Doctors and patients: gender interaction in the consultation

Much research on gender differences in medicine has centered on women as better communicators, more egalitarian, more patient-centered, and more involved with psychosocial problems, preventive care, and female-specific problems. Hardly any research has examined the interaction between the doctor's gender and the patient's gender. The authors examined students' perceptions and comfort levels regarding patients' gender during consultation.

This cross-sectional study used a questionnaire to survey final-year medical students at one school in 1999. It tested students' patient-centeredness, "patient-care" values, and degree of comfort in performing certain intimate physical examinations.

Women students were more patient-centered than were men students. Both genders were more attuned to the concerns of patients of their own gender, were more comfortable with personal rather than sexual issues, and were more uncomfortable with performing more intimate examinations upon the opposite gender. Using comparable case studies, it was also shown that the female student-female patient dyad had significantly greater "patient-care" values than did the male student-male patient dyad.

Medical students did not behave in a gender-neutral way in the consultation. There is a powerful interaction between a student's gender and a patient's gender. This warrants further investigation in the real clinical situation because it has implications on the outcomes of the consultation.