Height in Medicine

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failedatlife

failedatlife

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Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
 
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Hope this isn't a thing. Bc I think that I want to be a surgeon, and I'm 5'4".

But really, lots of women are surgeons and we tend to be less than 6'. Maybe I'm just naive, but I've shadowed in ORs with shorter surgeons and it didn't seem to matter.
 
failedatlife said:
Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
Click to expand...

Date shorter women.
 
failedatlife said:
Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
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Maybe there's a correlation between Step 1 scores and height?
 
You're 1" shorter than the average American male (46 percentile), I would not classify that as really, really short. You'll be OK.

FWIW, I've found that people find a negative attitude and a flair for the dramatic to be more "deal killers" than height.
 
failedatlife said:
Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
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Why would you want to date ex-sorority girls? There are plenty of less bitchy and less maintance-requiring women out there.



Sent from my SCH-I545 using SDN mobile
 
It's not an issue, unless you want to play on your school's basketball team.

failedatlife said:
Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
Click to expand...
 
Do you really think 5'9 is short? I thought you were going to say 4'6 or something. Any potential partner that worries that much about height isn't worth your time. I'm shorter than you and dated women above 6 foot when I was younger, as well as those much shorter than me. Confidence, sense of humor, interests, intelligence, physical fitness, etc. are all way more important in the dating game. Don't let yourself fall into that weird complex some guys seem to get about height. Find people that have interests and goals that draw you together. And as far as surgery goes, there are plenty of short/tiny surgeons out there. That's going to have about zero impact on your performance on step, research, and letters.
 
failedatlife said:
Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
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Sometimes I wonder if you're a troll, and then I see threads like this and know where you stand 🤣

Get some Danskos if you're so insecure. Instant 6'0" manlet status achieved.

No one cares about your height in surgery. Many of the female attendings I work with are 5'6"ish, while many of the men are in the 5'6"-5'10" range. There's maybe one over 6'0" in general surg that I can think of, and one other in ortho- they're mostly in the upper 5' range, but some are significantly shorter.
 
failedatlife said:
Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
Click to expand...

5 foot female (with a half inch in the morning) here. The stool was my BFF during surgery rotation. I still got great evals during surgery because I had confidence in myself and fit into the surgery culture (despite having zero interest in the field).

Oh yeah, as an actually short female, 5'9'' guys who b1tch about being short make themselves about 4'7'' in attractiveness.
 
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failedatlife said:
Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
Click to expand...

TIL 5'9'' is really, really short.

In all seriousness, any girl who is SO DANG SUPERFICIAL that height 1 inch below average is a dealbreaker for her, is not worth it. You would have to put up with so much of her **** while you're with her. Don't date a sorority girl. By the way, 6'0'' is 85th percentile for guys (85% of men are shorter than that). There are plenty of good looking chicks who don't care about height. Go find one.

This is coming from a guy slightly shorter than you.
 
Don't worry about your height, OP. There are a lot of tall dudes in my class though.
 
PatchA said:
Hope this isn't a thing. Bc I think that I want to be a surgeon, and I'm 5'4".

But really, lots of women are surgeons and we tend to be less than 6'. Maybe I'm just naive, but I've shadowed in ORs with shorter surgeons and it didn't seem to matter.
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my sincerest condolences...
 
I'm not "short", but I'll chime in.

Dear OP, nobody walks around with a number posted to their forehead.

Being short isn't a deal killer for anything in medicine.

Being short isn't a deal killer for dating, either (but your lack of rationality and total focus on being "short" certainly is), just as a woman without large breasts, blonde hair, blue eyes, and thin body isn't a deal killer for dating. At the end of the day, few people give a ****. Sure, some women care, but some guys also want hot blondes. You think everybody likes the same flavor ice cream? Height is all relative.

If you've had trouble with anything, I'll be the first to tell you, it's not your height, but your attitude, personality, and view of the world. Nobody wants to be around somebody who's insecure. I love thicker women, but cannot be with a women who is always calling herself fat and unworthy.

What will kill your career and life is your ridiculous inability to get over it. Do you treat short people like ****? Most people don't. Thus, it won't be an issue for you. I know a surgeon who is a little person, and he does just fine.

P.S.: 5'9" ain't short. "Averages" go out the window, because in real life interactions, your sample sizes vary so much, and you're always switching between taller and shorter, relatively speaking. That's why nobody cares about you. That, and the fact that people care too much about themselves.

For Christ's sake, man. Who has time to think about this crap?




Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
failedatlife said:
Full disclosure, I'm really, really short for a male...like 5'9 barefoot on a good day (less often these days because I only get like 4-5 hours of sleep). Def another dysfunction of mine. When I scrub in surgeries I frequently need to use a stool and most of my attendings are 6'0 and up (and they lift the bed up to their height).

