I am 100% certain I want to join the medical field, just not sure how I want to contribute! Being a girl I’m not sure if it will be worth it or even totally possible to have a family yet also complete med school and have healthy relationships without missing too much of either, and I’m wondering if being a PA would be better or if I’d always feel like I was missing out. Any advice?
There are many female physicians who successfully manage to raise a family. It’s difficult but possible. You’ll need help to so–a supportive spouse, a strong family support system, or a very, very good nanny. Possibly all 3.
I have 2 daughters who are/will be physicians (one doing her residency; the other is a MS2). Their med school aspirations have cost each of them serious, long-term relationships. The divorce rate among D1’s classmates was approaching 50% during medical school.
Female physicians are more likely to remain unmarried than their male colleagues and have a higher divorce rate than their male colleagues.
Now that I’ve scared you with anecdotes and statistics, let me say I know of many successful female physicians who have stayed married and raised a family.
When it comes to relationships and families, there are no guarantees. This is true whether you’re a PA or a physician.
Choosing between PA and physician is highly personal decision. There are pluses and minuses to both careers. I suggest you shadow both PAs and doctors and ask each about how easy or hard it is to maintain a work-life balance.
@WayOutWestMom 
no scaredness here! I appreciate the honesty. My dad is an anesthesiologist himself and I have discussed shadowing him, however that female question has always been in the back of the mind. Thanks very much for the input!
@WayOutWestMom I think I’ve asked you this before:
Do you mean literal divorce rate (married couples legally separating and/or filing for divorce) or just like serious relationships ending? What percentage of your D1’s classmates were married that 50% of them got divorced during medical school? Of the top of my head, I think at the start of M1 maybe 1-2% of my class was married, and by the end of M4 it climbed significantly (maybe 10-15% of the class) with no one getting divorced.
Yes, I literally mean that almost half of those students who were married before one partner started med school were divorced by the end of MS2.
D1’s med school class had a fairly large cohort of non-trads ( ~1/3 of the class was over age 28-30) so there about a 8-10 married couples at the start of med school.
Thanks for clarifying. I think I underestimated the pre m1 and post m4 marriage numbers but no divorces to my knowledge (def some breakups of pretty serious relationships though)
My kid is a PA in a family practice. She does everything that the doctor does and is as respected as the doctor is. She had 5 years of college and less than 20K in loans to pay off. Sure, she earns less than he does for the same amount and quality of work, but she is also never on call (the hospital that owns her practice prefers to have only doctors on call), and she can switch specialties any time that she wants to without doing any additional schooling.
@KKmama that sounds amazing!