To further investigate the benefits of treatment by female doctors, researchers from the University of Tokyo in Japan analyzed two databases: general medical claims, and claims that dealt with the expertise and work practices of doctors. They examined the data from 458,101 female patients and 318,819 male patients aged 65 and over, who were hospitalized due to an illness, between the years 2016 and 2019. Of these, 31% of the female patients and 30.6% of the male patients were treated by female doctors.
The researchers found that the rate of re-hospitalization was lower in male and female patients treated by female doctors. Among female patients, another trend of a lower mortality rate was seen in those treated by female doctors, in particular in neurological diseases and kidney and urinary tract diseases.
According to the study authors, there may be several reasons why treatment by female physicians is associated with better outcomes among treated women. According to the researchers, it is possible that male doctors tend to underestimate the severity of the disease among female patients.
The researchers rely, among other things, on a study from 2019, which found that male doctors tend to underestimate the risk of having a stroke among women, compared to female doctors. “Underestimation of symptoms and risks among female patients may lead to late or partial treatment, and ultimately to worse outcomes for female patients,” the researchers noted.
A second possibility raised by the researchers is that it is also possible that the treatment by female doctors leads to better results thanks to the doctor’s communication with the patient. “Ineffective communication prevents patients from providing critical information for accurate diagnoses and treatment, which may lead to suboptimal results,” the researchers noted.
They added a third possibility, according to which the treatment by gynecologists may embarrass the patients less, in particular when the examination concerns intimate areas of the body, while women treated by men may experience a partial physical examination due to the embarrassment and unpleasantness.
“Studies have shown that treatment by female doctors leads to better communication, better close relationships and a higher responsiveness of patients to the medical recommendations, especially in female patients,” the researchers concluded. “Studies in the past have indeed shown that treatment by a female doctor is related to higher quality treatment processes in some medical professions, especially in female patients.”