I am wondering if anyone who is a female surgeon (or just any physician), or a physician who works with any female surgeons, have any advice for aspiring female surgeons. Is there something specific or different that we should be doing?

I have a friend who chose to go to Medical School when in her 30's. Despite the fact that she proved her abilities to juggle life and career. Despite the fact that she successfully completed her surgical exams in the UK to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, she found it impossible to be accepted by the 'establishment'. It is still a fact that female surgeons have to be seen to be 'better' than the other candidates for jobs. There remains a culture, particularly in the UK, of a male dominated culture. There are still elements of 'bullying'. Her advice is that one has to grow a very thick skin. Be determined. Even when others succeed in hurting your feelings, or making you feel 'less important' do not show it. Ever. Develop a support network, both in work and outside. Remain focused. Network with other aspiring female surgeons, and also with established surgeons - male and female. Try not to develop romantic relationships with close colleagues - remaining distant allows an outlet where people aren't watching your every move. Keep up to date with development in the surgical world. Remain positive.

You are going to have to put your natural aspirations for being a mother as second priority. With four years of college, four years of medical school, and 5 to 9 years of residency training, there will not be much time to enjoy this. You can certainly do it, but maybe not do it all. When you are finished, you will be getting up there in years: if this matters to you.

You can be all you want to be! You control your destiny. My one advice will be to learn to prioritize and delegate early. I have done it successfully and have friends who have done it. There are naysayers in every walk of life, their comments will bother you only if you let them..... Grow thick skin is aptly said.

Which country are you living in?  A female doc will need a very supportive partner, so if that's not seen as acceptable in your society in general it wouldn't be do-able to both have a career as a doc and a happy family life. From The Netherlands, where in spite of the fact that of the freshly graduated MD's 80% is female (in med school it even is 90%), just 39% of the surgical residents are female, so even less are established surgeons, in 2002 it was only 5%, in 2013 a lot better but still quite low ±19% (versus e.g. internal medicine in 2013 ±39%). In my family my youngest unmarried sis is an allergologist, my eldest sis who was married with children gave up her medical career after the children - totaling 5 - were born, my daughter also a MD because of problems in finding a suitable job as a doctor - these last years docs can't find suitable jobs in NL, many highly qualified medical specialist can't find one - is contemplating a move to doing only clinical medical research after her Ph.D, loosing her MD qualification in the process.  Am retired now, have worked with two (part time) female internist colleagues (out of 6) and a female surgeon (out of 6), two female cardiologist (out of 5), a female pulmonologist (out of 3), also a lot of female pediatricians (6 out of 7), one female ENT (out of 3), one female ophthalmologist (out of 3), 3 female radiologists (out of 6), acceptance usually is OK, but even in NL where medicine is a female dominated field female surgeons face a tough job making a career,  at present there still isn't a female head of the department of surgery.  One late female radiologist when her children were young had her husband be a stay at home husband, others either had very adequate child care plans including a back-up plan should the designated child carer fall ill or went on vacation (usually that meant two child carers working part time, one filling in if the other was sick or on vacation) or had chronic problems caused by having to be home at a certain time so unable to finish their medical business if it was a busy day, not really appreciated by the colleague on call who had to finish her work. Especially as a surgeon being home by 17 hours is an illusion, more like 19 hours if things went well. Many lady docs chose to be family doctors, pediatricians, geriatricians, dermatologist, with a lot less work related stress in NL. Since most lady docs chose to work part time (as many male docs nowadays do too) continuity in the department depends on the full timers (I was one of them) so put a disproportionate strain on their workload.  That's why we rather have a (almost) full time working colleague than one who only works part time. On the radio I heard an interview with a lady who wrote a book about female medical specialist, and with a lady ENT doc.  They both stated that what a lady doc most needs is a very supportive spouse with appropriate expectations of their relationship, so not a man who expects his wife to sew on his shirt buttons, or be home welcoming him with dinner when he came home after his work, since chances were she would be home later than he would.  Also the stress having to be on call once every so many night, once every so many week-ends, on holidays, deeply impacting ones private lives, for both male and female docs. Be aware that being a doc, especially a surgeon, leaves a very big imprint on your private life, and this often is one of the reasons for a failed relationship. In NL the rate of divorce in the general population is 1/3, in docs 1/2. Female docs often have the problem of feeling inadequate, both as a mother (since they often had to miss events in their children's life e.g. performing at a school play, performing at the music school or dance school etc. due to work obligations) and as a doctor (since they often couldn't finish their work having to leave early in the evening to be with the children).

There's a macho thing about surgery. Ignore it and be what you want to be. The real surgeons will respect  you. The others....well they too will recognize you later when you are known not for your gender but for your skill.

I have worked with many very competent female surgeons. The key to success seems to be not to worry about doing anything "different" or "specific". They worked hard during their residency, often subspecialized and advanced in their field as a result of competence. There are many female liver transplant surgeons, some of them heading their programs.