and I had planned until recently to go into surgery. While I could do it, I decided it is not what I want at this point in my life. It's simply too much sacrifice of time, and after 18 years of school on and off, crappy jobs, debt, and literally never having had a vacation, I'm about spent.

But every residency director and attending I talked to said age wouldn't really affect my application. It's not as if your brain plasticity decreases so much in your late 30s that you can't learn. It won't be a problem, as long as you are a hard worker and interested. Just make sure you know what you're getting into.

 

[ThreadStalker]

This really depends on what you want to do in surgery. Most general surgery and urology residencies are five years (I believe 4 for OB/gyn but I might be totally wrong, I never even thought about OB) which would allow you to start practice at 38-40, which is completely doable. However, it's not quite that clear cut. If you want to practice in more competitive fields or locations (major cities, larger groups, academic centers, etc.) you may find that you need additional fellowship training, and possibly (though less likely) research time. This can put your training time in the 7-9 year range. Often, surgeons need time to build their practice and referral network, too, though that will be high influenced by the specific group you join. In general, it's entirely practical to start the process in your early or mid-thirties (you're only about 5 years later than average anyway), but you should definitely talk with some surgeons and get a solid understanding of the path you are starting down.

Best wishes!