The Effect of Surgeon’s Gender on the Psychological Comfort of Saudi Ladies Attending Plastic Surgery Clinic in a Saudi Governmental Hospital

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Our Saudi community is known to be a veryconservative community, especially for females. This is likelyattributed to the strong cultural traditions and beliefs whichhave strict Islamic bound backgrounds. For this reason, Saudifemales are believed to find it easier to communicate and dealwith their gender equivalent throughout their daily routine. Inour study, whether this credence is conceptually and practicallyimplied in the medical practice is debatable.Method: A prospective pilot questionnaire-based cohort study.Results: Among the 200 patients that were recruited in ourstudy, it was concluded that about 48% stated that they wouldfeel more comfortable visiting a female plastic surgeon. Whileabout 25% chose male gender, 26% felt neutral toward eithergender.Conclusion: We assumed in our study that the preference ofladies attending clinics generally would be towards femaleclinicians, for the reason that we live in conservative andstrongly religious society like Saudi Arabia. However,the debate would be that these factors are opposed with anoverwhelming effect of the social media, which could changethe scale of the equation.