Women have longer lifespans than men, but women doctors don’t have that edge

On International Women’s Day, women are justly being celebrated, but a new study suggests more attention should be focused on the health of women physicians.

Women doctors have higher mortality risks than male physicians for some conditions, a new study finds.

For those working outside of the healthcare industry, women generally live longer than men, but that’s not the case among physicians and other medical careers.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that women working in health care, including those who are doctors, don’t have that edge.

“This advantage was absent for several health care occupations, including physicians,” the authors wrote.

The findings were published by Jama Internal Medicine last month. Two of the study’s authors also highlighted the findings in an article published by Time Friday.

Researchers found that black female physicians had a higher mortality rate than all other subgroups of doctors. Black women doctors also had a higher mortality rate than white women who worked outside of the healthcare industry, the study found.

Women doctors also have higher mortality rates tied to tumors and chronic lower respiratory diseases than male physicians, the study found. Conversely, women outside of medicine typically have lower mortality rates associated with neoplasms and respiratory diseases than men.

“Renewed efforts are needed to address health inequities within the health care workforce,” the authors wrote.

Typically, women in the U.S. live more than five years longer than men, researchers have found.

The authors say it’s difficult to identify a precise reason that women physicians have higher mortality rates than women outside medicine. But there are difficulties women physicians have faced for years. In the Time piece, the authors note additional stress experienced by women physicians.

Women physicians suffer higher levels of burnout and anxiety than male doctors, according to a 2023 analysis by the Physicians Foundation. Female medical students and residents said they were more likely to feel anxious and hopeless than their male colleagues.

“It is concerning that almost across the board, there's really a significant difference,” Gary Price, president of the Physicians Foundation, told Chief Healthcare Executive in a 2023 interview.

Female doctors are more likely to die by suicide, with a 2024 Harvard study finding that the suicide risk for women physicians is 76% higher than the general population.

In academic medicine, one in three women (31%) have experienced sexual harassment within the previous 12 months, according to a report released last year by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Another AAMC story reported that most women in academic medicine experience harassment and hostility based on their gender.

Female doctors have struggled to match male physicians in earnings. A 2021 study published by Health Affairs found that women physicians earn about $2 million less than male doctors over the course of their career.

Notably, that study found a gender gap in earnings early in the career of physicians, suggesting the gap isn’t tied to women reducing their workload after having children.

Christopher Whaley, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, told Chief Healthcare Executive at the time, “We found that those differences are apparent in year one.”

Even with demanding careers in medicine, women physicians who have children take on the bulk of family responsibilities, researchers have found.

In a study examining doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic, even in families where both parents are doctors, women physicians are more likely to handle the day-to-day household tasks. That study also found women doctors were more likely than male physicians to suffer career setbacks, and were more likely to cut back on their hours in the pandemic.

• Read more: The healthcare industry needs more women leaders