Study Says Female Doctors More Likely to Do Pap, Breast Exams

A cancer screening study has found that women who get their care from female doctors are about twice as likely to receive a Pap smear to check for cervical cancer, and they are about 40% more apt to receive a mammogram to screen for breast cancer.

Dr. Nicole Lurie, who directed the study, said there are many possible explanations. But the findings do not necessarily mean that women should only go to female physicians.

“If you are a woman and you are going to a male physician and you are happy with him, there is no reason to switch,” she said. “Getting care is a partnership. The doctor needs to recommend these tests, but the patient needs to ask for them.”

The study, published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, did not examine whether the sex of the doctor plays a role in whether men get checked for prostate or testicular cancer.

Suggestions of sex bias in medical treatment have become a contentious subject in recent years. For instance, some studies have shown that men are treated more aggressively than women for heart disease.

Lurie, a researcher at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, said her study is the largest to examine whether the sex of the doctor makes a difference. She based her conclusions on a review of the records of 97,962 women patients enrolled in Medica, a Minneapolis-area health plan.

Among the findings:

* Young male doctors were less likely than older male physicians to perform the cancer tests on women.

* The sex difference in testing women was much more pronounced among family practitioners and internists than among obstetrician-gynecologists.

* Among physicians over age 42, female doctors did Pap smears on 58% of the female patients they saw over a one-year period, while male doctors did them on 37%.

Lurie said many women are uncomfortable getting intimate tests from male doctors. They may choose women physicians if they want these tests or male doctors if they are looking for an excuse to avoid them.

Lurie speculated that young male doctors also may feel uneasy examining women’s reproductive organs but grow more comfortable doing these tests as they get older. She said some men also fear they could be sued for sexual harassment if they do an adequate breast exam.