MD & DO What's the deal with ob/gyn?

[Giovanotto]

Just came off of my ob/gyn rotation (end of year 3), at a program that is known to be malignant, and yet I still enjoyed my rotation. What I liked the most was how varied the field can be, from procedures, to outpatient medicine, to surgery, to triage, and deliveries! Up until this moment, I was pretty certain I wanted to do neuro, but now I'm not so sure anymore. What gives re ob/gyn, besides what I've already researched? (i.e. long hours, poor pay, malpractice, etc.) Help me steer clear of this field, I don't want to change direction this late in the game!

The presentations I'm mostly whatever about (i.e. AUBs vs CVAs), meaning that I find the neuro ones more interesting, but the practice variety is what I'm really drawn to. I think I could really like gyn-onc, but that's a 4+3 type of scenario, correct? Way too long...And a surgeons lifestyle? Not sure I want to commit to surgery, I much prefer a life outside of medicine.


ps. I'm a dude.

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[themoonman2]

you kinda contradict yourself between the two paragraphs. You're aware of the long hours but don't want to commit to long training and want a life out of medicine. I think you'll have to decide how much life outside of medicine matters to you- none of us can figure that out for you.

OB (as you know) has long hours, and the place I rotated at, they were working gen surg hours or more. They all operate throughout residency, and life didn't seem to get that much better for many of the attendings.

Do you have any OB residents or attendings you can talk to about their actual experiences?

 

[Giovanotto]

you kinda contradict yourself between the two paragraphs. You're aware of the long hours but don't want to commit to long training and want a life out of medicine. I think you'll have to decide how much life outside of medicine matters to you- none of us can figure that out for you.

OB (as you know) has long hours, and the place I rotated at, they were working gen surg hours or more. They all operate throughout residency, and life didn't seem to get that much better for many of the attendings.

Do you have any OB residents or attendings you can talk to about their actual experiences?

True, I guess I'm looking to hear from others in ob/gyn and how they perceive their field in relation to others as far as work hours, pay, etc. I do have residents I can talk to about this, was just curious to hear from sdn, given how large of a sample size this site can provide.

 

[Rekt]

True, I guess I'm looking to hear from others in ob/gyn and how they perceive their field in relation to others as far as work hours, pay, etc. I do have residents I can talk to about this, was just curious to hear from sdn, given how large of a sample size this site can provide.

In my small experience with Ob/gyn and GS away from an academic center, the general surgeons had significantly better lifestyles than ob/gyn. But you should probably research more about neurology lifestyle. From everything I've heard and one of friends matching into it, it sounds pretty abysmal as well.

 

[DrWhozits]

Did you like it more or less than neuro? That’s what I feel like you should be asking.

OBGYN gets a bad rep for being a difficult lifestyle and a hard residency, but neuro is no walk in the park either. Obviously as an attending you can do mostly outpatient, but that may not scratch the itch for you.

Point being, just pick the thing you like. There is enough variability in lifestyles and work environments that you can find what you want.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

I did an OB residency and I am a dude. If you like the complexity of neuro, MFM may be a good fit, patients can be medically complex there are “mystery” illnesses, there is bread and butter preterm labor, you get to do procedures if you want, some are complex like helping out in fetal intervertions (though mostly your job is to get access via amino). The gig is pretty versatile you can be on L&D and run an antepartum service or you can just do straight consults and ultrasounds without any call; and everything in between. The pay check is also very very good.

Gyn onc, REI and FPMRS are the surgical specialties and IMO listed in order of decreasing headaches. Onc obviously has the sickest patients and longest surgeries, though you can find jobs that are reasonable. REI takes care of patients who are extremely anxious and you have to be in on weekends to do transfers and retrievals; FPMRS is my personal favorite has complex surgeries, all elective, generally the healthiest patients (wouldn’t do an elective surgery on an 80 yo u less they were at the peak of health), great outcomes, good pay, opportunity to be hired not just in gyn but also urology practices, lots of room to make big contributions academically since it’s still a newish field.

