CommonHealth: Why Men Are Less Likely To Return To A Female Doctor

Men are less likely to return to a new doctor if the doctor is female, according to a new report from athenahealth. Using data from over 2 million visits to primary care doctors, the study found that if the doctor was a woman, men with commercial health insurance would only schedule a return visit about 40 percent of the time.

If the doctor was a man, there was a roughly 50 percent return rate.

Female patients were nearly as likely to return to a male doctor after a first visit as they were to a female doctor.

Carey Goldberg, host of WBUR's CommonHealth blog, which tweets @commonhealth.