Women in Medicine – Celebrating National Women Physicians Day

Inhonor of National Women Physicians Day on February 3rd and Women’s History Month, the ACCMA invited female physician members to share their experiences in their personal journeys through medicine, as well as the impact of the transition to a field that supports women physicians and women in leadership. We were joined by Doctors Aileen Murphy, a general bariatric surgeon; Irene Lo, a general surgeon; and Elaine Lee, a fellowshiptrained breast surgical oncologist.

Importance Of Early Experiences

Pursuing a career in medicine is challenging for people of all backgrounds, but it goes without saying that those raised in a supportive environment are most likely to succeed. All three interviewees shared a commonality in their childhoods and young adulthoods: being raised by supportive parents who instilled in them that the sky was the limit and that their identity as a woman should not be a limitation to the success they would find.

Dr. Murphy was raised by a father who advised her to pursue medicine because she would have more success in medicine breaking down stereotypes as compared to engineering, which was her field of interest in undergrad. Eventually, after her father passed away, she ended up choosing medicine over engineering. Dr. Lo shared, “I call my mother my ‘Shero’”, because she never let her gender hold her back. Her mother was the first female director of Environmental Health in Alameda County. Her husband is a supportive stay-at-home dog dad and these non-traditional gender roles have allowed her to find success. Dr. Lee mentioned not realizing the challenges she may face in medicine as a woman, she stated “It didn’t hit me until my boyfriend’s family told me ‘You shouldn’t be a surgeon, you should be a stay-at-home mom. Why are you putting yourself through medical school?’”. At that point she realized the stigma many women face around pursuing medicine.

In residency, the interviewees shared a similar experience in which their respective class consisted of majority women and overall residency programs had more women than ever before. They often heard sentiments of how impressive it was that there was an increase in women in the field, which put it into perspective how much times were changing. In one case, Dr. Lo shared, “the chief residents didn’t know what to do with us. They were worried we would all be emotional and not able to cut it”. Supportive mentors aided them in succeeding despite the barriers and helped shape them into the physicians they are today.

Motherhood As A Physician

Becoming a mother can create a significant amount of stress as female physicians navigate caring for their child and their patients simultaneously. To meet the demands of working in medicine, many female physicians delay pregnancy until after residency and fellowship, leaving them needing to explore options such as surrogacy or IVF to be able to have the family they want and deserve. Additionally, there is a lot of female guilt around having to take maternity leave. It’s no surprise that maternity leave puts stress on a program, but a supportive one will know that this is just a part of life and prepare for those changes, not only maternity leave but making time for mothers needing to breastfeed and pump.

Dr. Murphy shared her experience as a mother, being pregnant with her first daughter during residency and having to go straight from rounding to the delivery room. She had preeclampsia and was told to be on bed rest, but she refused in order to keep up with the demands as a resident. With maternity leave, she worried that she wouldn’t graduate from the program if she didn’t plan ahead of time and pull in more cases. No matter what, she felt guilty leaving the program for maternity leave. Coming back to practice presented its own challenges to accommodate and plan for the needs of a child. She stated, “When I look back on it, I had to have been delirious to go through something like that. It was very stressful”.

From Inequity To Equity

In the East Bay, advancing equity in healthcare has been at the forefront of the conversation for some time. Of course, equity for female physicians is not the same in every city, state, or country. Looking at Epic Care and local hospitals, the interviewees shared that their male counterparts do not get paid more for the same work, but they are generally able to work more than their female counterparts who may have to tend to children or other responsibilities, and therefore are able to generate higher income. This is where salary inequities come from. Moreover, more women are being advanced into positions of leadership, one interviewee noting that the CEO at Epic Care is a female physician. As more continued on page 14 practices become forward-thinking, women will be given greater opportunities to advance into leadership positions and contribute the female voice to the conversation.

Strengths Of Female Physicians

As we see an increase in the number of women in medicine, it is vital that we notice the positive impact being treated by a female physician may have on patients. Just as patients may feel more comfortable being treated by a physician of the same race, many female patients feel more comfortable being treated by a female physician.

Interestingly, one interviewee shared several studies exhibiting that in some cases female physicians spend more time with their patients per visit than their male counterparts1, patients have better post-operative outcomes when treated by female surgeons2, and patients treated by female physicians had lower mortality and readmission rates3. Another interview shared a story of a friend – a surgeon on a team of two females and four males – treating a patient with diabetic foot. The friend stated that she and her female counterpart spent significant time thinking of ways to salvage the foot, whereas all four male surgeons suggested amputation as the primary solution. As the practice of medicine becomes more diverse, one of the greatest benefits is using the diversity of backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences to care for patients.

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?

As the population in the U.S. grows more diverse, medicine must adjust to consider outcomes for patients of different backgrounds. One change that needs to come is physician education to provide better care for female patients of color. The mortality rate for Black women in pregnancy is much higher than any other race or ethnicity. From an oncological standpoint, Dr. Lee has noticed that Black women get mammograms later in their disease state. One primary solution is to educate physicians about screening for breast cancer and genetic testing earlier to prevent disease progression.

Overall progress is being made and we must continue to have these conversations, being transparent so that patients feel comfortable and trust their physicians. The interviewees shared that young millennial physicians have a different approach to providing care and within 20-30 years, medicine will change. They are excited and interested to see how future female physicians change the practice of medicine.

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