MIGS is right now not an ACGME approved specialty but just yesterday was approved by the ABMS for a focused practice designation and will probably be approved for a secondary certificate in a few years. Not sure what this will mean for General obgyn and surgery but what will probably happen is what’s happening in DR and IR with the new residency, slowly General Obgyns will stop doing surgery and you will need to do one of the surgical fellowships or the training paradigm of residency will change completely.

Income potential is not at all bad from generalist on up to the specialties, in many places; it won’t be ortho or neuro money though in some places Mfm can clear 500 or 600K, litigation is not as bad as people make it out to be,

All that being said obgyn residency is probably significantly harder than neuro residency (an assumption since I’ve never done a neuro residency), and fellowships are fairly competitive compared to other surgical specialty fellowships (match rates are between 70-85%). You can always do an L&D AI to see how you’d like it and speak with residents and attendings as above people have said.

 

[Dr. Death]

Just came off of my ob/gyn rotation (end of year 3), at a program that is known to be malignant, and yet I still enjoyed my rotation. What I liked the most was how varied the field can be, from procedures, to outpatient medicine, to surgery, to triage, and deliveries! Up until this moment, I was pretty certain I wanted to do neuro, but now I'm not so sure anymore. What gives re ob/gyn, besides what I've already researched? (i.e. long hours, poor pay, malpractice, etc.) Help me steer clear of this field, I don't want to change direction this late in the game!

The presentations I'm mostly whatever about (i.e. AUBs vs CVAs), meaning that I find the neuro ones more interesting, but the practice variety is what I'm really drawn to. I think I could really like gyn-onc, but that's a 4+3 type of scenario, correct? Way too long...And a surgeons lifestyle? Not sure I want to commit to surgery, I much prefer a life outside of medicine.


ps. I'm a dude.

Could you schedule an elective with a neuro or ob attending, preferably both? Seeing the residency side of any specialty makes it look worse than it actually is.

 

[Giovanotto]

Could you schedule an elective with a neuro or ob attending, preferably both? Seeing the residency side of any specialty makes it look worse than it actually is.

I already had a neuro rotation with two different attendings (in and out patient), and loved it. But that was at the beginning of the year. Since then, it's been mostly residency based clerkships.

 

[Frazier]

The breadth of the field is amazing both in regards to content and lifestyle.

While the underlying canvas is essentially always the same (the female body), you can do anything from creating life working derm-like hours (boutique REI, some hyperbole here), to performing complex palliative debulking surgeries to preserve quality of life working surgery hours (academic GynOnc).

The "problem" with the field rests largely in the culture during those 4 years of residency -- which depends primarily on the institution.

If you are convinced you want to do it, do it.

OBGYN, GS, and Neuro all work basically the same hours at my hospital... 75-80/week.

 

[Dr. Death]

I already had a neuro rotation with two different attendings (in and out patient), and loved it. But that was at the beginning of the year. Since then, it's been mostly residency based clerkships.

Could you do a rotation with an ob attending? I went through the same sort of identity crisis about a month ago after my Ob rotation. Did a rotation with an ob attending this month and it confirmed my decision to switch from IM.

 

[jhamaican]

only reason to go into ob/gyn is IVF.

 

[Giovanotto]

Could you do a rotation with an ob attending? I went through the same sort of identity crisis about a month ago after my Ob rotation. Did a rotation with an ob attending this month and it confirmed my decision to switch from IM.

This late in the game? It's gonna be really tough, especially with my VSAS already "set" for Neuro for next year. Don't think I have any other options though. Gotta really think about this. How competitive is ob/gyn vs neuro? Don't even have a single ob/gyn letter.....although I could probably scrape one along at this point. Crap, this is bad.

 

[Dr. Death]

This late in the game? It's gonna be really tough, especially with my VSAS already "set" for Neuro for next year. Don't think I have any other options though. Gotta really think about this. How competitive is ob/gyn vs neuro? Don't even have a single ob/gyn letter.....although I could probably scrape one along at this point. Crap, this is bad.

Apply some ob places on VSAS. Its fine to double book at this point in the game. Competitiveness is probably similar, letters are easily come by IMO. If you have the ability to shift around your may or june schedules for an ob elective that would help you a lot. You could come away with a letter or solidify your decision either way.