OB without the Gyn?

[Antiviral22]

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Hi Everyone ... I'm new here (MS 2) and just checking out the scene. I've had an interest in Obstetrics since my first year of medical school - I even overloaded a class on the physiology and clinical aspects of lactation. However, I'm really not so jazzed about doing the gynecology part of Ob/Gyn. My question is this: Is it possible to do an obstetrics training only? or maybe a very light gyn, with most emphasis on obstetrics? I guess once I finish my residency I could choose to practice how I want, but if anyone has some infomation I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

 

[tiredmom]

A MFM (maternal fetal medicine fellowship) doctor provides high risk obstetrical care, but you have to do an ob/gyn residency first. Some programs are heavier on ob than gyn (southwestern comes to mind), but you'll still have a lot of gyn training. Be sure not to rule something out before you've done it in a clinical setting - gyn's fun!

 

[doughboy]

Its definitely possible to do a practice solely with obstetrics. A lot of the older docs are getting out of OB and doing GYN do to malpractice and the better hours of not being on call for deliveries. You can join a group and just all their OB. You can also be a hospitalist who just covers L+D and do shift work. Some MFM groups are also hiring OB hospitalists to cover all their deliveries so that they can just concentrate on consultations and not be on call.

 

[MeowMix]

Unless you are a very unusual med student, you don't have enough info yet to make an informed decision about this. I can't imagine how you could practice Ob without having training in Gyn. I would guess you have some idea of what "gyn" is that may or may not correspond with the real thing. You will figure all this out as you go through third and fourth years.

 

[Antiviral22]

Hi Everyone ... thank you for your helpful responses. I think you're right, I need a little more clinical exposure to Gyn during my 3rd year to make a better decision. It's not that I don't like Gyn, I'm just not so interested (so far) in being a "women's health" doctor - doing pap smears, treating local infections, STIs etc etc. I would rather spend my time managing mod/high risk pregnancies, peforming obstetric surgeries, and getting mom through a seemingly stressful and uncertain journey.

If anyone wants to share a good or bad story about how they got interested in OB/Gyn I'd love to hear some of them. Thanks.

 

[deliriou5]

gyn is NOT just paps and birth control - you know when a woman needs her ovaries out? or maybe she has high grade CIN and she needs a LEEP... or how about if she needs a hysterectomy? she doesn't go to a general surgeon for that - she goes to her gynecologist.

what made me fall in love w/ ob/gyn - the amount of variety that you get to see in your daily practice. yes, maybe you only see one sex, but you get to do primary care, ER, surgery. and it's a very hands-on specialty