Occupational health challenges faced by female anaesthesiologists: a scoping review

Health issues faced by female anaesthesiologists have not been extensively studied. This scoping review analyses the existing literature on common health challenges specific to female anaesthesiologists. It offers actionable practice management techniques to address issues such as menstruation, menopause, infertility, pregnancy, lactation, postpartum mood disorders, and chronic pain conditions in the workplace.

Two board-certified anaesthesiologists independently screened for inclusion criteria using Covidence in the PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and SCOPUS databases. The risk of bias was assessed based on the Cochrane Manual. Thirty-three articles were identified and examined. These articles included 13 review articles, 10 surveys, three retrospective studies, two cross-sectional studies, one qualitative study, one guideline, two newsletters, and one editorial. The categories evaluated included pregnancy/postpartum (22 articles), lactation (16 articles), infertility (two articles), menopause (two articles), chronic pain conditions (two articles), menstruation (zero articles), and postpartum mood disorders (zero articles).

Our scoping review reports that female anaesthesiologists have several common health conditions that can significantly impact them in the workplace. Lack of occupational support and hazardous work environments are key challenges.

Health issues, such as menstruation, pregnancy, infertility, lactation, postpartum mood disorders, menopause, and chronic pain conditions, remain understudied and underreported. These female health challenges must be further explored, as they may limit women's representation in anaesthesiology, highlighting the need for research and actionable steps toward workplace accommodation.