Endourology Fellowship: More Than a Stone's Throw Away for Women.

To characterize and trend female representation in the endourology fellowship match compared to the urology residency match.

Available deidentified match data from 2017 to 2022 was obtained from American Urological Association (AUA) and Endourology Society annual census data. We evaluated gender-specific participation in the urology residency and endourology fellowship match and compared differences in the trends over the last 6 years.

Between the years 2017 to 2021 there was a total of 313 applicants for a fellowship in endourology, of those only 8.6% were women. In that same time period, a significantly larger number of women (27.1%) participated in the urology residency match (p=P<0.01). When specifically examining the endourology applicant trend, there was no significant increase in participation (R=0.7, p=0.35) between 2017 and 2021, as compared to the significant increase in total number of applicants (R=7.1, p=0.04). However, in the urology match, there has been a constant and significant increase in both female (R=13.7, p=0.03) and total applicants (R= 27, p=0.04) between 2017 and 2022.

While there has been an overall increase in the number of applicants to urology, the number of women in endourology fellowship has not increased at a commensurate rate. In light of these findings, it is the responsibility of the endourology community to identify social and systemic barriers for women in this field and advocate for change.

Journal of endourology. 2024 Jun 28 [Epub ahead of print]

Maya Srinath, Zorawar Singh, Maia Hare, Leah Beland, Tareq Aro

The Smith Institute for Urology, Lake Success, New York, United States; ., The Smith Institute for Urology, Urology, 450 Lakeville Road, Lake Success, New York, United States, 11042; ., The Smith Institute for Urology, Lake Success, New York, United States; ., The Smith Institute for Urology, Lake Success, New York, United States; ., The Smith Institute for Urology, Lake Success, New York, United States; .