Women surgeons have been shown to reduce the risk of complications for their patients

Canadian researchers found that in the 90 days after surgery, both male and female patients treated by female surgeons had a 10% lower risk of complications like internal bleeding or infection compared to those treated by male surgeons for fractures, hip replacements, and heart problems.

Even up to a year after surgery, they had a reduced risk of being hospitalized due to complications. Doctors theorized that the disparity in findings among the study’s roughly 1.2 million patients was due to individuals’ differing responses to advice from male and female doctors.

Patients of all sexes were shown to be more inclined to disagree with male doctors than female doctors when they were given advise on weight loss, exercise, and diet.

In a different study, men surgeons were shown to be more efficient, with significantly lower operating times for procedures like gallbladder removal.

There has been a steady rise in the percentage of male doctors over the past few decades. According to the Canadian study, female doctors were more likely to see younger patients with less risk factors.

The research team examined data from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, which pays for surgical procedures in Ontario, Canada, and published their findings in JAMA Surgery.

Each patient was admitted for one of twenty-five different procedures that are either routinely scheduled or unexpectedly required. Patients were followed for up to a year to record any unfavorable outcomes such as mortality, readmission, or postoperative complications such excessive bleeding.

Researchers discovered that more than a million patients (about 90%) were treated by male physicians. There were primarily female patients (60%), with a mean age of 59.

Within the first three months following surgery, 14.3 percent of patients experienced at least one problem. By the following year, 25% had experienced some sort of problem. Additionally, 2% of patients passed away within the first 90 days after surgery, and 4% did so within the first year.

The study indicated that among patients who had a male surgeon, 146,000 (14.5%) experienced a complication within 90 days and 261,000 (25.1%) experienced a complication within a year.

In contrast, 19,000 (12.6%) of patients who had a female surgeon experienced complications within three months. There were 29,000 people (19%) who experienced a postoperative medical issue within a year of their operation.

Gender, age, year performed, patient’s and surgeon’s socioeconomic position, and other variables were taken into account in the analysis. Patients with male doctors had a 25% higher risk of dying within a year compared to those with female doctors.

However, they hypothesized that this was because male surgeons were more likely to treat elderly patients with many health problems. Male physicians saw patients who were, on average, 60 years old, and 20% had multiple chronic conditions.

The average age of a female surgeon’s patients was 52, and 17% of them had multiple chronic conditions. Urologist Dr. Christopher Wallis of the University of Toronto and colleagues noted in their paper, “While technical competence is associated with short-term surgical results, other factors, particularly patient selection, may contribute more profoundly to longer-term patient outcomes.

Previous research has indicated that female and male doctors interact differently with patients and have distinct communication and practice styles. We hypothesize that these variations, in addition to variations in practice, may contribute more significantly to longer-term patient outcomes.

The majority of female physicians, according to the data, practiced either general surgery or obstetrics and gynecology. Male physicians were overrepresented in the fields of general surgery and orthopedics. Previous research has also demonstrated that male physicians are more productive than their female counterparts.

Female physicians made less money and saw fewer patients, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2020. It was also stated that they invested more time into providing direct patient care during each visit, daily, and annually.