I was a professor of OBGYN in medicine at Cairo University, the first and largest medical school and teaching hospital in the Middle East. I finished my residency, master’s degree and Ph.D. of OBGYN at Cairo University (Egypt) and completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at Cochin Hospital in Paris, France.
I married an American citizen and was planning to move to live with him in the United States. But faced with the fact that I could not practice medicine before passing the USMLE exams, I stayed in my home country and studied for the USMLE, while working a full-time job as a physician and caring for my child and ill father.
I passed all the USMLE steps and then decided to move to the U.S. after nine years of marriage. I applied for The Match three successive years, paying more the $3,000 each year, without a single interview. Why? I believe it’s because the programs filtered my application by year of graduation.
I tried to search for a health care job. I emailed hospitals and universities, often more than 100 emails per day, Either I received no reply, or was told I had to be licensed to work in the position, even as a medical assistant.
I am thinking about going home to practice my profession in my birth country and leaving everything in the U.S.