New research shows that a double helping of ‘surgical sexism’ impacts surgeons and their patients.
Surgeons treating women patients earn less than surgeons treating men for similar procedures.
The study illustrated the double discrimination – against the health providers who manage the care of female patients and against female patients.
The Toronto-based study, published in the Canadian Journal of Surgery in July, discovered surgeons are compensated on average 28% less for operations on female patients than on males.
The research group created a list of standard procedures performed exclusively on female patients and paired it with equivalent surgeries for patients with male reproductive anatomy.
They collected data on how much doctors earnt for these procedures in eight Canadian provinces and compared the lists.
The result was that surgeons performing procedures on female patients made nearly $44 less per operation than on male patients.
Their study found that a surgeon is paid 50%-plus more for untwisting a testicle than for untwisting an ovary – despite the latter requiring a more technical procedure.
Michael Chaikof is one of the authors of the study and an OB-GYN and urogynaecologist at Sunnybrook in Toronto. He called the findings ‘double discrimination’.
He said women surgeons are paid less on average, as are surgeons who look after women. In gynaecology, the majority of surgeons are women, he observed.
‘There is nowhere in Canada where you earn more for operating on a female patient than a male patient,’ he added. ‘This research proves there is a second layer of a pay gap based on the sex of their patients. They are earning less not only because they are women but because they are looking after primarily women.’
The authors write: ‘Our study revealed a trend toward devaluation of the health care provided to female patients across Canada… Certainly, this trend is influenced not only by patient sex but also by physician gender.’
They add: ‘More than just disadvantaging female physicians, this systematic oppression threatens the quality of care for women.’
A systematic review from 2021 found that ‘females in surgery lacked support, faced harassment, and had unequal opportunities, which were often exacerbated by sex-blindness by their male counterparts’.
It concluded: ‘As the global agenda towards equality progresses, this review serves as a call-to-action to increase the collective effort towards gender inclusivity in surgery, striving towards a field that embraces diversity which will benefit patients in the long run.’
