Women Patients Opt For Female Ob-Gyns

Obstetrician-gynecologist Martha Bouza delivered homemaker Shawn Gatto’s first child two years ago. Bouza will also deliver Gatto’s twins, due soon.

Gatto, 34, explains why she has sought only female OB-GYN specialists for the past 15 years: “I feel like they’re more empathetic with their patients. They can understand more than a male can understand about female hormones and everything that goes on with us. I talk to a lot of women who prefer female doctors, too.”

Patients like Gatto who look exclusively to female doctors are benefiting from a trend: As the number of female physicians skyrockets, so has the number of female OB-GYNS.

In 1980, for example, women comprised about 12 percent of all OB-GYN specialists, according to the American Medical Association. But by 1993, nearly 26 percent were women.

Obstetrics and gynecology have traditionally proven popular with female doctors. In addition, they remain concentrated in pediatrics, family practice, internal medicine, anesthesiology, general practice and psychiatry. Among first-year OB-GYN medical residents nationwide in 1994, nearly 60 percent were women. They comprised only 33 percent in 1980, according to the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Benefiting from the change are patients who want choice.

“Women OB-GYNs are extremely, extremely desirable,” said Paul Gluck, an OB-GYN who’s incoming president of the Dade County Medical Association. “Many women prefer to see a woman OB-GYN.”

Whereas female OB-GYNs find their schedules “full from Day One,” Gluck said males typically take longer to build their medical practices.

At Baptist Hospital of Miami, patients spelling out their doctor wish list to the hospital’s referral service sometimes request physicians who are proficient in certain languages or practice in particular neighborhoods. Some also request either a man or a woman, said spokeswoman Jo Baxter. About a fourth specifically ask for a female physician.

Of course, just the opposite can be true. “Some of the patients we talked to don’t feel comfortable with a woman OB-GYN and want a man,” said Peter Dandalides, medical director for CIGNA HealthCare, a Miami Lakes-based HMO.

“But some patients prefer their care be rendered by a woman,” he said. “I certainly think there is a trend in that direction.”

According to a 1990 report in the Journal of Family Practice, 43 percent of women and 31 percent of men requested a family doctor of the same sex. But when the exams required were of a more intimate nature, 57 percent of the women and 64 percent of the men preferred the same sex.

Some studies suggest there may be differences in how male and female physicians practice. In a 1991 survey of about 1,200 of its members, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that female OB-GYNs who responded performed 45 percent fewer hysterectomies than the male specialists.

And a 1993 study in the Journal of Medical Care reported that women cared for by female doctors of all specialties were less likely to have missed Pap tests or mammograms.

Younger OB-GYNs may also have been exposed to newer treatment methods, and since many consumers want doctors attuned to the latest developments, patients might tend to choose younger, female OB-GYNs.

The certainty is that there are more women stampeding to medical school and coming up through the ranks.

At the University of Miami Medical School in 1985, two of the 11 incoming OB-GYN residents were female. A decade later, four of nine were women.

While most female physicians earn 30 percent less than their male counterparts, only OB-GYN specialists are paid salaries even close to what the men make, according to the February edition of Medical Economics magazine.

With a median net income of $194,300, the magazine said, female OB-GYN specialists earn only 1 percent less than their male counterparts.

Today’s newly minted female OB-GYN one who has completed a residency program but probably lacks a patient following - typically commands between $160,000 and $185,000, said Judith Berger. She’s president of MDR Associates, a health care consulting and physician recruitment firm in Miami that recruits and places doctors nationwide.

Female OB-GYNs “can really write their own ticket,” Berger said.