Need some help deciding!!!

[sm2005]

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Hi, this has nothing to do about the thread saying how bad ob-gyns are in surgery, but I honestly cannot decide between ob-gyn and gen. surgery. Again, I don't want to know who is better than who, I just want to know if anybody else had this dilemma between the two and how they figure it out. I have trouble seeing what would be my typical days in gen. surgery once I finished residency, but I know that I like the field. What I like about ob-gyn is that you combine primary care with surgical procedures. Please, if you have any advice, I would appreciate it.Thanks.

 

[woundvac]

ob SUCKS dude

 

[dr.evil]

If you like the primary care aspect in any way then I would say OB/Gyn may be for you.

Unlike many of my general surgery counterparts, I actually enjoyed OB (I hated the gyn part though). General Surgery is much less primary care although in podunk america you could do some primary interventions.

Everyday life is very similar for the two specialties once residency is done. You're both on call, you both have real emergencies, and you both have busy O.R. or clinic days. Subspecialties under both can make your life easier (i.e. infertility, plastic surgery, etc).

It really comes down to the area that interests you the most and not the lifestyle. I vote general surgery but i'm definitely biased.

 

[LaCirujana]

When I did my OB-Gyn rotation, it was the first one I actually liked. I enjoyed delivering babies (I was in a high-fertility area, so I got to do tons) and I did Gyn-Onc for my gyn rotation, so I actually saw some real surgery, rather than holding hook for vag-hyst after vag-hyst. I thought very seriously about OB-Gyn....

then I did my surgery rotation, which was very much more my style: less clinic, more technical, less primary care, and (IMO) more fun. The matter was settled when one of the OB residents said, "You know you're going to be called into the hospital in the middle of the night whether you do OB or surgery. The question you have to answer is, would you rather deliver a baby or an appendix?" Hmmm. 15-20 minutes skin to skin vs. 3+ hours waiting for the kid to decide that it's not going to be born without a fight and having to do a C-section. Easy one, for me.