A report from the Los Angeles Times is highlighting the diminishing amount of male doctors in the gynecology field.
In 1970, only seven percent of gynecologists were women. Now, over 59 percent of gynecologists are women. According to a Los Angeles Times report from Wednesday, some doctors are concerned that males may be wiped out from gynecology altogether. As of 2018, 82 percent of residents in training for gynecology are female.
A 19-year-old gynecology patient told the Los Angeles Times that she refuses to see a male doctor. “He touched me and I immediately lost it,” said the patient said. “As soon as I had to spread my legs, I was in a really vulnerable place, and I did not want to be in that position with a male.”
Some top doctors argue that men are receiving a new message that they aren’t as welcome as females in the gynecology world. Dr. Carl Smith, the head of the OB-GYN department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, says that men who have an interest in the OB-GYN department are in for a bit of a roadblock.
“It sends a horrible message to men who might have a nascent interest in OB-GYN that’s promptly quashed,” Smith said.
Carol Weissman an OB-GYN professor at Penn State made the argument it seems like some are saying that the field needs men to be sure that the field has the best possible people. “It seems to me that there’s some residual sexism in that view, that we need men to be sure that we’re training the best possible people for our specialty. I find that very odd,” Weissman said.
As of 2018, there are more women than men enrolled in medical school.
Females represented 50.7% of the 21,338 matriculants (new enrollees) in 2017, compared with 49.8% in 2016. Female matriculants increased by 3.2% this year, while male matriculants declined by 0.3%. Since 2015, the number of female matriculants has grown by 9.6%, while the number of male matriculants has declined by 2.3%.
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