Physician gender and hormone replacement therapy discussion

Area of Science:

• Internal Medicine
• Family Practice
• Women's Health

Background:

• Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a critical health issue for millions of women.
• Physicians play a key role in counseling patients about HRT.
• Previous research yielded conflicting results on whether physician gender influences HRT discussions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if physician gender affects the frequency of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) discussions between physicians and patients.
• To analyze HRT discussion frequency in relation to physician gender, controlling for other factors.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional, secondary analysis of audio-taped patient-physician visits.
• Data collected from general internal medicine and family practice clinics at a health sciences center.
• Included 27 resident physicians (15 female, 12 male) and 127 female patients aged 45+.

Main Results:

• Male physicians discussed HRT significantly more often than female physicians (OR = 0.42, p = 0.0014).
• Patients initiated HRT discussions in 39.2% of relevant visits.
• Patients with diabetes were less likely to discuss HRT (OR = 0.25, p = 0.0122).
• Increasing residency year correlated with decreased HRT discussion (OR = 0.51, p < 0.0001).

Conclusions:

• In this setting with physicians of similar age and training, male physicians engaged in more frequent HRT discussions than female physicians.
• Physician gender appears to be a significant factor influencing HRT communication.
• Patient characteristics (diabetes) and physician training year also impact HRT discussions.