The suicide rate among male medical students and physicians now in the U.S. is now 40% greater than the general population. Sadly, the suicide rate among women medical students and physicians is 130% higher. In my medical school class at Stanford, two of our classmates committed suicide. Of course at that time there were just 2-3 women medical students in each class. Now they constitute more than 50%. One of the reasons I suspect is today the students have no idea how difficult their days and nights can be. The students and residents today also don't know how different it is from when I was a medical student and resident. We worked every other day for 24 hours, whereas today, I am told, the students are on call at night only every three days.
In thinking about what is going on I have a feeling that because the medical schools are just accepting A students, many of them come from private schools, families with money, and have no idea what the real working world is like. Several in my class did what I did to be able to go to medical school. I worked after school and summers from the time I was in my teens to be able to afford Stanford. Even though a professor at Scripps College established a scholarship at Stanford for me to go to undergraduate and medical school, I still had to pay for transportation etc. My father's top salary as a professor at Pomona College was $7000 as head of the department. My scholarship is still there for a woman who wants to become a doctor. What a great gift Miss Eyre gave me.
Another reason I suspect the women are committing suicide is that they have no balance in their lives. It is all medicine and dating, having fun etc. are not things they have figured out how to do.
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