Pros and Cons of Obgyn

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sillyrabbit0207

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really considering this specialty .. i have shadowed 2 obgyns and asked other physicians about their opinion on the profession. sadly, it has all been negative. both obgyns told me not to go into the specialty (10-20 yrs as OBGYNs). and another physician told me that all of her friends in med school that went into the profession have stopped practicing and went into different specialties.

I was hoping i could get some insight from anyone. What exactly is so unappealing about the profession?
I come from a traditional home, so as a woman, I see myself having a family and being present in the home. What kind of ObGYN would one have to be to not have as much of a stressful lifestyle? Does the salary of OBGYNs compensate for the stress? how often are obgyns sued?
What are the pros of the profession?

I would have asked the OBGYNs I shadowed, but they were so adamant about not going into the profession that I feel as if their answers would have been biased.

any answers will help. thanks

edit: how much do private practice OBGYNs' lifestyles differ?
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I saw a chart in a thread here that showed ob/gyn as one of the specialties where people were least satisfied with their job. I'd be curious to know why as well.
 
My experience after spending 60 hours in L+D is that it's all sunshine and rainbows, until it isn't. Delivering babies is pretty cool. You get to do a nice mix of medicine and procedure/surgery. There can be quite a bit of downtime if nobody is close to delivering (or it can be completely crazy... hit or miss). I was like, "you know, I never considered it, but I could actually see myself doing this."

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure OB/GYN's are sued more than any other type of doctor. Things usually go smoothly, but it really sucks when they don't. I'm sure it's no fun telling somebody their baby is going to have XYZ problems, if it survives. You deal with people who don't take care of themselves or the baby, and I'm sure that would be emotionally draining when you know the baby is going to be messed up and it's the patient's fault. And you know there's a pretty good chance the person is going to try to sue you...

Academic questions for us pre-meds, in any case. I suppose we'll see for ourselves during 3rd year!
 
Last edited:
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sillyrabbit0207 said:
really considering this specialty .. i have shadowed 2 obgyns and asked other physicians about their opinion on the profession. sadly, it has all been negative. both obgyns told me not to go into the specialty (10-20 yrs as OBGYNs). and another physician told me that all of her friends in med school that went into the profession have stopped practicing and went into different specialties.

I was hoping i could get some insight from anyone. What exactly is so unappealing about the profession?
I come from a traditional home, so as a woman, I see myself having a family and being present in the home. What kind of ObGYN would one have to be to not have as much of a stressful lifestyle? Does the salary of OBGYNs compensate for the stress? how often are obgyns sued?
What are the pros of the profession?

I would have asked the OBGYNs I shadowed, but they were so adamant about not going into the profession that I feel as if their answers would have been biased.

any answers will help. thanks

edit: how much do private practice OBGYNs' lifestyles differ?
Click to expand...

I shadowed an OBGYN doc over the summer and he said the call shift is pretty brutal. I think if you work in any hospital setting, your call shift is going to be difficult. Imagine getting called in at 2am because a patient needs and emergency C-section after you just put in a full day of work, or you've slept 3 hours in the past two days because you've been so busy. People have babies all the time, day or night, hence the crazy call shift. He said when he was younger he could handle it, but as he's gotten older it's taken its toll.

That's probably the biggest thing I can think of that most people would not like OBGYN.
 
I've been shadowing an obgyn in the OR; I even got to see a c-section. One point he stressed was that babies don't have a schedule. They'll come when the come, so he is commonly at the hospital at all hours of the day and night.
 
J Senpai said:
I've been shadowing an obgyn in the OR; I even got to see a c-section. One point he stressed was that babies don't have a schedule. They'll come when the come, so he is commonly at the hospital at all hours of the day and night.
Click to expand...
can babies only be delivered by the mother's primary OB, or can other OBs deliver the child? for example, if you have 20+ patients due the same month, does that mean you might never have a day off?
 
J Senpai said:
I've been shadowing an obgyn in the OR; I even got to see a c-section. One point he stressed was that babies don't have a schedule. They'll come when the come, so he is commonly at the hospital at all hours of the day and night.
Click to expand...
That's crazy. It must be the exact same for trauma. Surgery is brutal enough as it is; the least I could hope for is a schedule to coordinate the insanity.
 
