ObsGyn or Urology - Help me choose a residency
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This was posted elsewhere....
Unless you strongly enjoy doing obstetrics, then urology is a better bet than OB GYN.
Higher pay, more job demand, variety of procedures (although this is seen in general OB GYN as well).
Starting urology salary in general is around $300,000 even in desirable areas with starting OB GYN salaries being in the $225,000 range.
Hours are better with urology and call is more manageable in general.
I say this as an OB GYN who is at the tail end of fellowship.
Unless you strongly enjoy doing obstetrics, then urology is a better bet than OB GYN.
Higher pay, more job demand, variety of procedures (although this is seen in general OB GYN as well).
Starting urology salary in general is around $300,000 even in desirable areas with starting OB GYN salaries being in the $225,000 range.
Hours are better with urology and call is more manageable in general.
I say this as an OB GYN who is at the tail end of fellowship.
Seconded to anonperson. Also an obgyn in fellowship. If your main objective is to be a surgeon in the shortest time possible urology is the way to go. There are some great surgical sub specialties in gyn but you have to do 4 years of ob to get there. On the other hand if OB is your draw then obviously you're will not get that in urology. Both fields specialize in onco/female urology and infertility with a fair degree of overlap in those disciplines within each field, but a general urologist can do much of what a subspecialist urologist can do. The same can't be said about general obgyn.
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I really love shadowing on labor & delivery and in outpatient office for Ob/Gyn... if you are a pre-clinical (MS1/MS2) student like me, I suggest shadowing physicians in both specialties and deciding where you fit best, as they are very different - and I definitely want to work more with women more than with a mostly male population. If you're MS3 and conflicted now, and are competitive for Urology, I would go with Urology for reasons stated above.
It really comes down to what you like - do a rotation in each and see what you want to do. If you enjoy Obstetrics obviously the choice is easy. If you like them both equally, choose Urology (this from an Ob/Gyn perspective...they have similar surgical/office procedure/clinic schedules but with less emergent call ins since there are no Obstetrics and they are better reimbursed for similar procedures and surgeries).
As mentioned above if you're obstetrics or bust then do ob/gyn if you're more into surgery but don't want to do a fellowship than do urology, if you don't mind doing a fellowship and have a particular interest in something specific than use that information to guide your decision. Also think about patient populations (only women vs. mostly men)
