• Question: Why did you decide to be a gynacologist instead of a less gross area of science, or even a scientist at all? Wouldn\'t you rather be a ninja????

    Asked by imnotascientistimabee to Claire, Greg, Jane, Jo, Nuruz, Vicki on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Greg FitzHarris

      Greg FitzHarris answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Yes, being a gynaecologist must be gross. Thankfully im not one — I’m a lab-based researcher rather than a doctor who treats patients. The guy I share my office with is a ‘proper’ gynaecologist – i dont know how he does it!

    • Photo: Vicki Onions

      Vicki Onions answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Hi imnotascientist
      Tough question for me because i’m not a gynaecologist….but some of the work i do is pretty gross!! Most of the work i do with actual ovaries involves me going to an abattoir (where they put animals down for meat production) and standing by a skip full of gross things. The reproductive tracts of the sheep are not used and usually just thrown away…in to said skip….so i stand next to it and cut the ovaries off and taken them back to the lab with me. I guess i ended up doing these gross things becasue when i took on the research i didn’t realise i’d have to do it 🙂 lol.
      But i ended up in reproductive biology (which gynaecology is a part of) because at univeristy, that was the area that i found most interesting. When you pick an area of research….or any career for that matter….the most important thing is that it has to interest you. You spend a lot of your life at work, and the only way i could be fully committed to something is if i find it interesting
      I decided to be a scientist because that was the only thing i was good at!!
      I tried kickboxing once but in the first lesson the teacher kicked me and i was straight over on my backside and he scared me a bit and at that point i realised that my ninja dreams were never going to happen

    • Photo: Claire O'Donnell

      Claire O'Donnell answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I’m not a gynaecologist – luckily for me and womankind in general i suspect! I can’t do the high kicks required to be a ninja and I don’t look as good in lycra as I once did!

    • Photo: Jane Cleal

      Jane Cleal answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      It would be good to be a ninja, but I am not that athletic and would probably not be able to lift my weapons.
      I am a scientist because I like to keep my brain busy and easily get bored! In being a scientist I can keep trying to solve a problem and do lots of different things to get the results.
      I started out looking at heart disease and discovered that I needed to look at how the baby develops in the womb inorder to understand heart disease. So I am not a gynacologist, but I work in science related to the baby’s development in the womb. It is a bit gross as I have to collect the baby’s placenta as birth! I only do that sometimes, but I would find it a bit yuck doing that sort of thing all the time…I guess you get used to it!

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