Men Outnumber Women in Urologic Oncology Fellowships Despite Higher Match Rates

By Katie Kosko - Last Updated: December 3, 2024

Despite women having a higher match rate in the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) fellowship program, they represent a significantly lower number of participants compared with men. The new data were presented during the 25th Annual Meeting of the Society of Urologic Oncology by Alireza Ghoreifi, MD, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

The team studied gender, ethnicity, and type of application in 492 SUO fellowship applicants from match cycles that ranged from 2019 to2024. Most of the applicants were men (n=407), followed by women (n=73) and non-binary people (n=12).

Study findings showed that the number of men who applied for the fellowship was higher than women, but the overall match rate was significantly higher for women compared with men (82% vs 54%, respectively). That finding remained consistent over the study period, according to the researchers.

While examining ethnicity data, which was only available for the 2024 match cycle, the researchers observed that Asian people had the highest number of applications, but the lowest match rate (23%) compared with White (67%), African-American (75%), Hispanic (50%), and other/undisclosed applicants (44%).

Furthermore, in review of SUO fellowship applications, the researchers grouped them as follows: American (US)/Canadian (CAN) chief residents, US/CAN previous graduates, and international medical graduates (IMGs). They learned that the number of US/CAN chief residents (n=218) and IMGs (n=214) were similar. Each group made up 44% of the applications. US/CAN previous graduates (n=60) represented 12% of the applicants. However, IMGs had a significantly lower yearly match rate versus US/CAN chief residents.

Reference

Ghoreifi A, Moghaddam FS, Alsyouf M, et al. Disparities in urologic oncology: analysis of the society of urologic oncology fellowship match statistics 2019–2024. Poster #248. Presented at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Society of Urologic Oncology; December 4-6, 2024; Dallas, Texas.