If you are a woman planning to have surgery, it pays to filter your choices down due to services, your doctor’s recommendations, reviews, reputation, and now: if that surgeon is female.
A new study by esteemed medical journal JAMA Surgery reports women to have 32 percent better outcomes if their surgeon is female. In the s study, JAMA found women patients have significantly lower complications; fewer re-admissions post-surgery and 32 percent less death.
This study clearly shows numerous profound benefits for you to go to a female surgeon. In the study, men also experienced notable better outcomes if their surgeon is female.
However, the Association of American Colleges reports as of 2019, US women surgeons only make up 22 percent of all general surgeons.
Scientists revisited a 2017 study showing these results and then focused on the records of over 1.3 million patients and 2, 937 surgeons, only for common, not rare, surgeries between 2017 to 2019. The new study considered the outcomes of both males and females post-surgery, for anything from hip replacement to heart bypasses and more.
The data was significant, showing women who had a male surgeon experienced a 32 percent higher rate of death than others who had a female surgeon.
Data also showed women had longer hospital stays with a 16 percent chance of complications, plus an 11 percent risk of re-hospitalization if their surgeon was male.
To read the abstract or full study, visit Jamentwork.com, and enter the title of the study, ‘Association of Surgeon-Patient Sex Concordance with Postoperative Outcomes’.
More studies are ongoing on the gender impact of surgeons on their patients.