Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993 TAG: 9308120105
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
The study 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 about 40 percent 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 mean that women should go to only 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 today'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.
It also did not directly examine the appropriateness of the screening tests performed by men and women physicians. However, the data suggest that the sex differences may become less pronounced when the test's value is most clear-cut.
Major health organizations agree that women over age 50 should receive annual mammograms. Experts differ on the need for these tests in younger women.
Lurie said her research found that women over age 50 were only 16 percent more likely to get a mammogram from a female doctor than from a male.
Guidelines for Pap smears also vary, but in general women are urged to get them every one to three years.
Suggestions of sex bias in medical treatment have become a contentious subject in recent years. For instance, some studies show 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, women doctors did pap smears on 58 percent of their female patients over a one-year period; male doctors did them on 37 percent.
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 want 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.
She said she is beginning another study that will attempt to explain the sex differences.
by CNB