Putting Off Residency?

[Sdclegg]

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I would like some opinions about possibly putting off residency after med. school. Here's the deal. So, I want to attend medical school and have a family, and so it seems, that I can't have my cake and eat it too. By the time I finish med. school, I will be 26, and the only way I can reconcile having a family and going to med. school, and finishing residency is by not doing residency directly after I matriculate, but doing it after my children are of preschool age, which would put me back in the game at around 30. And, the reason I would be doing this, is a medical one. I don't want to have kids after I am 30, primarily because of the huge risks, and I just don't want to play Russian Roulette with that. And yes, I would rather have my own kids than adopt (and to further clarify, yes I am female). What do you think about it?

Thanks

 

[bomgd3]

I don't think it's done very much, although I don't see why not. But many people have kids in the last 1-2 years of residency--it is doable if you have a spouse who can help.

 

[coup de chance]

I would like some opinions about possibly putting off residency after med. school. Here's the deal. So, I want to attend medical school and have a family, and so it seems, that I can't have my cake and eat it too. By the time I finish med. school, I will be 26, and the only way I can reconcile having a family and going to med. school, and finishing residency is by not doing residency directly after I matriculate, but doing it after my children are of preschool age, which would put me back in the game at around 30. And, the reason I would be doing this, is a medical one. I don't want to have kids after I am 30, primarily because of the huge risks, and I just don't want to play Russian Roulette with that. And yes, I would rather have my own kids than adopt (and to further clarify, yes I am female). What do you think about it?

Thanks

I know females that had gave birth in med school as well as residency. It's doable. And they did quite well. Moms somehow have a lot of mom intelligence that transfers to med school success.

If you delay, that's okay too. But to stay competitive for when you do b/m a resident, you have to do something medical (so residencies don't think your skills deteriorated) -- probably some kind of research fellowship and clinical experience combo would be acceptable and depending on the strength of your research/pubs, could actually strengthen you app.

 

[Sdclegg]

Thanks so much for responding. You guys gave me some confidence, and some new options that I didn't think about (or I guess, didn't realize was doable).

 

[jbz24]

You'll find it very difficult, if not impossible, to go on to residency after taking off 4-5 years after med school, especially if you don't plan on doing anything clinically-related during that time. You're better off either doing it before or during med school.

 

[Dirt]

Plenty of people do fine having kids in med school and residency, both men and women.

You will have a very tough time matching after taking 4-5 years off, even if you are doing something medical, i.e. research.

Lots and lots of people have kids after 30 and the vast majority of those kids are totally and completely normal. The risks are not nearly as great as you think.

 

[peppy]

Plenty of people do fine having kids in med school and residency, both men and women.

You will have a very tough time matching after taking 4-5 years off, even if you are doing something medical, i.e. research.

Lots and lots of people have kids after 30 and the vast majority of those kids are totally and completely normal. The risks are not nearly as great as you think.

I agree. Lots of women have kids during med school or residency, but it is generally expected that htey will take some time off for the birth and then go back to work pretty quickly. It will look odd to residency programs if you are out of medicine for years then try to get back in. Since the residency match is becoming more competitive every year, by the time you try to get back into medicine you might not be able to get anything at all.
If it is extremely important to you to be a stay at home mom for 4-5 years, you should probably consider a different career honestly. Medicine requires time commitment and sacrifices beyond that of most other careers.

 

[BigRedBeta]

And, the reason I would be doing this, is a medical one. I don't want to have kids after I am 30, primarily because of the huge risks, and I just don't want to play Russian Roulette with that.

First, you need to get your facts correct. Remember you're going to have to convince PHYSICIANS that you are making acceptable decisions. In other words, if you're going to cite medical reasons, then you need to make sure those reasons are actually real. So to save you the trouble, the age at which you go from being low-risk to high risk is generally accepted to be 35. That's what gets you the "advanced maternal age" designation from the OB's. Even still, that's a change in RELATIVE risk - the odds of having a baby with birth defects is still less than 1%. Similarly, there is a change in relative risk of miscarriage. In the 20's, ~10% of recognized pregnancies end in stillbirth, and that rate doubles to 20% after age 35 (the actual rate of miscarriage for all ages is over 50%, but most occur early in the 1st trimester and the mother may not realize she's pregnant).

Second, physicians are largely conservative in nature (I don't mean politically). There's a fair amount of following tradition, in part because people who make it being a doctor got there by not rocking the boat or doing things that are particularly outlandish. They got where they did by following the rules and "playing the game". Deviating from that path will raise eyebrows and likely cause some pushback.

Third, there are lots and lots and lots and lots of female physicians who have babies during medical school, residency and fellowship. It's not an uncommon thing. There are certainly specialties where this is more frequently encountered and certainly residency programs that are more accommodating towards maternity leave/bedrest/etc. Because of this, taking years off after medical school and before residency will be met with resistance.

 

[group_theory]

Realize that if there are any gap years between medical school and residency, it is a red flag.

If you take 3-4 years off between medical school and residency, even if you do research, it is a HUGE red flag (to a point where programs have debated whether to drop you from the rank list or just rank you low on the list)

We want interns able to hit the ground running. And with more applicants every year (and fixed amount of spots), it's a seller's market out there.

 

[Musclemass]

And with more applicants every year (and fixed amount of spots), it's a seller's market out there.

What you're describing is a buyer's market.🙂

(Buyers pay, sellers receive)

 

[DrElliotReid]

My mom was 38 when I was born and 40 when my brother was. We both turned out perfectly fine. I don't understand why ppl make such a big deal about having kids before 30. Sure the risks increase the older you get, but it doesn't jump from like 1% before 30 to like 20% after. It's a slight increase.

 

[searun]

If you think that you can take 4 or 5 years off from medicine after you graduate from med school, and then go through the match successfully, you are smoking the wrong weed. It is not going to happen. Pick another career or have your kids and keep on trucking, like alot of women who are docs.

 

[accidentprone]

Some residents have said it'll be difficult to match if you take the time off, and here are the numbers to back it up:

Percent of US medical school seniors who match = 93.1 - 94.1
Percent of US graduates who match = 44.0 - 45.2

This is NRMP data from 2006 - 2010 plus 2002 (I had an older First Aid for the Match book that had 2002 numbers in it sitting around).

Maybe you should have your family first, then go to med school if you're opposed to doing both at the same time. Once you start the process, many things come together in med school to put you in a good position for matching (LORs, sub-Is at other institutions, research related to your speciality, etc.) that would be difficult to duplicate after 4 years or so.

The other unknown is how fast you'll be able to have kids. For some people it happens perfectly according to plans, but others spend 1+ years trying.

 

[45408]

If you think that you can take 4 or 5 years off from medicine after you graduate from med school, and then go through the match successfully, you are smoking the wrong weed. It is not going to happen. Pick another career or have your kids and keep on trucking, like alot of women who are docs.

Agreed x 10.

Be a CRNA/NP/PA/PharmD if this is what you want, but an MD is a poor choice for this.