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Updated: Dec 16, 2025

Establishment of Rat Models Mimicking Gender-affirming Hormone Therapies
Published on: January 10, 2025
Endocrine surgery is at the forefront of gender diversity
Leah J Schoel1, Jessica Fazendin1, Herbert Chen1
1University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Surgery, Birmingham, AL, USA.
Background:
The purpose of this study is to assess gender diversity across surgical subspecialties, with a focus on endocrine surgery.
Methods:
We collected publicly-reported data from Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES) during the 2017 data period. Student's t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to compare percentages of female surgeons. We analyzed data by geographical regions, excluding states where data was unreported/unavailable.
Results:
During this period, there were 25,022 general surgeons. Of these, 5157 (20.6%) were female. There were 513 endocrine surgeons, of which 179 (34.8%) were female (p < 0.001). Across the US, endocrine surgery had the greatest percentage of female surgeons (34.8%) compared to other surgical subspecialties (p < 0.001). When comparing geographical regions, the Northeast (22.8%) and West (22.8%) contained the highest percentages of female general surgeons, while the South comprised the greatest proportion of female endocrine surgeons (38.7%).
Conclusions:
Endocrine surgery has the most gender diversity of all studied surgical subspecialties. The Southern US has the greatest proportion of female endocrine surgeons.
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