An examination of the relationship between satisfaction with overactive bladder (OAB) treatment and the doctor–patient gender: A questionnaire‐based single‐institution study

Overactive bladder (OAB) significantly reduces quality of life. The primary goal of this study was to determine whether the gender combination of patient and physician may be associated with satisfaction with OAB treatment. This questionnaire survey was conducted at Jyoban Hospital. We considered the adult patients aged 18 years or older who attended the outpatient office of the urology department of the hospital, were diagnosed with OAB and had been taking anticholinergics or β3‐receptor stimulants, or both, for at least 3 months. In addition to the OAB treatment satisfaction, the questionnaire covered OABSS, IPSS, oral medications, effectiveness of OAB treatment, response to OAB symptoms, and the medium and extent of information collection. A total of 147 patients participated in the study. In summary, 91 (61.9%) were male, and the mean age was 73.5 years. Compared to when the gender of doctor and patient was not the same, female patients tended to be significantly more satisfied when they were treated by female doctors (OR 10.79, 95% CI 1.27–92.05). On the other hand, no similar trend was observed when male patients were treated by male doctors (OR 1.26, 95% CI 0.25–6.34). In the present study, which examined doctor–patient gender combinations in satisfaction with OAB treatment, as hypothesized, satisfaction was higher for female doctor–female patient combinations compared to different doctor–patient genders. A notable fact was that similar associations were not observed among the male doctor–patient combination. This means that an embarrassment of female patients could be stronger than male patients particularly in disclosing urinary symptoms to healthcare providers. The percentage of female urologists in Japan is only 8.2%, and it will be necessary to further promote the recruitment of female doctors in urology fields in order to encourage female patients with OAB to more actively visit doctors.