What Drives Doctors to Marry Each Other

Overview

After years of analyzing surveys and data, a clear pattern tends to emerge; doctors often marry doctors or other healthcare professionals.

According to a Medscape paper, 25% of female doctors are married to physicians, with a slightly lower percentage for male doctors (16%).

This suggests that there are factors that encourage doctors to marry individuals from their field instead of tying the knot with people from other fields.

In this article, we will cover the main reasons that drive physicians to choose their husbands/wives from the medical field.

Top reasons why doctors marry other doctors

Time!

For most countries around the world, medical school lasts between 4-8 years, which is often followed by a residency program that lasts up to 11 years.

Just think of the staggering number of years that a physician spends in a closed circle surrounded by other doctors.

Additionally, and unlike other careers, medicine has a relatively equal male:female ratio.

After graduating, you will also spend years in the hospital, working regular hours, day shifts, and night shifts.

All of these factors increase the chances of meeting someone during medical school or in the hospital and falling in love.

It is simple math:
Spending too much time with individuals from the same field=higher chances of marrying someone from that field

Common interests

Doctors are often passionate about their job; they know all the challenges and downsides of going through medical school, as well as the difficulties they will face on the job, but they still choose this field.

This passion and desire to treat patients can drive doctors towards each other.

Moreover, the field of medicine is fascinating, so it wouldn’t hurt to have someone to talk to about the physiology of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) before watching Netflix.

Understanding the challenges of the job

Being always on-call, working extra hours, and constantly doing night shifts can be very difficult for physicians.

Add to that a demanding partner who doesn’t understand the nature of the job, and you got yourself a recipe for marital problems.

When doctors choose to marry other doctors, they can be assured that their partners will understand the stress of exams, the grief after losing patients, and the disappointment of doing a nightshift on charismas eve.

Furthermore, doctors take exams all the time!

Even after graduation, they still have to pass different exams to move up the ranks and further specialize.

As a result, you’ll often see a 35-year doctor stressed about an exam, which is hard to appreciate by individuals from a different field.

Takeaway message

Marrying a doctor has several advantages that we listed in this article.

Because medicine is challenging, it is always great to have a supportive partner to help you get through the difficult times.

However, if you think we missed important factors, feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.