Evan Panken, MD, on patient preferences for urologist gender in vasectomy care

Data presented at the 26th Annual Fall Scientific Meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America indicate that most patients do not have a preference on the gender of the urologist who is providing their vasectomy care.¹

In a recent interview with Urology Times®, presenting author Evan Panken, MD, detailed the background and key findings from this work.

“With the changing demographics of the urologic work force and this sensitive procedure, we wanted to see if patients would have any specific gender concordant preference, specifically if male patients had a strong preference for a male urologist,” he noted. Panken is a PGY-5 urology resident at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.

In total, 950 patients completed the survey. Among these respondents, 49.2% had no gender preference during the vasectomy consultation, while 29.5% preferred a male urologist and 21.4% preferred a female urologist. Further, 38.1% preferred a male urologist for the in-office vasectomy and 31.1% preferred a male urologist for surgical vasectomy under anesthesia.

The authors also reported, “Respondents cited “understands my body better” (52.1%) and “less embarrassed” (41.5%) as the top reasons for their preference of a gender-concordant urologist.” Factors associated with having a preference for a gender-concordant urologist included having a bachelor’s degree or higher (OR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.07 to 3.08; P = .03), identifying as a gay man (OR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.03 to 3.57; P = .04), and self-describing as religious (OR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.36 to 3.22; P = .001).

Overall, the authors noted that these findings are particularly reassuring in the context of the current work force shortage.

Panken concluded, “Our hypothesis that was that there wouldn't be a strong preference, but I think it was important that we showed that and found that.”

REFERENCE

1. Panken E, Nam C, Aguiar J, et al. Most Patients Do Not Prefer a Gender-Concordant Urologist to Provide Their Vasectomy Care. Presented at: 26th Annual Fall Scientific Meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America. October 9-12, 2025. Grapevine, Texas. Abstract 246