Physicians who marry physicians are managing two demanding careers, two call schedules and, often, twice the medical school debt.
In an Aug. 30 report, Medscape published survey data and testimonials from physicians who are married to other physicians, providing insights into what their relationships are like on a daily basis.
1. Dual-physician households — marriages between two doctors — account for 26.1% of physician marriages, according to a 2024 study cited by Medscape.
2. In Medscape‘s “Physician Mental Health & Well-Being Report 2026,” 77% of physicians surveyed said they are married or living with a partner.
3. Among those partnered, 81% described their marriage as good or very good; only one in 5 called it poor or very poor.
4. Scheduling is one of the most cited daily strains. Supriya Rao, MD, a gastroenterologist in Boston married to fellow gastroenterologist Allen Hwang, MD, for 16 years, said the couple — parents to an 11-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter — juggle twice the call weekends of a single-physician household. “We have to switch things around a lot and rely on outside help,” Dr. Rao told Medscape.
5. Some couples manage the load by building schedules around each other months in advance. OB-GYNs Radhika Sharma, MD, and her husband, Scott Curtis, MD, who completed residency together and now share a practice in Sheboygan, Wis., said they plan their schedules in 4- to 6-month chunks and stay ready to “pivot and problem solve” as things change.
6. The strain can start in medical school. The National Residency Matching Program offers “tandem recruiting” so couples can apply to residency together, though it doesn’t guarantee they’ll match to the same location. “I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned about this,” Shawn Justesen, a third-year medical student hoping to match into the same residency program as his wife, Shelem Justesen, also a third-year medical student, told Medscape.
7. Some physician couples have built tools to ease that stress. Harsh Moolani, MD, a neurology resident at NYU Hospital in New York City, and his wife, Anupama Balasubramanian, an anesthesiologist at New York Presbyterian-Cornell, created CouplesMatchTool in 2022 after going through the couples match process themselves.
8. Medical school debt compounds for two-physician households. Debt loads reach a median of $215,000 per person, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges — a figure that effectively doubles for two physicians in the same household.
9. Two incomes can also ease that burden. “Being married to another resident provides two incomes, and this helps us pay for our expenses while we continue to pay off our loans,” Dr. Moolani told Medscape. “Anytime I look at my co-residents who are surviving on a single salary in New York City, I don’t know how they do it.”
10. Once in practice, some couples prioritize reinvesting in their practices over personal wealth. Sameena Rahman, MD, an OB-GYN and menopause specialist in Chicago who shares an office with her husband of 17 years, an interventional pain/sports medicine specialist, told Medscape: “Right now, we’re putting most of our savings into building our practices. As a couple who are both in private practice, that’s our focus, unlike a lot of people in private practice who start with another partner. Ours is 100% coming from us.”
11. Setting explicit, non-negotiable financial goals early matters just as much once a couple is in practice. “It takes a lot of honest and challenging conversations, especially if there are student loans, a house, or children in the picture,” Dr. Sharma said. “I think it’s equally important to have non-negotiables when it comes to financial goals and try your best to stick to them.”
12. Physician marriages can also make career pivots easier. Dr. Rahman said she left hospitalist work amid burnout after her husband offered to cover her overhead so she could open her own practice in his office space.
13. Even with that support, division of labor can stay unequal. “I’m helping my husband run his pain practice and I’m running my gyn practice and the household, too,” Dr. Rahman said. “My husband is my business partner; he’s my life partner, and the father of my kids. All of this can get challenging.”
14. Despite the logistical load, many physicians say the mutual understanding is worth it. “When you come home to another doctor, you feel a level of freedom to be your authentic self,” Dr. Moolani told Medscape.
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