One of mine was born at 4 am, so yes, I got my OB out of bed for that one. Another was born mid-afternoon and the OB was miles away at the office so a partner in the practice filled in (and took time away from outpatients elsewhere in the building to do so).

If you are going to delivery babies, and raise your own family at the same time, you are going to need a spouse who is never away from home overnight or live in help or, when they are old enough, boarding school.

Some docs do only office based GYN but usually only after building up their practice for 20 years and riding into the sunset with the post-menopausal women whose children they delivered back in the day.

Some docs specialize in late term abortions and there is fellowship training for this. There are grateful patients but for the most part it is the opposite of rainbows and sunshine.
 
Maybe this will give a slightly different perspective. My mom has been an OB/GYN for many many years, and loves her job.
1) She isn't in private practice, so doesn't have to be on call for her patients, just when she is scheduled. Although she does have some very busy nights, frequently she gets to go home and rest up for part of the night.
2) Flexibility- both time and procedures. She gets to work in ultrasound, surgery, primary care, and call! Lots of different teams. Now that she has been practicing for a long time, she even works a few half days per week.
3) Generally her patients are healthy- childbirth is not an illness 🙂

I think a lot of her happiness stems from where she works and their policies on time off, call, etc. She's also never been sued even with 30 + years of practice. She's kind of a badass 😉 When I was a kid I never felt like she skipped out on my band concerts, soccer games, etc. I'd say that my dad worked much longer hours than she did, and he was definitely not involved in medicine. She prioritized us and it turned out great!!
 
Malpractice insurance is through the roof for OBGYN's because they get sued so much. I know many OBGYN's switched to just doing GYN to protect themselves from being sued all the time. Personally, it seems like the least desirable field to get into.
 
Urogynecology is the "lifestyle" sub specialty of ob/gyn.
 
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referee3 said:
Malpractice insurance is through the roof for OBGYN's because they get sued so much. I know many OBGYN's switched to just doing GYN to protect themselves from being sued all the time.
Click to expand...
It isn't just the frequency of lawsuits. Part of the stress of an obstetrical practice comes from the fact that you are liable up to 21 years after a baby is born (at least in my state). For other medical specialties that don't deal with minors, one is liable for only three years from the "time of discovery."

Here is a good summary article in NEJM on Malpractice Risk according to Specialty: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1012370#t=articleResults
 
When it is good, it is very very good but when things go bad you end up with a young woman who is dead and/or a baby who is dead or disabled.

Juries think that someone should pay when a bad outcome has occurred and to make it more interesting there are 100 million mothers in America who think that they have relevant obstetrical experience because they've given birth. (I suspect this is less of a factor when the trial involves a bad outcome of neurosurgery or another specialty that the vast majority of us have never experienced.)

Even if a case is settled out of court (many are) or if the case is dropped or decided in favor of the defendant (the clinician), I've been told that the experience of being sued is unpleasant, time consuming, and emotionally exhausting. Why choose a specialty where lawsuits are very, very common if you have other choices? I think that's what many OB-GYNs are trying to say to you.
 
Catalystik said:
It isn't just the frequency of lawsuits. Part of the stress of an obstetrical practice comes from the fact that you are liable up to 21 years after a baby is born (at least in my state). For other medical specialties that don't deal with minors, one is liable for only three years from the "time of discovery."

Here is a good summary article in NEJM on Malpractice Risk according to Specialty: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1012370#t=articleResults
Click to expand...

Does the hospital even keep the medical records for that long? If not, is there a way for physicians in your state to maintain records of their own? You open up an interesting question that is relevant to all specialties/sub-specialties that deal with pediatric patients. In my state, minors are considered people under "disability" for which the statute of limitations does not begin to run until 18, like your state.
 
knv2u said:
Does the hospital even keep the medical records for that long? If not, is there a way for physicians in your state to maintain records of their own?
Click to expand...
Pregnancy and birth record copies are generally kept by both the hospital and the OBGYN doc until the statute of limitations expires.
 
and with just about everyone having EMRs now, you're going to have a LONG easily searchable set of records for a VERY long time.

/though anyone whose every had to do a consult for an OB service that uses MARS knows that OB records aren't accessible to anyone....
 
Catalystik said:
Pregnancy and birth record copies are generally kept by both the hospital and the OBGYN doc until the statute of limitations expires.
Click to expand...

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions!
 
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