Medical courses in India are very demanding for the students thus making career in medical education very stressful. The study was designed to determine the prevalence of stress levels in 100 first year medical students and to explore the sources of stress & it‘s relationship across the male and female students.

Demographic information and Qualitative data from investigator tailored Medical Student Stress Questionnaire (MSSQ) by self rating under supervision of investigators were subjected to a thematic analysis. Stress perceived was more in males students (82.2%) as compared to females (61.8%) and their MSSQ index score was significantly different (U=985; P=0.02). Moderate to high academic stress was present among 79% of students more so in males with the academic domain score significantly different from that of females (U=883; P=0.007). Females perceived more stress in inter personal domain (12.7%) with the score significantly different from males (U=953.5; P=0.02). Group and Teaching stress was equally present in males and females.