How to Become a Gynaecologist in India: Qualifications, Fees, Salary

A career as obstetrician and gynecologist is a great idea. From course requirements to fees to salary range, Dr. Neelu Koura, Obstetrician & Gynecologist, shares how to become a gynaecologist in India.

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1. Role of a Gynaecologist

A gynaecologist is a person who is a specialised to diagnose and treat diseases of the women, including medical and surgical treatments. A gynaecologist has to be skilled in three different fields – obstetrics (pregnancy & delivery), gynaecology (female health) and reproductive medicine. The common thing among these specializations is that a gynaecologist has to be trained both as a medical specialist as well as a surgical specialist. You have to be skilled to do surgeries. This skill has to be gained along with the knowledge of your subject.

For example, I deal with all three segments, but my surgical skill is my passion. Doing surgeries is very satisfying to me, since it gives me the confidence of being able to perform surgery in the latest techniques available in the world. Secondly, it gives me the satisfaction of completing the treatment and giving result to the patient.

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Contents: Jump to Section

2.1 Courses Taken: Gynaecologist Subjects
2.2 Entrance Exams
2.3 Academic Qualifications/ Options
2.4 License Required
2.5 Internship/ Work Experience Required
2.6 Cost of Tuition and Training
2.7 Competition &  Scope in India for Gynaecologist
2.8 General Age to Start Professional Career for Gynaecologists
2.9 Governing Bodies
3.1 Specializations/ Sub-Professions
3.2 Companies & Institutions That Employ Gynaecologists
3.3 Growth Prospects
3.4 Entrepreneurship Opportunities
3.5 What is the Salary of Gynecologist in India?
4.1 Top Universities in India
4.2 Top Universities in World
4.3 Famous Personalities
4.4 Useful Links

2. How to Become a Gynaecologist in India?

For students who want to know how to become a gynaecologist in India after 12th, the first steps are the same as any medical profession. You have to take science stream with biology in 12th, and then clear NEET for entrance in MBBS. A post-graduation (MD in gynaecology) is a good idea after MBBS. Read on to know the details…

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2.1.1 Courses Taken at School

Science stream (PCB) with physics, chemistry, biology, computer and English.

Science stream with biology is a must to qualify for the college entrance exams.

2.1.2 Courses Taken at College: Gynaecologist Course Requirements

Here are the subjects you’ll study in the 5 years of your graduation:

  • Anatomy, physiology, biochemistry which gives you an idea of the structure of the body and how it functions.
  • In second year, you study pathology, which tells you about diseases, microbiology, pharmacology which gives you knowledge about different drugs.
  • Medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, ENT, orthopedics, forensic medicine

2.2 Entrance Exams

India, you have to qualify NEET to enter into medical school.

2.3.1 Gynaecologist Qualifications/ Degree Required

The undergrad degree is MBBS, after which the post-grad degree is MD or MS. After that, super-specialization is DM or MCH.

MBBS is a 5 year degree, and MD or MS is 3 year degree.

A lot of students ask me if MBBS is necessary for becoming a gynaecologist. Yes, you need not just an MBBS, but MD and even residency is kind of mandatory to get a good job or start your own clinic.

2.3.2 Post-Graduate Degree Requirements/ Options

Post-grad degree is MD or MS. Some colleges offer MD gynaecology, and other colleges offer MS gynaecology.

How to Become a Gynaecologist courses qualification degree

2.4 License Required

Depends on the country where you got your education.

If you qualified from India, you don’t need a license to practice in India. However, students who did their graduation or post-grad degree will need to qualify a license exam to be able to practice in India.

2.5 Internship/ Work Experience Required

Yes. 1 year after MBBS and 3 years after MS or MD.

1 year of internship after 5 year graduation (MBBS). This internship is mandatory for students to complete their graduation.

Do you get paid during residency? Yes, this internship is called residency and is paid work.

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The internship period after MBBS is meant for assisting doctors in a hospital doing practical work. However, nowadays it has become common for students to spend a lot of their internship time preparing for their next entrance exam for post-graduation.

After completing masters/post-graduation (MD or MS) degree, doctors to gain work experience, called senior-residency, for three years before practice independently as a consultant. Senior-residencies are done at hospitals or medical colleges to gain experience and excel at their specialization, such as surgery, etc.

