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Orchid and Its Impact on Women Urologists in Brazil

By: Maria Claudio Bicudo, MD, PhD | Posted on: 01 Apr 2022

Historically, urology has been a male-dominated surgical specialty. In 2020, according to the Sociedade Brasileira de Urologia (SBU) database, there were 4,621 male and 125 female board-certified urologists (37:1 male-to-female ratio). Currently, among residents in urology, there are 53 women out of a total of 542 residents. We have reached this new trend due to efforts from SBU leadership and positive influences from world leaders including the AUA.

Dr. Nancy Denicol paved the way as one of the first female urologists in Brazil. In 2012, a pilot plan began to increase recruitment of female urologists in Brazil. In 2015, a WhatsApp group called “Orchid” was formed to provide a fast communication, support and information platform for Brazilian female urologists (BFU). In 2018, the SBU officially created the BFU council. Since then, opportunity and visibility were given to women on the board, committees, departments, social networks, campaigns and scientific programming of the SBU.

In 2020, a survey demonstrated that from a total of 129 BFU the average age was 37.2 years (27 to 68). Notably, 43 (33.3%) women were from São Paulo, 19 (14.7%) were from Rio de Janeiro and 13 (12.4%) were from Rio Grande do Sul. Ninety (69.75%) were board-certified urologists, 38 (29.45%) were urology residents and 1 was a retired urologist. A total of 18.6% have been in practice for >10 years, 17% for 5 to 10 years and 16.3% for 2 to 5 years, which shows an improvement in the latest years.

Surprisingly, 84% of BFU were in general urology, 63% in lithiasis, 62% in voiding dysfunction, 58% in female urology, 47% in uro-oncology, 30% in andrology, 24% in pediatric urology, 21% in robotics and laparoscopy, 16% in reconstructive surgery, 10.8% in transplantation and 1% in urodynamics.

“The mission of the group is to support and promote women in urology in Brazil, and clearly there has been an increase in the latest years in associative positions and conferences all over the country.”

The orchid, a symbol of beauty, grace and resilience, was transformed into a pin that was distributed to all female urologists in Brazil. Orchid started from conversations more than a decade ago, and we thank the AUA (Drs. Fernando Kim, Robert Flanigan, Gopal Badlani, Manoj Monga and John Denstedt), SBU leadership (Drs. Archimedes Nardozza, Jr., Sebastião Westphal, Antonio Carlos Pompeo, Alfredo Canalini, Roni Fernandes and Karin Anzolch) and the Society of Women in Urology (Drs. Suzette Sutherland and Angie Smith) for endorsing the group and the Orchid pin.

The mission of the group is to support and promote women in urology in Brazil, and clearly there has been an increase in the latest years in associative positions and conferences all over the country. We hope to inspire women all around the world to be represented and recognized as contributing members of the world urological community.