Estrogen’s a Pain (Or Is It?)

One of the common side effects of pursuing the PhD-postdoc path is that you tend to become super-focused on a very small piece of your field.  Lately, I am so focused that I have almost completely lost track of why I study what I study.  I’ve had a lot of bad research luck lately, and this leaves me with a thoroughly isolated vision of a thoroughly frustrating task.  My guess is that I am not the only scientist in this position.  This situation is good for no one.  So, I stepped back, took a look at the work, and realized, well this is really interesting.  And people I talk to about it think so, too.  At the clinical level, this is a question that affects many, many people.   This is what I forget until my work happens to come up in a social conversation.

The funniest thing about working on medically-related research is that strangers will often talk to you like you’re a physician.  I’ve heard a lot of weird details about the health of strangers, completely unbidden.  It happened when I did my PhD research on bladder function (awkward) and it happens now when I mention that I study the potential role of estrogen in pain.  It starts casually, “Oh, what brings you to Montreal?  What are you doing at the University?...”  If they keep pressing for details, I tell them, “I’m looking at the effect  of estrogen on pain, specifically abdominal pain.”  Once this happens, I know I’ll either get a funny look, plus complete silence thereafter, or way too much information that I’m not even remotely prepared to comment on.  I’ve heard about the veterinarian’s monthly pain experiences, and the estrogen treatments that were given to a new acquaintance I met at a friend’s wedding.  Yep, people share these things with me just as soon as I meet them. 

I’ve got more coming, just wait!  To be continued soon. J