Impact of Gender Trends on Plastic Surgery Fellowship Match: Implications for Surgical Education

No prior study has evaluated gender trends within the plastic surgery subspecialty fellowship match. The purpose of this study is to examine gender trends across fellowship trainee demographics to assess and characterize existing disparities between male and female plastic surgeon counterparts.

A review of the new board diplomates listed in the annual newsletter to diplomates of the American Board of Plastic Surgery from 2015 to 2019 was used to identify physicians who pursued various plastic surgery subspecialties. Fellowship match data, including sex, practice type, and prior residency training, were obtained from publicly accessible institutional and private practice websites, social media, and online reports. Additionally, data on current practice type stratified by sex were collected.

From 2015 to 2019, 60.2% of all board-certified plastic surgeons pursued fellowship training or research fellowships. Female trainees were significantly more likely to pursue breast reconstruction fellowship than males (12.1% female versus 4.3% male). There were no significant gender differences among other fellowship subspecialties or practice types (academic, community, or private). Our data showed that plastic surgeons who completed an integrated residency program were more likely to pursue a fellowship (69.7%) compared with those who completed independent plastic surgery training (50.1%), but no significant gender differences were found within either training type.

A significant gender difference remains among newly board-certified plastic surgeons; however, the ratio of male-to-female trainees across most fellowship subspecialties is equivocal, except for breast reconstruction being predominantly female.