September marked National Suicide Prevention Month, a reminder of the importance of recognizing the impact suicide has on all communities, uplifting prevention awareness and remembering the lives lost. As physicians, we are not immune to suicide, and women physicians are at particularly high risk. A recent British Medical Journal study demonstrated that women physicians are 76% more likely to commit suicide than women in the general population. In the United States, women physicians are almost 2.3 times as likely to die from suicide compared with women in other professions. There are a number of factors that may be driving these statistics.

Women physicians are more likely to suffer from burnout and its consequences. As a female physician trying to balance administrative duties, academic productivity, clinical responsibilities and motherhood with medically complex children, I can relate.

Our work has rigid expectations and is a high-stress demanding environment. We work under pressure and have conflicting demands from others. Women administer equal and in some cases better quality of care than male physicians, yet we are paid less than our male counterparts. We are less likely to be in leadership positions and less likely to be promoted to higher ranks in academic medicine. This can result in many facing impostor syndrome or the fear that one cannot be successful in our jobs.

Women physicians are giving their all at work and often have less flexibility to be able to give their all at home to balance motherhood and child care. They share a disproportionate amount of responsibility in households even in two income-earning families, and many share a two-physician household. For instance, at the height of the COVID pandemic, while breastfeeding my infant, I was in the front lines like many other women physicians, working back-to-back 12-hour shifts. I felt guilty asking for breaks to pump breast milk, so many times I would pump while seeing patients, working on charts, attending mandatory meetings, giving presentations and teaching medical students.

It can be overwhelming to be pulled in so many directions by people who need us. Who takes priority? Our kids? Our patients? Our colleagues in need? Our friends and family? Many of us often feel that we are letting someone down, either our patients, our family or ourselves. These pressures can translate to stresses at home. For instance, women physicians are also less likely to have established social networks and more likely to get divorced than their male colleagues and have higher rates of infertility.

To be sure, when entering this field many of us knew we would need to make sacrifices and have less flexibility, but to what extent?

It’s not surprising that women not only have higher rates of depression and anxiety than our male colleagues but also higher rates of suicide. It’s time that something is done.

For one, we have to invest in mentorship and sponsorship opportunities for women. Women who feel that they have opportunities for advancement are less likely to feel burnout. Women need mentorship teams that can champion them and support them, and we need diverse leadership representation, recognition and pay equity.

There should be non-retaliatory support systems for times of need. I have had colleagues confide in me that they have cancer, autoimmune diseases, anxiety and depression. Yet they are afraid of the risks of taking off work, seeking help or asking for an accommodation. There is a perceived stigma around having behavioral health conditions and treatment. The fear of repercussions that may impact their ability to practice can interfere with physicians seeking help. Over half of state medical boards still require physicians to report when they seek behavioral health treatment. While efforts have been made to remove such requirements in many states, we need to make this universal.

Finally, we need to rethink the medical workplace culture. While other professions have made advances in supporting maternity leave and work-family balance, medicine lags behind. Seventy-eight percent of women physicians experience discrimination at work, more than a third related to motherhood. Only half of women physicians take their full maternity leave for fear of the negative impacts it could have on their career. Women physicians should have the same opportunities for parental leave as others and not be punished.

Women physicians are first and foremost human. We have flaws and basic needs. It’s time we make a change because when we are not healthy, we cannot provide the best care for our patients. Ultimately, that’s why we went into medicine — to heal others. That can only happen if we heal ourselves as well.

Maria Portela Martinez is a senior fellow with the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity and an associate professor of family medicine at the George Washington University. The opinions expressed here are her own.