Female health professionals are at twice the risk of suicide than women in other professions, according to new research by the University of Melbourne and Deakin University.
The combination of occupational stress, home life pressures, and ready access to prescription drugs proved a "toxic cocktail" of risk factors for female doctors, according to the study.
Published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, the study marked the first national analysis of suicide by healthcare professionals, who accounted for 3.8 per cent of all suicides by employed Australians in the period 2001 to 2012.
The study found medical professionals are exposed to higher rates of stress than other professions, due to long working hours, work-family conflicts, and fears of making mistakes.
These stresses are associated with the development of mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, often worsened by exposure to trauma through contact with patients and their families.
Yet female health professionals also experience additional sources of "gender role stress", such as pressures to undertake childcare and household roles, the study found.
Lead author Dr Allison Milner of Deakin University said female doctors in male-dominated fields continue to feel hindered by barriers to their career advancement, including workplace bullying and harassment.
"It is definitely more complicated than just being a woman. But I think the thing about females is they often experience pressures outside of work as well," she said.
"And [medicine] is a more masculine environment, usually oriented around work hours suited to men which are less flexible," Dr Milner said.
"So there are pressures at work, and general life stresses - it's just a toxic cocktail of factors that accumulate tragically into someone taking their own life."
According to Dr Milner, health professionals' ready access to prescriptive medicines proved a highly significant factor, with women statistically more likely to commit suicide by drug overdose.
While the rate of suicide among male medical professionals was similar to men in other professions, the study found male nurses and midwives suffered a disproportionately high rate of suicide.
The authors suggested occupational gender pressures may also be contributing factors, as the nursing and midwifery professions are "organised to reinforce traditionally feminine characteristics of caring and support".
"Qualitative research has found that some male nurses experience anxiety about the perceived stigma associated with their non-traditional career choice," they wrote.
"These anxieties may constitute a risk factor for suicide for men in these occupations."
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