Fifty years ago it was very uncommon for doctors to marry other doctors, but that has changed dramatically, according to a report on KevinMD.com.
Today, 40 percent of doctors marry other doctors or healthcare professionals, writes Taika Forestal, a marriage and family therapist.
The benefits are obvious: shared experiences, a common language and similar priorities of couples who both practice in the healthcare field can be beneficial in developing strong marriages, she says.
But there are also challenges to choosing a partner who is also working as a healthcare professional. For one thing, medicine tends to attract strong personality types and that could lead to epic battles. "While marrying another doctor may benefit you in terms of easier communication and shared experience, you may both need to work hard to cultivate a different set of skills at home: compromise and humility," Forestal writes.
Despite the difficulties, doctors marrying other healthcare professionals appears to be a growing trend, according to Forestal. To make those marriages work, physicians should understand the challenges they will face and develop coping mechanisms early on in the relationship, she advises.
A study last year countered the idea that physicians are at a higher risk for divorce, as FiercePracticeManagement reported. However, part of the reasons professionals such as physicians had lower rates of divorce, researchers suggested, is that they tend to marry later in life and have fewer years in which to divorce. Nonetheless, these findings only partially debunk the theory that long work hours and job stress contribute to marital strife for doctors.
To learn more:
- read the article