[Medical students of Hungary. A changing profession or feminisation?]

Career motivations, professional socialization, as well as somatic and mental health of medical students have received a growing interest.

To explore gender-related differences among medical students in the fields of career motivations, somatic and mental health, and stress factors.

Nationwide, cross-sectional, quantitative survey on a sample of medical students (n = 731).

Female medical students choose their profession earlier, and their career motivations are more altruistic than their male colleagues. The lack of the role model is more typical for females. Female students have more psychosomatic disorders, and complain about more stress factors than males. Workload, sleeping disorders and emotional exhaustion are significantly higher among female medical students.

The results show that health protection of female medical students may have a key role in the prevention of subsequent morbidity of female physicians in Hungary.