Why become an OB/GYN doctor?

I just finished my first week of OB/GYN and I have been on the Gynecology service all week. This means I was mostly in the OR helping with a wide variety of surgeries. I got to help on several hysterectomies, ovarian surgeries, fibroid removal. Basically any disease of the female reproductive system besides the cancer we were in charge of handling. Next week I will be on GYN/oncology and will handle all the cancer involving the female reproductive tract and often these will be terminal cases. 

Being in the OR reminded me of how much I like doing surgery but I also realized that the lifestyle is not worth the thrill of the OR. The hours are completely unreliable and inevitably long. I have been working 16+ hours again all week and I am required to work weekends as well. These long days ad up quick and when you realize the residents work like this and the attending's hours are not much better, it is easy to determine that the surgical specialties are not worth the life commitment. 

I once had a surgeon tell me in all honesty "If you want to be a good surgeon, you must be a surgeon and it must encompass your whole life, you will no longer be a father, you will no longer be a husband, you will have to drop your religion and everything else you knew about your life. That is what it takes to be a good surgeon." he explained. This is obviously a little extreme and not every surgeon is like this, but I know a few who would not claim to be this way but when you look at their lives you would see that they really have become engulfed in the surgeon life and everything else has fallen by the wayside.

Why am I talking about surgeons if I am doing OB/GYN? The field of OB/GYN has always been considered a surgical subspecialty. A lot of people are attracted to OB/GYN who really liked surgery but also loved the medicine side of things as well, like managing illnesses that do not require surgery. In the past 20 years OB/GYNs have also become primary care doctors for many women so they manage all the health issues of the female patients they have in their practice. In addition to the medicine side they get to go to the OR a few times / week and perform surgeries. Many of these surgeries are complicated. If you want to do surgery but you do not think you can give up the medicine side, OB/GYN may be your calling. Not to mention you get to deliver babies as well. 

I do not have any desire to do OB/GYN as my choice of specialty but I can see why it appeals to some.