Dificuldades dos médicos que atuam na Estratégia Saúde da Família de Minas Gerais para proverem atenção à saúde das mulheres Difficulties of physicians working in the Family Health Strategy of Minas Gerais state to provide health care for women Dificultades de los médicos que actúan en la Estrategia de Salud Familiar de Minas Gerais para proporcionar atención a la salud de las mujeres

Objective: To evaluate the difficulties of physicians from the Family Health Strategy (FHS) to provide health care for women in all stages of their lives. Methods: Two hundred and three physicians from FHS in three regions of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil answered a semi-structured questionnaire with specific questions regarding women’s healthcare, such as cervical and breast cancer prevention, prenatal and postpartum care, reproductive health care, and health care during climacteric. Results: The most common reason for having become doctors at the FHS program was the interest to work in Primary Health Care (38.4%). The most frequent difficulties were taking care of climacteric women (61.9%) and providing reproductive health care (41.9%). By comparing physicians according to their practicing time since graduation, it was possible to find that the youngest (up to three years after graduation) presented more difficulty in providing all types of health care for women. Multivariate analysis confirmed the limitations of young physicians in taking care of perimenopausal women (p<0.009) and their small participation in educational activities for women (p<0.021). Conclusions: Younger doctors present more specific problems in all types of health care for women, with less participation in educational activities. It is assumed that these physicians’ difficulties are linked to flaws during their undergraduate education and to a reduced participation in programmatic actions in women’s health care.