Is Ob/Gyn a good "plan B"?

[Leukocyte]

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I love surgery (all specialties), and hate "pure clinical medicine" (meaning clinic and floor medicine - FP, IM, et al.)

Unfortunately, I do not have the credentials to even get into General Surgery:

-I am a IMG.
-Step 1 = 221
-Step 2 = 206 (There was a problem with the computer on my testing day, it did not let me complete my exam....Long story. I was given the option to re-take the exam, or to grade my incomplete exam. I chose the option to grade my INCOMPLETE exam due to time and financial difficulties I am going through)

I did not mind my OB/GYN clerkship. I enjoyed the surgical aspects of ob/gyn, but the clinic and L&D were less than thrilling.

I am a Male. Is Ob/Gyn a logical/good "back-up plan" in case I do not get into Surgery?

Thank You.🙂

 

[drwatson]

I've heard that the reason most people choose OB is that they like BOTH the medicine/clinical aspect of it in addition to the surgical/OR aspects. That being said there will parts of *any* speciality (even surgery) that you aren't going to enjoy.

Is scrambling into surgery an option? It looks like your scores aren't bad, I would imagine a second tier program is totally in your reach. Maybe I could be wrong on this.

Nice group of quotes at the bottom of your post. The Bible, Einstein, and ... yourself. Pretty heavy company you got there. 😉

 

[sunnygyn]

So do I think you could get into an OB/Gyn residency if G-surg didn't work out for you?
Probably.
Do I think you would be happy enough to actually complete a four year residency in OB/Gyn?
Probably not.
Yes, there is a lot of surgery in OB/Gyn, and that is definitely one of the attractive aspects of this career. But an OB/Gyn residency is a comprehensive four years, and most programs have a much heavier focus during the first 2 years on OB than Gyn, meaning LOTS of L&D and clinics and not so heavy on the Gyn surgeries (although we are all on the eternal quest to find the program that lets us operate more earlier on!) The last couple of interviews I went on they told us that statistically, about 10% of OB/Gyn residents drop out after about the first year, and that this has a major impact on the program and the remaining residents. The reason why they told us this was for us to reflect on whether OB/Gyn is the right career choice for us, and to hopefully avoid having to go through a switch after starting residency. If G-surg is what you have always planned to do and you end up settling for OB/Gyn just because it's something you can get into, I think there is a high likelihood you'll end up in that 10%. If this is true, take more time to improve your application (which I really don't think is that bad right now and agree with the earlier post that you can probably get in somewhere now!) and do some rotations at programs you think you are interested in and could possibly get into. If you think OB might be a reasonable option for you, go spend lots of time (out of the OR) on L&D and clinic; take an overnight L&D call or 2 and see if you actually enjoy it, or if you leave the next day thinking "thank god I never have to do that again"
Good luck!

 

[ShambhalaRed]

This post sounds awfully shady to me, but hey, I'll bite.

Please, for f*$k's sake, do not use Ob/Gyn as a backup! If you do not absolutely love it, you will be miserable. Personally, there is nothing else I'd rather be doing and there are still days when I question why anyone would ever do this to themselves in their right mind. There are specialties with a much nicer schedule that you could fall back on, but if surgery is what you really love, stick with that. You can always do a transitional year somewhere with a big surgery program and try to stay on as a categorical in your R2 year.

 

[Leukocyte]

Thank you all for your input. I must admit that the main reason I am considering Ob/Gyn as a back-up is because it involves surgery.... Usually surgical applicants choose fields like Anesthesia or EM as back-ups, but these specialties do not involve actual surgery, unlike Ob/Gyn which does. And obviously, other surgical specialties like Ortho, Uro, ENT, Neurosx, ....are out of the question as back-ups due to my relativley "poor" credentials.

I thought about doing prelim surgery for a year or two, but what if I do not get into a categorical program after that? I thought about it for a long time, and decided that it is better to be in a secure categorical residency rather than be in a surgical prelim position were my fate is unknown.

However, you guys are right in that I should not jump into Ob/Gyn blindly. My only exposure to Ob/Gyn was my 3rd year core clerkship. I have not done any Ob electives. I will try to schedule some observerships/rotations in Ob/Gyn to get more exposure to the field. If I still like it, I will go for Ob (in the scramble). If not, then I will have to think of something else, or go on to my "Plan C", preliminary surgery.

Thank you again for your imputs.

Good Luck.

 

[Spittz03]

1) Surgery is not more competitive then Ob/Gyn As with most specialties it depends on location and how far down your rank list you are willing to go!
2) Scramble would not work, as there were only 15 spots in Ob/Gyn last year that did not match - all of them in community programs and a few of those were Ob prelim spots ... might as well stick with surgery prelims
3) Ob/Gyn is a demanding specialty - why waste your time being miserable if it is not what you want to do?
4) I know people that matched into ENT, Ortho, and Urology with scores that were lower then yours ... why compromise?
5) Personally, I explored all of the surgery specialties before deciding on Ob/Gyn. It is the best specialty out there, but like all specialties .... for the right person.

 

[Spittz03]

Thanks Tired. I agree, as an IMG - ENT, Uro, and Ortho are out of reach with 221 on Step 1 even without messing up on Step 2, unless you did something remarkable in the scientific world (and I don't mean just publishing 1st author). However, surgery should still be open to you.

 

[AlkaIL]

As you stated :"hate "pure clinical medicine" (meaning clinic and floor medicine - FP, IM, et al."

Please don't go into a specialty that involves lots of clinical work! A lot of women use their gyn as their pcp, so there will be lots of that for you to do. I would also hate to give birth with a resident that really wanted to be a surgeon! Ob/gyn encompasses a lot of things: primary health care, surgery, l&d (hence OBSTETRICS) as well as fertility issues. Consider if you want to do this before you make yourself and your patients miserable for many years to come.

 

[Leukocyte]

Please don't go into a specialty that involves lots of clinical work! A lot of women use their gyn as their pcp, so there will be lots of that for you to do.

Primary care! No, no! For the love of all that is sacred, NO! 😱

If I do end up in Ob/Gyn, I would not want to practice general Ob/Gyn. I would try to get into a "surgicaly heavy" sub-speciality (relativly) such as Gyn Onc, or Uro Gyn. But unfortunately these fellowships are few in number, and super competetive. There is no gurantee that I will get into one.

I think I might have to fall on to my last resort, Prelim Surgery, and take the loooooooog way to Categorical GS.🙁

Thanks all.

 

[hot4teacha]

You could get a general surgery spot with those board scores--of course as everyone knows board scores are not everything. Most of us in this forum, though, consider Ob Plan"A". Ob/Gyn is becoming...gasp, gasp...a more competitive residency choice. I'm sure many people that have been through the interview process this year can attest that there is much interest in Ob and it is growing. Either way, do something that you think you'd like to do!😎

 

[nutcancer]

from an ms3 perspective, i've met plenty of male obgyners that are doing obgyn 'for the gyn aspect' and to further subspecialize in something supersurgical like urogyn and gynonc. i fully agree the residency will be hell if you don't like both OB and GYN but some of the fellowship opportunities are very attractive finance-wise, life-style wise, and surgical-wise (urogyn, etc.). another attractive option is RAI -- operate on highly advanced disease! or repro endo -- bling bling!!

i would try for gen. surg tho. you could get in SOMEWHERE in america with a 220 on step 1. if you still want obgyn, ask yourself if you are really care about women's health. if you truly believe yes, then go for OBGYN as a 'backup (?)' also.