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Jana Barrett is a freelance writer specializing in health, wellness and lifestyle content.
About the Author
Jana Barrett is a freelance writer specializing in health, wellness and lifestyle content.
Note: references to "female", "male", "women", and "men" in this article refer to sex assigned at birth, not gender.
Women’s healthcare has drastically improved over the years. Although there’s a lot of work to be done, we’re reflecting on how females are slowly but surely changing the field of urology. Some people prefer a female doctor, others a male doctor, and some are indifferent. The important thing is that people have options when it comes to health decisions.
When you look at transitions in women’s health, the field of obstetrics and gynecology has come a long way, in terms of gender disparities. In 1970, 7% of gynecologists were female. Compare that to today, about 86.4% of Ob/Gyn residents are female (1).
But about females in urology? The common misconception is that a gynecologist is to a vagina as a urologist is to a penis, and that urology mostly covers issues related to the penis: prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction, vasectomies, reproductive concerns, or urinary tract complications.
But “It’s not all male genitalia!” as Dr. Leslie Rickey, a practicing urologist and associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine, told NPR. "It's the kidneys and the urinary tract. And as you may or may not be aware, there are a lot of women leaking urine out there." (2).
People with vaginas need to see urologists too, and it really helps if that urologist is a woman. Female urologists are nothing new, so it’s important to give credit to the ones who have paved the way. So, who were these badasses who gave the middle finger to patriarchal standards in the name of women’s health? Allow us to explain...
Picture this: It’s the late 1800’s. The industrial revolution has propelled females into the working force. Females want to pursue careers in medicine and healing, however, powerful men in top hats and tailcoats say things like “for their own sake, it was not desirable that they should pursue some of the studies necessary such as anatomy." (3)
That was just the beginning for females in medical school. Students were seperated based on gender. Feamles were not allowed to dissect male genitalia and were instead given a castrated papier-mache model which “could not lead them sexually astray.” They were only looking out for us! Right...?
But there were pioneers who led the way to Females entering and excelling in urology. Here are some of the stars.
1980: Society of Women in Urology informally begins at the American Urology Association meeting when “five female urologists met for breakfast to discuss their experiences and frustrations.” (4)
1985: The Urology department at the University of California, Irvine reported that there are just 22 females in the field in the US (3).
1992: The Society of Women in Urology establishes an executive board and bylaws.
2008: The Society of Women in Urology has more than 300 members, and an estimated 20% of urologists in training are now female.
2015: Urology still has a large gender disparity – just 7.7% of all practicing urologists are female (5).
2018: The State of the Urology Workforce and Practice in the United States reports that approximately 78% and 63% of practicing urologists reported their practices made efforts to hire females and underrepresented minorities, respectively (6).
2019: 25% of urology trainees are females (4).
The American Urological Association published that while the urologic workforce in the United States is predominantly male, the percentage of female urologists is on the rise (4). Furthermore, the 2019 Urology Residency Match results show a record-high of 83% of females applying have matched to urology residency positions (7). Let’s hope they’ll be practicing on actual humans instead of castrated paper-mache dummies!
2020: The American Urological Association published its 2019 census and reported out of the total 13,044 practicing urologists in the United States, the number of female urologists grew to 1,286 which is 9.9% of the total workforce. This is an increase from 2015 with just 7.7% of urologists being female. A higher proportion of female urologists were seen in younger age groups as a result of the increase in urology trainees. With this trend, we can only expect the percentage of female urologists to rise and start to balance the scales!
2021: The American Urological Association 2020 census reported 10.9% of practicing urologists in the United States are female
2022: The American Urological Association 2021 census reported 11.6% of practicing urologists in the United States are female.
Sources
Acgme residents and fellows by sex and specialty, 2021. AAMC. (n.d.). https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/workforce/data/acgme-residents-fellows-sex-and-specialty-2021
Rutsch, P. Why the urologist is usually a man, but maybe not for long. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/04/29/402850925/why-the-urologist-is-usually-a-man-but-maybe-not-for-long?t=1572362649170
WOMEN IN UROLOGY: A SPLASH IN THE PAN. Gold Journal. (n.d.). https://www.goldjournal.net/article/0090-4295(85)90580-1/pdf
About Society of Women in Urology, https://swiu.org/about.aspx
Cox, A., & Siemens, D. R. (n.d.). Continued gender disparity in urology? only time will tell. Canadian Urological Association Journal. https://cuaj.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/6519
AUA Annual Census. (n.d.). https://www.auanet.org/research-and-data/aua-census
2019 urology residency match day results released. American Urological Association MediaRoom. (n.d.). http://auanet.mediaroom.com/2019-01-18-2019-Urology-Residency-Match-Day-Results-Released#assets_all