2.6 Cost of Tuition and Training: How Much Does it Cost to Become a Gynecologist?

For MBBS

Gynecologist education cost is a total of your MBBS and MD. The fee for tuition at government medical colleges in India is ₹3-4 lacs for the total duration of 5 years. Additional expenses like hostel fees, food, etc. will also incur if the student is not staying at home. In some colleges, the tuition may even be lesser, like ₹1-2 lacs, depending on the state. For example, the annual tuition for 5-year MBBS program at GMCH, Chandigarh is ₹25,000.

For private colleges, the fees is around ₹ 1 crore for the total duration of 5 years. A few years ago, private colleges used the system of taking “donations” that were extra fees over and above the tuition fees. However, nowadays, the tuition fees have increased and the system of donations is no longer there.

For MD

The gynecologist course fees for government colleges for 3 year masters degree in India is around ₹75,000 – 1.2 lacs, depending on degree and college.

Overseas, a lot of medical schools offer 5 year MD degrees, which are taken up after a 4 year college degree. The tuition fees for medical degree would be around ₹ 2 Cr. For example, at Harvard Medical School (HMS), the tuition for Class of 2020 is $63,400 per year for 4 years and $8,400 for the 5th year, making a total of ₹1.8 crore for 5 years. Other expenses include housing, medical insurance, etc. which would come out to ₹3.1 crore for 5 years, not including food expenses.

2.7 Competition: How Hard is It to Become a Gynaecologist

Extremely competitive for college entrances. Moderate to low competition in the field.

If you’re wondering how to become a gynaecologist in India, you have to first consider the competition. You’ll have to face tough competition if you want to enter the medical field in India, most of which occurs at the beginning. College entrance is very, very competitive if you want to secure a seat in a government college. Entrance requires you to rank among the top 5000 among lacs of students who compete all over India.

Government colleges are considered the top colleges in India, and their fees is much lesser compared to private colleges. There are limited seats, which makes it very highly competitive. Once you’re in college, there’s no competition, as college workload is the same for everybody.

For post-graduation, it is just as competitive for getting a seat in one of the government colleges.

Once you’re in the field, the competition becomes considerably lesser, as you have various options. You’ll be able to easily get a government or private job if you’ve graduated from a good college. For doctors who want to start their own practice, the work will still be quite competitive and also requires a bit of investment.

2.8 General Age: How Many Years Does It Take to Become a Gynaecologist in India?

28-30, depending on experience & education.

How long does it take to become a gynaecologist in India? MBBS is completed at the age of around 22. However, just being an undergrad is not enough at all these days. So you have to be a post-graduate at least, if you want a respectable, secure and well-paying job.

Doctors finish post-graduation by the time you’re 26 years old, that is if you crack every exam in one go. After post-grad, doctors spend at least 1-2 years minimum to gain experience as resident doctors. So commonly, by the age of 28 or 29, doctors start their career when they’re ready to be independent consultants.

If you want to go for super-specialization, it’ll take another year or two. So the general age for super-specialists to begin their career is 30.

2.9 Governing Bodies

None.

Up until recently, MCI (Medical Council of India) was the national body to monitor education standards and register all the doctors and medical graduates in India. However, the role of MCI was only limited to medical education and ethics. MCI wasn’t a body to make rules for the practice of doctors, but provided general ethics and guidelines.

However, as of 2017, MCI was decided by the Supreme Court of India to be replaced by Indian government to oversee the Indian medical education.

3. Professional Opportunities/ Career Growth for Gynaecologists

3.1 Specializations/ Sub-Professions

If you’re considering how to become a gynaecologist in India, you can look at one of three super-specializations. Gynaecologists are of different types:

  • Obstetrician
  • Gynaecologist
  • Reproductive Medicine Specialists

Obstetrics deals with pregnancy, its complications – normalcy and abnormalcy of pregnancy. Gynaecology deals with all other problems of women, such as menstrual issues, hormonal issues, anything related to the genital tract of a woman.

How to Become a Gynaecologist couple baby child

The third is reproductive medicine. which has now become a specialized field in gynaecology, wherein you are only trained to deal with the process of reproduction and help patients in conceiving and/or getting pregnant.

