Do women seeking care from obstetrician–gynaecologists prefer to see a female or a male doctor?

Abstract

Purpose To examine whether women seeking care from obstetrician-gynaecologists prefer to see a female or a male doctor or have no preference. Methods Five hundred consecutive women attending gynaecology and antenatal clinics were asked to complete a survey questionnaire containing 12 items requiring opinion on whether they want to be seen by a female or male obstetrician-gynaecologist or have no preference. It also contained questions regarding their reasons for the stated preference. Results Of the consecutive 500 patients that were given the questionnaire, 435 responded (87% response rate). Two hundred and twenty-Wve patients had no preference, 194 patients preferred female obstetrician-gynaecologist and 16 patients preferred male obstetrician-gynaecologist. The reasons stated by women who preferred to see a female doctor were as follows: religious beliefs-5%, understands problems better-48%, unspeciWed reasons-6%, issues of personal modesty-41%. All 16 women who preferred to see a male doctor stated the reason as 'understands problems better' (100%). Conclusions The majority of women expressed no preference to either gender of their obstetrician and gynaecologists, but signiWcant proportion of the remainder would prefer to see a female doctor when given the choice. Although women gave a variety of subjective reasons for this, demographically it appears that women who are less educated with lower income and being non-white are more likely to prefer to see a female doctor.

Obstetricians and gynecologists: Which characteristics do Israeli lesbians prefer?

“…The responses to the current questionnaire survey on 100 lesbians and 100 heterosexual women demonstrated both gender‐based and specific character‐based preferences of Israeli lesbian women. The finding that lesbians significantly prefer female obstetricians/gynecologists compared to heterosexuals is basically similar to other publications that found gender preference for female obstetricians/gynecologists . However, in the present study only 56% of the lesbians preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists while other populations, including Muslims and other Israeli minority groups, such as Arabs and ultra‐orthodox Jewish women, exhibited much higher percentages (>70%).…”

“…The finding that lesbians significantly prefer female obstetricians/gynecologists compared to heterosexuals is basically similar to other publications that found gender preference for female obstetricians/ gynecologists. 38,39,42,43,47,48,50 However, in the present study only 56% of the lesbians preferred female 38,39 exhibited much higher percentages (>70%). Interestingly, we found an unexpected similarity between the lesbian and heterosexual responders; in both populations, more of them showed a preference for a female obstetrician/gynecologist versus a gender preference for a family physician.…”

Surgical trends in the correction of female stress urinary incontinence in academic centers within the United States

“…Another possibility to consider are gender biases that patients have for their providers. Although many survey studies conducted in OB/GYN clinics show a majority of women do not have a preference of provider gender, of the remaining patients, only 2–8% favored a male provider, whereas 30% favored a female provider. Perhaps accordingly, there has been a large shift in the gynecology community toward training female providers—a shift that has not occurred quite as significantly among urologists (90% American Urological Association members being male in March 2015).…”

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“…1 Individual studies have reported various rates for the patients' Ob-Gyn gender preferences, as well as for the factors or motives underlying the patients'responses. [2][3][4] Moreover, gender restriction also occurs regarding student participation in Gynecology consultations, as other articles have mentioned. The bias regarding the involvement of the medical students seems multifaceted and could affect the students' perceptions of the specialty.…”