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Local female physicians are honoring national women's month by discussing the importance of female representation for providers and their patients.
"Women tend to direct a lot of the health care in their family," said Dr. Susan Branton, M.D., Breast Health Center, UPMC in North Central Pa said. "Whether it be for their kids, whether it be for their parents, whether it be for their husband -- they're facilitators, sort of identifying when their family members are having issues and then getting them to the right care," she added.
"Some women appreciate having the ability to have a female provider especially depending on if it's a sensitive area of care. I think they really appreciate having that opportunity. And I think sometimes they feel just a level of comfort addressing any kind of issues with another female sometimes rather than with a male position," Branton said.
According to Branton, communication between patients and their providers is one of the key steps in receiving prime healthcare.
"I think it's really important that they find a provider that they're comfortable with, that they can communicate with well, and that the communication is easy. And the responses they're looking for, whether it's lab results, or whether it's just a question on medication or something like that, it has to be timely," said Branton. "It's important to look around. There's many providers out there, and it's just finding that right fit and the one that clicks," she added.
Finding a provider for women's healthcare with appropriate specialty is another key factor in experiencing the best care possible, according to Dr. Natasha Alligood-Percoco, M.D., OB/GYN, UPMC in North Central Pa.
"OB-GYN is an evolving specialty. Like many medical specialties, it's become more specialized in recent years -- For example, if you have infertility, you may see an infertility specialist. If you have a high risk pregnancy, you may see a maternal fetal medicine specialist," Alligood-Percoco said. "I want my patients to know that they really do have a right to shop around and to find a surgeon to meet their needs regardless of the circumstance and that even being in a small town or being in a more rural area like the north central region of the state, they can get access to the most highly skilled physicians and surgeons to meet their care," she added.
According to the doctors, there are some challenges involved in being a woman in the medical field.
For Alligood-Percoco, one of these challenges is maintaining a balance between family home life and professional life in medicine.
"My primary challenge as a woman was being the only mother in my class and my medical school. I was in a class of about 150 students and was the only mother," Alligood-Percoco said. "This really goes back to the unbalanced domestic responsibilities that we still face, even as physicians even as medical students, women tend to take on more responsibilities at home, which is why I think mothers were so underrepresented in my medical school and in every medical school, whereas fathers you know, had a little bit of an easier time pursuing that difficult training pathway," she added.
With time, women have become more likely to pursue a profession in medicine.
"Now compared to 10 or 20 years ago, women are actually making up more than half of medical school enrollees, which is a huge change," Alligood-Percoco said. "Still, we see that women going into surgical specialties are not quite matching up to the rate of men going into those surgical specialties. Looking at data from the American Association of Medical Colleges, this is 2017 data, they actually made up less than a quarter of 10 surgical specialties, and were the least represented in orthopedic surgeries," she added.
"OBGYN is the only field where women continue to outnumber men at 57%. So even though women are making tremendous strides in the field of medicine and in medical school enrollment, we continue to lag behind in terms of entering surgical specialties," Alligood-Percoco said.
According to Dr. Alligood-Percoco, this could be due to the unbalanced domestic responsibilities that women face.
"Women who choose to have families, you really have to delay your childbearing," Alligood-Percoco said. "Oftentimes in order to get your medical training and surgical residency training, programs tend to be longer in duration or greater number of years. They also require a greater number of hours per week -- legally we have to average about 80 hours a week or less in our residency training program," she added.
"For a woman who has already delayed her childbearing into her 30s, that can be very much an uphill struggle which is not very compatible with family life. So I think the key to getting more women men in surgery has to do with, you know, being supportive of the family unit and the family demands that women face," Alligood-Percoco said.
The doctors have seen growth and improvement for female representation during their time in the medical field.
"I think over time, I've seen a lot of improvements," Branton said. "When I first started my surgical residency, I was the only female in the program. I really didn't have any major issues with that. I really felt like I was treated respectfully by my peers and by my attendings, but it was a little intimidating at first," she added.
"The surgery residency is five years so as time progressed, and the upcoming classes did seem to have more female representation which was nice to see for me," Branton said.
"I've been very fortunate, I have not had any terrible issues ever fitting in or feeling like I wasn't being treated effectively by peers," Branton said. "I think part of that is how you present yourself to a degree. If you're confident in your ability and able to present yourself well and in a good light, I think people receive that well. Even people who maybe don't start out thinking of you that way. As long as you go in with a positive attitude and let them know that you're qualified and you know you are very good at what you do. I think then people respect that," she added.
According to Dr. Alligood-Percoco, it's important for women who are at the beginning of their profession in medicine to find a mentor.
"Myself and Dr. Hagler, who is our medical director -- she's another female surgeon here. We have really committed ourselves to men providing mentorship, specifically of local female students and aspiring female physicians," Alligood-Percoco said.
"Because women in surgery are so underrepresented and rural students in general men and women, rural students who are severely underrepresented in medicine. So it is a passion of ours to kind of help these students and to bring them into the fold and expose them to surgery and to labor delivery as well as to the office setting and to provide a longitudinal mentorship relationship, because we know that that is going to really improve their perspective on their future career choices as well as improve their likelihood of making it," she added.
"If you find the field that you are most passionate about, passionate about getting into, then you shouldn't let things stop you from achieving that goal. And life goals like that nowadays are very achievable," Branton said.