Women who are operated on by a male surgeon are more likely to die and experience other problems than women who perform the procedure.
A study of 1.3 million patients found that women are 15% more likely to suffer a bad outcome and 32% more likely to die if a man carries out the surgery.
The findings have sparked a debate about the fact that surgery in the UK remains a hugely male-dominated area of medicine and claims that implicit sex biases among male surgeons may help explain why women are at such greater risk when they have an operation.
Female patients treated by male surgeons had a 15% greater odds of worse outcomes than female patients treated by female surgeons, according to a study by the University of Toronto.
This result has real-world medical consequences for female patients and results in more hospital stays and deaths for females compared with males.
In our paper, we showed that we are failing some female patients and that some are unnecessarily falling through the cracks with adverse consequences.
The findings have been published.
There should be no sex difference in patient outcomes regardless of the surgeon.
The results are troubling. When a female surgeon operates, patient outcomes are generally better, particularly for women, even after adjusting for differences in chronic health status, age and other factors.
The records of 1,320,108 patients in Ontario who underwent 21 common surgical procedures were analysed by Jerath and her colleagues. Hip and knee replacements, weight loss surgery, removal of an appendix or gall bladder, and more complicated operations were just some of the procedures that were performed.
They analysed the sex of each patient and the sex of the surgeon who carried it out for each 1.3 million operations.
Men who had an operation had the same outcomes regardless of their surgeon being male or female. If the procedure had been performed by a female surgeon, women would have had better outcomes. There were no gender differences in how men and women were operated on.
While there are some excellent male surgeons who consistently have good outcomes, what is concerning is that this analysis does signal some real difference among male and female surgeons overall where practice can impact general patient outcomes.
The study was the first of its kind to look at the sex of the patient, the sex of their surgeon and the outcomes of surgery. They looked at three types of adverse outcomes after surgery.
They found that women who were treated by a male surgeon were more likely to have a poor outcome than women who were treated by a female surgeon. Men did not experience any differences in their treatment by a male or female surgeon.
Women who were operated on by a male surgeon had a 32% higher risk of death than women who had their surgery done by a woman. When a female surgeon is involved, fewer than 1% of women who had a cardiothoracic operation with a male surgeon die. The proportion of women who died after having brain surgery and vascular surgery with a male surgeon was much lower than the proportion of women who died with a female surgeon.
Female patients were 20% more likely to have to stay in the hospital longer and had a 16% greater risk of having a problem.
Women had a higher risk of death when a man performed an operation across many types of surgery.
18% of women who had surgery by a female surgeon had an adverse reaction, compared to 22% of women who had surgery by a male surgeon. The same pattern was seen in surgery.
Technical differences between male and female surgeons are not likely to explain the findings.
She said that implicit sex biases may be one explanation. She said that differences in communication and skills between men and women may be a factor. There are differences between male and female physician work styles.
The vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England said that most of the surgeons in Britain were men.
Surgery is still a long way from having a gender balance in its workforce. She said that women make up 41% of early stage surgeons, but only 30% of higher trainees and 14% of consultants. A lack of flexibility in surgical training schedules, negative attitudes to less than full-time training, and parenthood all explain why many women don't become consultant surgeons.
Many women surgeons have been put off surgery because of historical "microaggressions", according to a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. Female patients may feel more at ease talking to a female surgeon before an operation, and INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals
Senior surgeons, nurses, administrators and patients are thought to be the reason why female medical students or young doctors don't want to pursue a career in surgery.
She said that having more female surgeons would improve outcomes.
The findings were interesting according to the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Communication, trust and doctor-patient relationships need more detailed research.
