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If you're a woman, you might want to make sure that you're going to medical school for all the right reasons. According to Yale researchers, women who go to medical school just for the financial rewards of being a doctor could be making a mistake.

The study was published in the Journal of Human Capital.

Researchers found that women are not paid what they expect and could've made more money being a physician assistant.

Co-authors Keith Chen and Judith Chevalier of the Yale School of Management say that the reason for the findings could be because women doctors earn a lower hourly wage than male doctors do not work enough hours to make their expensive training pay off compared to PAs.

"One of the takeaways here is it's not all wage gap," Chevalier said. "It's mostly an hours gap. Many women who become doctors simply don't work enough hours to amortize the upfront costs. It's also true for some men, but a much smaller fraction."

For men, becoming a doctor is a far better deal than becoming a PA. The NPV of becoming a doctor for the median male was around $2.3 million, while the value of becoming PA was around $1.9 million. But for the median woman, becoming a doctor offers no such advantage. The NPV for women of becoming a doctor was about $1.67 million, while the NPV of becoming PA was $1.68 million.

Most of the male/female NPV disparity is driven by the fact that women doctors tend to work fewer hours than male doctors in the prime of their careers. Early in their careers male and female doctors work similar hours, the researchers found. But between the ages of 31-35, the median male doctor works 50 hours per week while the median female works 40. And a gap in hours worked remains through age 55.

The results add to a growing literature suggesting that women may be overinvesting in professional degrees, the researchers say. The question is why women invest in these degrees when higher returns can be found elsewhere.

It could be, Chevalier says, that women simply perceive that being a doctor will be more satisfying work. But it's also possible that women "don't foresee the extent to which they're going to cut back working when they have kids."

"There are lots of reasons the decision to be a doctor could be rational," she adds. "But for the median woman, it doesn't make financial sense."