Overview: the female physician and her marriage.

Previous research has addressed the marital problems of male but not female physicians. The author reviews the literature on women in medicine, reports findings on 16 female physicians with dysfunctional marriages whom he saw as patients, and describes several problem areas: delayed help seeking, self-blaming attitude toward subjective symptoms, ambiguity in self-image, "passivity" in marital communication, role strain, unmet needs in husbands, bilateral competitiveness, and problems with intimacy and sexuality. The author emphasizes a biopsychosocial approach to treatment and discusses transference-countertransference issues.