what do you do when referring to is female doctor? is it el medico or la medica?
Some discussion here about médico/a and doctor/a: La médico, la médica, La doctora | Antimoon Forum
I’d be interested to see if it varies by region.
Just don’t use medic@. Blech!
IIRC, I have heard la médica more often than la médico. And usually if there is la médico, the médico is modifier/being modified. Definitely not “el médico” when talking about a female physician. But I just more likely get and say “la doctora” (the [female] doctor).
According to the RAE, médica is the female noun form of médico.
At least in Perú you’d never “la médica”; “la médico” sounds too technical, too PC.
“La doctora” is the way to go.
In Spain, la médico if you know it’s a woman and want to emphasize it; el médico if it’s irrelevant to the conversation. I’m going to the doctor = voy al médico (my GP happens to be a woman but that’s irrelevant, plus it wouldn’t be the first time she’s not there and I’m sent to another doctor who happens to be male); SiL-the-doctor = mi cuñada la médico. We know what RAE says and it’s one of those cases in which usage happens to disagree (most people will also not say la química except to refer to chemistry, or say la ingeniera - my great-aunt was la señora ingeniero in a foundry for forty years, if you call me la ingeniera I reserve the right to throw her portrait at you).
But we don’t usually say el doctor to refer to this kind (after all, most of them don’t have any kind of graduate degree); in those cases in which we do use el doctor, the feminine is la doctora.