Can anyone comment on the pros and cons of OB/GYN especially Gyn Onc. Im a male and spent 3 yrs of undergrad in gyn one and now after first year Im still interested in it. I like the surgical aspect of it combined with the primary care but I don't know how much surgery will demand.
OG/GYN-Gyn Onc
- Thread starter jydeguzm
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The best thing to do is email attendings at your school and see if you can shadow them: it will give you an opportunity to see what clinical gyn-onc is like, and you'll be able to pick their brains about the nature/life of gyn-onc. FWIW, I had female classmates shadow male urologists without any problems
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gyn-onc is the most surgical side of the spectrum. The doc where I am spends all day in the OR a couple of times a week and often has big open cases with a surgical oncologist on staff.
General ob/gyn has much more of the primary care feel to it with a little bit of surgery thrown in. Maternal-Fetal-Medicine and Reproductive Endo are more on the medical management side of the equation.
I'm sure you can find someone to follow around, but females are more likely to have less difficulty with urology than males are with obgyn. Most guys I know don't really care and then urologists still see a fair amount of females for incontinence and other problems.
General ob/gyn has much more of the primary care feel to it with a little bit of surgery thrown in. Maternal-Fetal-Medicine and Reproductive Endo are more on the medical management side of the equation.
I'm sure you can find someone to follow around, but females are more likely to have less difficulty with urology than males are with obgyn. Most guys I know don't really care and then urologists still see a fair amount of females for incontinence and other problems.
I think we can debate until the cows come home whether men or women are more open to letting medical students of the opposite sex exam their genitals.
In retrospect, I am amazed so many of my classmates had an easy time shadow urologists during the pre-clinical years because on the wards--at least in my experience--most women do not care whether a male or female medical student does their pelvic exam, while most male patients request male students do their prostate/genital exams.
OP, given your background, it really does not hurt to see if any of the attendings will let you attend clinic, or at the very least, tumor board/grand rounds
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I don't see much of a debate with it. I've never heard a female classmate complain about being thrown out and even when I am rotating with a male ob/gyn, I still have issues occasionally. As a dude and knowing lots of dudes, they just don't care as much. 
Anyway, I was trying to imply that if you are "shadowing" and not on a rotation, you may be thrown out a bit more with gyn-onc, especially when dealing with highly sensitive issues like cancer.
Anyway, I was trying to imply that if you are "shadowing" and not on a rotation, you may be thrown out a bit more with gyn-onc, especially when dealing with highly sensitive issues like cancer.
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1. Do what you like. At the end of the day, no matter what the litigations are like, no matter what people's opinions of your profession are, if you aren't happy doing what you're doing, you wont be happy in life. The world needs more OBs that are doing OB because they want to, not because they had to. They are called "Good OBs" opposed to the shit box ones that troll around most residencies
2. Beware the stigma. Men who go into OB are usually the men who wanted to do surgery but couldnt cut it. True? No. But that's the stigma. You may have to defend your decision in medical school,. but then, who cares? But seriously, be prepared to deal with the stigma, even if you get into a "really good OB program"
3. Beware gender bias shifts. Women DO prefer women to do their exams. Women over the age of 50, who were growing up where men were doctors, still prefer men, because thats what they had. Younger women anticipate women doing vaginal exams; how can a man understand their problems? So beware of increasing demand for women in the field by patients. This isn't a big deal if you serve underserved populations... they'll take anybody, because they have to. But to generate a private clinic where you take care of patients of teh ones you want to, you might find it slightly more difficult than a woman, especially in the latest generation.
4. Ob is a great field Do it. Cause we need more of you and if you really like it, you will brighten the field.
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I got to spend time around a great Gyn/Onc team during my OB/GYN rotation and I really loved it. It made me briefly consider OB as a career before I went ahead with neurosurgery (got a lot of questions about that one on the interview trail!) because of the surgical exposure. I enjoyed the anatomy, the pathology, and tools they used, and procedures. Definitely shadow a few GYN/ONC surgeons, with the exception of urogyn, its probably the most heavily surgical aspect of OB/GYN.
Thanks for the reply people. I definitely will shadow a Gyn-Onc soon. I actually found tumor board and grand rounds to be pretty interesting but then again that was when I was an undergrad. Will continue to explore. Anyone have any insight on how competitive OB programs are in California? Is it just like med school all over again?
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1. The stigma of being a male OB/Gyn applies only to generalists and maybe (probably not) REI specialists. Nobody cares whether their Gyn-onc surgeon is a male or female. They see you as their surgeon, not as an ob-gyn. Actually, gyn-onc tends to be a male dominated specialty, so you will be fine as long as you can get a spot.
2. Gyn-onc is not balanced like the other obgyn fields are. You are a surgeon, and that is the end of it. You work the same hours and have a similar OR case load compared to a surg-onc. The only difference is that you can prescribe chemo, which means you can earn more $$$, which brings me to my final point
3. It is extremely difficult to get a fellowship in gyn-onc, so you have to be okay with doing general ob-gyn.
2. Gyn-onc is not balanced like the other obgyn fields are. You are a surgeon, and that is the end of it. You work the same hours and have a similar OR case load compared to a surg-onc. The only difference is that you can prescribe chemo, which means you can earn more $$$, which brings me to my final point
3. It is extremely difficult to get a fellowship in gyn-onc, so you have to be okay with doing general ob-gyn.
