Actually the quantity f(medium) or simply the f factor is depends on the mass energy absorption coefficient of the medium relative to the air.
f med = 0.876( (μ ̅/ρ)med) / ((μ ̅/ρ)air )
The physics of radiation therapy, Khan, table 8.1 list f factors for water, bone, and muscle under conditions of charged particle equilibrium for a range of photon energies.
You are correct in stating that it is the ratio of the mass energy absorption coefficients. You can look at a lot of these values at the NIST web site:
http://www.nist.gov/pml/data/xraycoef/
Look at Table 3 for elements and Table 4 for compounds and mixtures including some standard tissues.