--- title: Researchers Find Women Make Better Surgeons Than Men description: People fared better when they were operated on by a female surgeon, a new study finds. canonical: https://time.com/4975232/women-surgeon-surgery/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-10T22:30:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:04.148Z article:section: Health og:title: Researchers Find Women Make Better Surgeons Than Men og:description: People fared better when they had a female surgeon, a new study finds og:url: https://time.com/4975232/women-surgeon-surgery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4689d11ddf8b982/6988e11e7cdbacb62ad5a668/gettyimages-530685035.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: Close-up of surgeon putting on surgical gloves in operating theater og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers Find Women Make Better Surgeons Than Men twitter:description: People fared better when they had a female surgeon, a new study finds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4689d11ddf8b982/6988e11e7cdbacb62ad5a668/gettyimages-530685035.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Researchers Find Women Make Better Surgeons Than Men > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: FIRSTS Patricia Bath [Watch (HLS stream): FIRSTS Patricia Bath](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PpnQZzo6.m3u8) (2:50)  _Published 2017-09-02. Patricia Bath is the FIRST person to invent and demonstrate laserphaco cataract surgery._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 10, 2017 10:30 PM UTC  Caiaimage/Martin Barraud—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 10, 2017 10:30 PM UTC If you had a choice between going under the knife with a female surgeon or a male surgeon, which would you choose? Would your surgeon’s gender even make a difference? In a new [study published in the _BMJ_](http://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j4366), researchers asked that very question. Surgery has long been a male-dominated occupation: first because few women enrolled in medical school, and then because they weren’t perceived (by male surgeons, no less) to have the temperament needed to make the life-and-death decisions required in an OR. But in the latest report, it turns out that the patients of female surgeons tend to have lower death rates, fewer complications and lower readmissions to the hospital a month after their procedure, compared to the patients of male surgeons. The study included all of the people in Ontario, Canada who had operations from 2007 to 2015 (more than 104,000, in total) as well as their surgeons. Dr. Raj Satkunasivam, assistant professor of urology at Houston Methodist Hospital and leader of the study, and his colleagues went to great lengths to equalize the comparisons between the male and female surgeons. Since surgery is a field in which experience can lead to better outcomes, they matched the surgeons by age and experience. They also matched the patients of each surgeon as much as possible to account for the fact that some surgeons might have had more difficult and complicated cases. Even after those adjustments, patients of female surgeons were 4% less likely to die, be readmitted or experience complications 30 days after their surgery compared to patients of male surgeons. **MORE:** [Women Doctors Are Paid $20,000 Less Than Male Doctors](http://time.com/4398888/doctors-gender-wage-gap/) This is not the first time a study has found that a doctor’s gender may influence patient outcomes. In a [study earlier this year](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2593255), other researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health looked at a group of patients seeing general internists and found that those with female doctors tended to have lower death rates and were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days than those with male doctors. The authors attribute the favorable patient outcomes to the female doctors’ ability to communicate and engage with their patients to ensure compliance with medications and therapy, their adeptness at collaborating with colleagues and their tendency to adhere to guidelines when treating patients. But there have not been many studies looking at the role of gender in surgery outcomes, so it’s not clear why the patients of female surgeons might do better than those of male surgeons. The same factors that might contribute to female internists having better outcomes for their patients could also play a role among surgeons. But there are likely other contributors involved as well, since surgery is typically dependent on the skill of the surgeon and his or her ability to assess a person’s likelihood of surviving or developing complications. **MORE:** [7 Female Doctors Speak Out About Racism and Sexism During Airplane Emergencies](http://time.com/4538567/female-doctor-medical-emergency-airline-racism-sexism/) One such factor, Satkunasivam says, is that generally only the very best women at the craft become practicing surgeons. Because surgery has traditionally been a male-dominated field in medicine, the female surgeons operating now have likely had to overcome higher barriers in order to rule the operating room. Therefore, the female surgeons in the study may have been a select group of the gender’s best. Still, the data are compelling enough that they deserve to be repeated and investigated further. “If we really believe that the differences we saw among male and female surgeons is true, then what we need to do is better understand what actually is driving those differences,” says Satkunasivam. “Once we understand those differences, we can potentially apply them to train surgeons better, and instill those qualities in all surgeons to improve outcomes for everyone.” In the meantime, he says, gender shouldn’t be a factor in deciding which surgeon should be in charge of your next operation. “You should select a surgeon based on the rapport you have with him or her, what your family physician recommends, and the research you do,” says Satkunasivam. “You should be equally confident with a male or female surgeon.” ## Transcript People will look at you and they'll try and define you, whether you're a woman, whether you're young. They'll try and cabin off what you are able to do. But people can only do that if you let them. And so, I always viewed my job as defining myself. If we are in a meeting, we're there for a reason. Not to just sit there and absorb. If you are only there, not speaking, you kind of create the impression that you're not prepared to be there. You need to participate and you need to know what you're talking about. You can ask a man to do a job that he's never been qualified to do, and he will raise his hand and say absolutely, I will do that job. Women always say, I'm not sure if I'm ready yet, I need more experience. I don't necessarily know that there's anything wrong with being more cautious and careful. I mean, why have we come to decide that being brash and overly aggressive should be the way we are? But, we should also know that we're not going to feel any wiser or any more ready. In ten years that we didn't ten years ago, so we might as well just leap. There is a lot of perception of, my gosh, it's really hard because of the gender. What are you gonna do about that? Just not do it? If you wanna do something, you just do it and then hope that people catch up to you For girls that are going to be playing in little league, anything could happen. You could be up by ten runs and you could lose the game, so stay focused, make sure you play as a team, and hopefully you hit a home run cuz no girls ever hit a home run. And I'll be cheering for you. You'll never make everyone happy, so you just have to be exactly who it is that you are, and at least know that you've been true to yourself. It's about attitude, aptitude and opportunity. Who knew I would be here? But it all started with folks that thought I had a good attitude. To put me in places that challenged me and then provided me opportunities because I met and exceeded the standard. You often don't realize people want you want you to succeed and they often have good solutions, both practical and in terms of thinking of opportunities for you, and the other thing is, I think it's not too bad, To have periods of great intensity doing one thing or the other. Meryl Streep once said, every successful woman's life has its ebbs and flows. Know your power. Know the power of your intellect, of your values and your committment, the courage you have. And don't let anybody trivialize. How you have spent your years. All of them have contributed to making a very unique and special person. Just take joy. Don't let anyone discourage you from that thing that you love the most. It's more about making life Their making a living, that's what matters. 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