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed height being a factor on the wards or in the OR. Obviously being short is a deal killer for dating (ex-sorority girls seem to all have a 6'0 up rule in place these days), but has it crossed into the professional realm for any of you. Just curious.
Click to expand...

OP, if you could trade an inch for 5 points on the USMLE and vice versa how would you maximize your situation?

Would you rather be 242 and be 5' 5" and probably match into an average ENT program or would you want to be a 6' doctor going into family medicine?

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
GoodWillShunting said:
I'm not "short", but I'll chime in.

Dear OP, nobody walks around with a number posted to their forehead.

Being short isn't a deal killer for anything in medicine.

Being short isn't a deal killer for dating, either (but your lack of rationality and total focus on being "short" certainly is), just as a woman without large breasts, blonde hair, blue eyes, and thin body isn't a deal killer for dating. At the end of the day, few people give a ****. Sure, some women care, but some guys also want hot blondes. You think everybody likes the same flavor ice cream? Height is all relative.

If you've had trouble with anything, I'll be the first to tell you, it's not your height, but your attitude, personality, and view of the world. Nobody wants to be around somebody who's insecure. I love thicker women, but cannot be with a women who is always calling herself fat and unworthy.

What will kill your career and life is your ridiculous inability to get over it. Do you treat short people like ****? Most people don't. Thus, it won't be an issue for you. I know a surgeon who is a little person, and he does just fine.

P.S.: 5'9" ain't short. "Averages" go out the window, because in real life interactions, your sample sizes vary so much, and you're always switching between taller and shorter, relatively speaking. That's why nobody cares about you. That, and the fact that people care too much about themselves.

For Christ's sake, man. Who has time to think about this crap?




Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
e3d179fd0a1c28a4c24b72c58b9a8507.jpg

It's all about dat self esteem.
 
Height is more an issue in the way you carry yourself; Nick Saban is 5'6, and he routinely puts the fear of God into men 3x his size.

But when you're short (OP is not even short), it's more difficult to have the self-confidence you need to command respect from your peers. This tends to be less of an issue in medicine than it is in business.
 
raiderette said:
As a sorority woman, height isn't the issue. Attitude is, which is why I don't date med students or doctors. I have dated guys shorter than you. Be confident, witty, talented and capable of talking about things other than yourself and medicine.
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Notice the use of past tense here. Were you taller than him though? How did that affect your motivation to go out in public together?
 
zero0 said:
Notice the use of past tense here. Were you taller than him though? How did that affect your motivation to go out in public together?
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I have dated more than one guy shorter than me. I am 5'10" so plenty of guys are shorter when I wear heels. I would never date someone that I wouldn't introduce to my friends or be proud to be with in public. It is past tense because most guys at my school couldn't handle my future as a med student.
 
raiderette said:
I have dated more than one guy shorter than me. I am 5'10" so plenty of guys are shorter when I wear heels. I would never date someone that I wouldn't introduce to my friends or be proud to be with in public. It is past tense because most guys at my school couldn't handle my future as a med student.
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Don't mind me. I'm just snowed in and going insane from cabin fever
 
tyler_durden said:
Speaking from experience, consider picking up the national pastime of the rest of us who are height/length challenged: lifting

You can never grow vertically, but you can grow muscles, your ego, and delusions of compensation
Click to expand...
Or he could just give up and realize he's the same decaying organic matter as everything else. But that probably won't get him a spot in ortho.
 
I love it when a thread makes me laugh, and then I realize in the comments that it was started by OP.

OP, I'm a 5'1" female and I survived my surgery rotations. Grab a stool if you need to, your attending doesn't have time to judge you for it even if he/she wanted to. You're going to be fine.
 
ortnakas said:
I love it when a thread makes me laugh, and then I realize in the comments that it was started by OP.

OP, I'm a 5'1" female and I survived my surgery rotations. Grab a stool if you need to, your attending doesn't have time to judge you for it even if he/she wanted to. You're going to be fine.
Click to expand...

Ok, but what's your shoe size?
 
I'm a surgery resident and 5'8"

My program director and attendings care about this fact roughly as much as they care about what my high school GPA was (for all you hSDN people who make it to this forum, the answer to this question is zero).

The only time this is ever an issue is when there's a new scrub nurse in the room and I can't remember their name and I have to awkwardly say something along the lines of "Um... can someone get me a stool?" and hope that they hear me...
 
raiderette said:
I have dated more than one guy shorter than me. I am 5'10" so plenty of guys are shorter when I wear heels. I would never date someone that I wouldn't introduce to my friends or be proud to be with in public. It is past tense because most guys at my school couldn't handle my future as a med student.
Click to expand...

Only a woman could say this without being criticized. I've made comments saying I don't want to date a fat ugly girl because I want an attractive girlfriend and people have crucified me for it ("OMG so you only want to date someone for status purposes!" You SCUMBAG!!!!!!1111)
 
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