To retrain as doctor in 40s! Read specifics!

[UsuallyIwouldsayUABUBut]

I just searched for a thread on this as I know there have been some before, and indeed that I myself have even commented and voted to say that the poster is being VVVV U. It does seem mad to embark on a course that won't finish until you are practically 50 and then even given we are all going to work til our 70s, that's only 20 years, i.e. a half career.

However.... due to personal circumstances, I am living overseas in a country in which it is possible to study medicine more cheaply that the UK, and it's still very well regarded. We will be here for at least the 6 years required to study (timeline isn't a problem). I could probably get the foundation years in too, or at least a couple of them.

I don't enjoy the job I trained to do. I'm currently doing it from home but I won't progress this way. I don't think it will be particularly easy to achieve the level I was at after we move back to UK (current plan). And anyway, I don't enjoy it.

I'm not under financial pressure, I would like to have a career I can be proud of though. DH would prefer me to work but there's no particular need to make more money. I haven't discussed this with him yet.

I did science A-levels and got good grades (a zillion years ago, I remember nothing). There is a single test to do to apply called an IMAT, I assume I'd have to study.

Thoughts? Until this idea popped into my head I would have thought this was mad, but it kind of seems like I've been given the runway to do it without the usual issues that people cite.

hospital consultant in my 40s here. Don’t do it. Working conditions and treatment of trainees is even worse now than when I trained. being a junior doctor is relentless, heartbreaking and exhausting, and is often a thankless task. you have all the responsibility but no power.

We are trying to prop up a failing NHS and are constantly blamed for system failures. The emotional toll of not being able to care properly for patients due to resource limitations is immense.

I love my job and what I do but we are constantly being forced to do more with fewer resources. Our trust have commenced an entire new service with no extra resources while we aren’t even caring properly for current patients.

I have discouraged both my children from considering it - to be honest neither are keen after seeing the toll it takes.

I mean this kindly but thinking school holidays might be the 'pinch point', a big driving factor being the 'prestige', being unsure if your stomach could handle bodily fluids etc, and your experience of what sounds like a private IVF clinic setting being your main experience of health care suggests to me that you shouldn't be doing this.