Here’s a reason to choose a female doctor … If you're a woman hospitalized with a serious condition, you will have less of a risk of dying if your doctor is also a woman. That's according to a new study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study looked at hospitalized men and women ages 65 and older and found that 8.15% of women treated by female physicians died within 30 days, compared with 8.38% of women treated by male physicians. It's a small gap, but researchers noted that the small gap could represent 5000 women who could have potentially been saved by a female doctor.
Men in the study showed no difference based on the gender of the doctor. Experts believe that male doctors may underestimate illnesses in women. Also, female doctors may be better at communicating with women patients, and help alleviate any embarrassment women patients may have about their condition.