Female patients want female endoscopists

Filed in archive Studies on August 3, 2005

Not surprisingly, many women want a female endoscopist for their colonoscopy. Unfortunately GI is a pretty male-dominated specialty:

The study included about 200 women who were waiting in their doctors' offices for primary care appointments. The women were about 53 years old, on average. Most were white, employed, had attended or graduated from college, and had high incomes.

In anonymous surveys, 43% indicated they wanted a female colonoscopist. Of those women, 87% stated that they would wait more than 30 days for a female colonoscopist, and 14% stated that they were willing to pay more for a female doctor.

How much more were those women willing to pay? Up to $200 as an out-of-pocket expense, write the researchers.

Of the women who preferred a female colonoscopist, a few (5%) declared that they wouldn't get a colonoscopy unless they were guaranteed to get a female doctor.

(Hitti, "Many Women Want Female Doctor for Colonoscopy", WebMD, Aug.3)