No Ob/Gyn Letter...Will this be a problem?

[Leukocyte]

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I am palnning on applying to OB/GYN for the 2006 Match, but....I do not have a letter of reccomendation from Ob/Gyn. Frankly, I really cannot get one, since I ran out of elective weeks (I was thinking about applying to OB, but I never thought I was serious about it)

I have letters from:

1) Chair of Psychiatry
2) Chair of General Surgery
3) Chair of Orthopedic Surgery
4) An Internal Medicine attending

But...NO OB/GYN!!!!

Will this be a major problem for me? 🙁

Thank You.

 

[DrBuzzLightYear]

you're doing OBGYN for all the wrong reasons.

 

[Leukocyte]

you're doing OBGYN for all the wrong reasons.

I have to admit, I am still not sure about doing OB/GYN. I am still debating between Ob/Gyn, GS, and Orthopedics. I am considering OB/GYN because:

1) Patient population is generally younger/healthier.
2) Have a chance to work with kids (although in utero)
3) A surgical field (although some disagree with this)
4) Most problems are treatable, and the outcome is usually good.
5) Lifestyle is better than General Surgery???????????????

😕

 

[snowinter]

Leukocyte-

just curious -- why do you want to work with kids?
snow

 

[Leukocyte]

Leukocyte-

just curious -- why do you want to work with kids?
snow

For the same reason people choose to go into Pediatrics, and not Internal Medicine. There is nothing more rewarding than helping a sick child get better. Helping kids gives me the motivation to do all that I can to help them. Helping sick kids is the reason I am in medicine. I like Pediatrics, but Pediatrics is a "medical" speciality (as opposed to a "surgical" one).

So now I am debating between:

1) Ob/Gyn--->Peds Gyn or Maternal Fetal Medicine
2) General Surgery--->Peds Surgery or Peds CT Surgery (very rough road)
3) Orthopedics--->Peds Orthopedic Surgery (Very competetive)

I am willing to take any Peds Surgical field, but the other surgical specialities (including Orthopedics) are very competetive.
😕

 

[DrBuzzLightYear]

1) Ob/Gyn--->Peds Gyn or Maternal Fetal Medicine

MFM's don't work with kids! and they're not surgeons!

 

[Wednesday]

Although I don't really have any qualifications, I'm going to answer your original question with some common sense: Yes, I think it will be a problem if you don't have a letter from an ob/gyn. What about a letter from your clerkship? Most programs specifically ask for a letter from an ob/gyn, but even if they didn't, I highly doubt anyone will take you seriously if you don't even have a letter from someone in the field you want to go into.

I sort of agree with DrBuzzLightyear, it sounds like you are thinking through this too much. Maybe you should just pick what it is you REALLY want to do, and go for it. You have spent a lot of time/pain/money on your medical education and now you're picking your CAREER. Like, the rest of your life career. You don't want to settle for something because in theory it sounds good and it's easy to get into. Figure out where your heart actually is and then figure out how to get it. You say that you couldn't handle gen surgery for five years, but if you go the ob/gyn route, you will be seeing grown women (for the most part) for four years and doing a lot less surgery.

I am with you--this is a paralyzing decision. But you have come up with some rather unique (and confusing) reasons for wanting to go into ob/gyn (which, I'm not sure really has all that much better of a lifestyle than gen surg in the end). Make sure those reasons are based in reality before you commit.

Good luck! May we all figure out exactly what we really want. 🙂

 

[Quijotemd]

Leukocyte, aren't there plenty of pediatric subspecialties that lend themselves well to doing plenty of "hands-on" procedures? I agree with some of the other previous posts. You should absolutely do what you can envision yourself doing for decades. I get the impression what interests you most is pediatrics, and less so the surgery aspect. So why not something like pediatric cardiology, or pediatric pulmonology, critical care, etc.? I know a lot of students at our school really enjoyed pediatric ER, and that enthusiasm was coming from a lot of students like myself that really don't even like peds.

I feel your frustration, though. I am planning now to enter the 2006 match for OBG. I have doubts all the time too. For me, it's the issue of being a man (like so many others concerned in this forum) and the issue of how much of a life you have in OBG. But for me I know I had fun on the rotation and got a charge from the work. So I had to be honest with myself and decided I should just do what I feel I enjoy and what I feel I'd be good at.

Good luck to you!