Finding Care in New York

Female OB/GYN Near Me: How to Find a Woman OB/GYN in New York

By the Find Her Doctor editorial team · Updated November 1, 2026 · 5 min read

To find a female OB/GYN near you, open our search, set Gender to Female, then choose your county and specialty. Our directory lists 1,488 female OB/GYNs across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley. About three out of four providers in our directory are women, so in most areas you'll have plenty of choice.

The trickier part usually isn't finding one. It's making sure a woman is actually the one in the room, especially at a birth in a group practice. That's covered below.

"Is it okay that I want a woman?"

Yes. Everyone who asks this feels a little awkward about it, and they shouldn't. Common reasons people give:

• Feeling more relaxed during pelvic and breast exams
• Finding it easier to talk about sex, periods or body changes
• Past trauma, including sexual trauma
• Religious or cultural reasons
• A sense that a woman may relate to what they're going through

Skill isn't determined by gender. The training is the same, and both women and men become excellent OB/GYNs. But comfort affects whether you show up for checkups and whether you mention the symptom that's been bothering you. If a female provider makes that easier, that's a perfectly good reason to choose one.

How to filter by gender in our search

1. Open our provider search.
2. In the Gender menu, choose Female.
3. In the Area menu, choose your county or borough.
4. In the Specialty menu, choose OB/GYNs, or another type such as midwives or gynecologists.
5. Optional: check Telehealth to see providers who offer video visits.
6. To narrow it down, type a city, neighborhood or ZIP code into the search box.

Your filters are saved in the page address, so you can bookmark the results or text them to a friend.

Shortcut: see all female OB/GYNs in our directory, then pick your county from the Area menu.

Gender in our directory comes from the national provider registry (NPPES), where providers report it themselves.

How many female OB/GYNs are in each county

Providers who practice in more than one county are counted in each.

Manhattan's number is high partly because so many practices are clustered around the big teaching hospitals. Plenty of people from Queens, Brooklyn and New Jersey see a Manhattan doctor near their office and fit visits into a lunch hour.

Getting a woman at your birth: the group practice problem

This is the question people wish they'd asked earlier. Many OB/GYNs work in groups, and in pregnancy the provider on call when you go into labor usually delivers your baby. Your favorite doctor may be off that night.

What helps:

• Ask the office directly: "How many clinicians share call, and how many are women?" If the answer is six out of six, you're set. If it's three out of seven, you know the odds.
• Consider a midwifery practice. Nearly all midwives in our directory are women, and many work in groups that deliver at hospitals.
• Ask about the hospital team. Labor nurses, residents and hospital-based doctors (laborists) may be involved too, especially at teaching hospitals. You can tell the hospital your preference.
• Write it into your birth plan. "I prefer female providers when possible" is a simple, reasonable line. Our guide on how to write a birth plan has more.

No practice can guarantee who's on call when labor starts. These steps make it a lot more likely.

Other ways to get a female clinician

Midwives and nurse practitioners. Most midwives and women's health nurse practitioners in our directory are women. They can provide:

• Annual exams, Pap and HPV tests
• Birth control, including IUDs and implants in many practices
• Prenatal and postpartum care (midwives)
• Menopause care

Female subspecialists. The gender filter works for every specialty: high-risk pregnancy, fertility, urogynecology, gynecologic oncology. Subspecialists are fewer, so you may need to widen your area. Most are concentrated in Manhattan, Nassau and Westchester.

In a small county? Widen the circle

In Putnam, Rockland, Orange and Dutchess, our directory lists fewer than 40 female OB/GYNs each, and Putnam lists 9. If you can't find a good match close to home:

• Search the next county over. Putnam residents often look in Westchester and Dutchess; Rockland residents often look in Westchester and Orange. Many people drive 20 to 30 minutes for a provider they trust.
• Look at midwives and nurse practitioners. For routine gynecology and healthy pregnancies, they're often easier to book.
• Use telehealth for some visits. Birth control check-ins and test results can sometimes be done by video. Check the Telehealth box in search.
• Ask for a female chaperone. If you see a male clinician, you can ask for a female staff member to be in the room during exams.

Your rights in the exam room

No matter who your provider is, you can:

• Ask for a chaperone during any breast or pelvic exam
• Ask the provider to explain each step before doing it
• Say "stop" or "pause" at any point
• Bring a support person
• Ask who else will be in the room, including residents or students at teaching hospitals

A good provider welcomes these requests. For more, see questions to ask a new OB/GYN.

What to say when you call

A short script helps:

• "I'm looking for a new gynecologist and I'd prefer a female provider. Who's taking new patients?"
• "Do you take [your plan name]?"
• "If I'm pregnant, how many of the doctors who share call are women?"
• "How far out is your next new-patient appointment?"

If the answer to that last one is three months, ask to be put on a cancellation list.

When to see a doctor

Don't put off care while you look for the perfect fit. See a provider soon if you:

• Have a positive pregnancy test
• Have very heavy, painful or irregular periods
• Have bleeding after sex or after menopause
• Notice a breast lump or other breast changes
• Are due for cervical cancer screening

Go to an emergency room or call 911 for heavy bleeding or severe belly or pelvic pain. If you're pregnant, go for bleeding, leaking fluid, a severe headache or vision changes. In an emergency, any available provider can help, and you can still ask for a chaperone.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• NPPES NPI Registry (CMS) — provider gender and taxonomy
• ACOG — Your First Gynecologic Visit (Patient FAQ)
• ACOG — Sexual Misconduct (Committee Opinion) on chaperones

This article is for general education and is not medical advice. It does not replace an evaluation by a licensed clinician who knows your history. If you think you have a medical emergency, call 911.