September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and Women in Medicine Month, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence worth glossing over.
Women in medicine carry a lot of weight the system was never built to account for — pay gaps, caregiving on top of clinical work, leadership paths that are harder to climb. 1001 Cuts, a new PBS documentary, lays out these hidden barriers and how they add up to burnout. To me, wellness and gender equity in medicine aren’t separate observances that happen to share a date. They’re the same conversation.
Worth remembering too: patients treated by female physicians have measurably better mortality outcomes. We should be protecting the people producing those numbers, not burning them out.
A few ways to mark it:
- Watch 1001 Cuts on PBS/KQED
- Join the AMWA lecture on Women in Medicine, September 24, 4pm Pacific — open to all
- On the 17th, check on a colleague. Ask how they’re really doing. Share resources if they need them.
Also representing CSA this month: I joined fellow CSA leaders Dr. Rita Agarwal and Dr. Ludwig Lin at the doximity AI Summit in San Francisco, and I represented CSA on an invited panel at the California Ambulatory Surgical Association’s annual conference
Be well, Be kind and Stay Vigilant.
Christina Menor, MD, MS, FASA
President, California Society of Anesthesiologists