All types of gynaecologists can do fellowships after post-graduation, to further super-specialize in different branches of medicine, like laparoscopy, reproductive medicine, fetal medicine, etc.

3.2 Companies & Institutions that Employ Gynaecologists

As a gynaecologist, you can get employment in a private corporate hospital, govt institution or you can also become a self-employed professional.

3.3 Growth Prospects

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Growth prospects in this profession depend on your field and employment. For example, if you have joined a medical college, your growth prospects will be in terms of promotions. Fresh graduates join as an Assistant Demonstrator. Then they are promoted to become Assistant Professor, and then Associate Professor, then professor, and so on. These promotions make the professional more highly-paid and more authoritative.

Growth in our profession depends on your own skills. With experience, you have to keep increasing your knowledge and specialized skills. Technology keeps evolving and new things keep coming up all the time, so learning keeps going on even after you finish your degree. You have to keep upgrading and updating yourself with hard work and being abreast with new technology. That increases your growth prospects, opening up new job opportunities and increasing your salary package.

Growth also depends on business acumen, such as being able to sell your skills, competing with others in your profession. However, developing yourself is most important. For example, I graduated in 2004. During my post-grad studies, I had no exposure to laparoscopic surgery or reproductive medicine. Had I not upgraded my knowledge skill-set, I’d have not been as competitive as I am not, and had been left behind. Gaining these new skills helped me grow in my profession.

3.4 Entrepreneurship Opportunities

Yes.

As a gynecologist, you can also become an entrepreneur. For some branches of medicine, the amount of investment needed to start an independent clinic is quite high. However, for gynaecologists, you need little investment and a small team, which makes it easy for some gynaecologists to start their own practice. Some professionals start their own part-time clinic for specialized branches, while working part-time at a general hospital.

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3.5 What is the Salary of Gynecologist in India?

On an average, young doctors can earn between ₹5-40 lacs per annum, depending on education & expertise.

If you’re just an undergraduate (MBBS), you can earn 40-50,000 per month, either in a government or private set-up. Post-graduates with MD or MS degree can earn between 1.5-2 lacs per month. If you’re a super-specialist, you can earn somewhere between 3-4 lacs per month. As you gain experience, your pay increases, and your monthly remuneration also increases proportionately.

4. Further Resources

4.1 Top Universities in India

  • AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences)

All the government colleges are considered the best. Here are some:

  • Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi
  • Lady Harding Medical College for Women, New Delhi
  • University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi
  • SMS (Sawai Man Singh) Medical College, Jaipur
  • GMCH (Government Medical College and Hospital), Chandigarh

4.2 Top Universities in World

To plan your studies abroad, you’ll have to target a country first, since each country’s institutes may have their own entrance or aptitude exams. US, UK, Canada, Australia are some of the top countries where Indian students go to pursue MBBS or MS.Here are some of the top institutions in the world that have the best medical programs:

Cambridge University, King’s College, Harvard Medical School, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Stanford Medical School, University of Oxford, Johns Hopkins University, etc.

4.3 Famous Personalities

None as such.

Usually, children get inspired to join this career either by seeing their own parents or someone around them who they may have been observing. Or a doctor “role-model” they may have visited who inspired them.

4.4 Useful Links or Resources

If you are confused about this profession or want to get a feel of how it’ll be like, I’d recommend visiting a local hospital and request a doctor that you’d like to be in their clinic for a couple of days. This will help you see the pattern of work, how they work and what challenges gynecologists face. It’ll also help you decide whether this kind of life excites you or not.

Furthermore, you can also increase your knowledge on how to become a gynaecologist by reading some of the peer-reviewed journals online. The Indian Obstetrics & Gynaecology (IOG) Journal has issues available to read online for free.

Gynaecology Career Path: Is Gynecologist a Good Career?

Extremely respectable and highly-paid, the gynaecology career path sounds like a great idea. But is gynaecologist a good career for you? From its pros and cons to daily work life, here’s all you need to know before you decide to take up this career. Read more here.

5 thoughts on “How to Become a Gynaecologist in India: Qualifications, Fees, Salary”

  1. my intrest on becoming a gynaecologist is increased by reading your pages mam please do share more information and help us mam thank you

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