Background: Barriers to female surgeons entering the field are well documented in Australia, the USA and the UK, but how generalizable these problems are to other regions remains unknown.Methods: A cross‐sectional survey was developed by the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA)’s Global Surgery Working Group assessing medical students’ desire to pursue a surgical career at different stages of their medical degree. The questionnaire also included questions on students’ perceptions of their education, resources and professional life. The survey was distributed via IFMSA mailing lists, conferences and social media. Univariate analysis was performed, and statistically significant exposures were added to a multivariate model. This model was then tested in male and female medical students, before a further subset analysis by country World Bank income strata.Results: 639 medical students from 75 countries completed the survey. Mentorship [OR 3.42 (CI 2.29–5.12) p = 0.00], the acute element of the surgical specialties [OR 2.22 (CI 1.49–3.29) p = 0.00], academic competitiveness [OR 1.61 (CI 1.07–2.42) p = 0.02] and being from a high or upper‐middle‐income country (HIC and UMIC) [OR 1.56 (CI 1.021–2.369) p = 0.04] all increased likelihood to be considering a surgical career, whereas perceived access to postgraduate training [OR 0.63 (CI 0.417–0.943) p = 0.03], increased year of study [OR 0.68 (CI 0.57–0.81) p = 0.00] and perceived heavy workload [OR 0.47 (CI 0.31–0.73) p = 0.00] all decreased likelihood to consider a surgical career. Perceived quality of surgical teaching and quality of surgical services in country overall did not affect students’ decision to pursue surgery. On subset analysis, perceived poor access to postgraduate training made women 60% less likely to consider a surgical career [OR 0.381 (CI 0.217–0.671) p = 0.00], whilst not showing an effect in the men [OR 1.13 (CI 0.61–2.12) p = 0.70. Concerns about high cost of training halve the likelihood of students from low and low‐middle‐income countries (LICs and LMICs) considering a surgical career [OR 0.45 (CI 0.25–0.82) p = 0.00] whilst not demonstrating a significant relationship in HIC or UMIC countries. Women from LICs and LMICs were 40% less likely to consider surgical careers than men, when controlling for other factors [OR 0.59 CI (0.342–1.01 p = 0.053].Conclusion: Perceived poor access to postgraduate training and heavy workload dissuade students worldwide from considering surgical careers. Postgraduate training in particular appears to be most significant for women and cost of training an additional factor in both women and men from LMICs and LICs. Mentorship remains an important and modifiable factor in influencing student's decision to pursue surgery. Quality of surgical education showed no effect on student decision‐making.

Functional constipation is a common condition in children. We assessed the effectiveness of combined interferential (IF) electrical stimulation and pelvic floor muscle (PFM) exercises on functional constipation in children. We conducted a single-center, double-blind randomized clinical trial study during 2014–2017 in Tehran, Iran. Ninety children, aged 5–13 years, who fulfilled Rome III criteria were enrolled and randomly assigned into two treatment groups. Case group (n=45) underwent IF electrical stimulation and PFM exercises, whereas the control group (n=45) received PFM exercises plus sham stimulation. A complete bowel habit diary (with concerning data on the frequency of defecation per week, stool form, and the number of fecal soiling episodes), a constipation score questionnaire, and a visual pain score were recorded before, after the treatment and 6 months later for all participants. In addition, children in both groups were assessed with a constipation-related quality-of-life questionnaire before, after the end of treatment sessions, and 6 months after the treatment. Treatment success was achieved for 88.4% of children in the case group compared with 43.2% of children in the control group after the treatment (P<0.003). The median constipation score was reduced in both groups, with the cases having significantly lower scores after the treatment (4 vs. 8, P<0.000). Stool form normalized in 75.6% of the cases and 45.5% of the controls after the treatment (P<0.01). Our results showed that using IF electrical stimulation as an adjuvant therapy to the medical and rehabilitation programs significantly boosts the effects of treatment among these patients.