Graduate entry medicine at 29?

[dazedandconfused26]

Should I do graduate entry medicine at 29?

For context: I'm 27, currently doing a PhD, have a long-term partner, a mortgage, and am hoping to have kids around 35 (although I'm currently on the fence about kids).

Basically, I've realised I would love to be a clinical academic, mixing patient interaction and communication with scientific research. Unfortunately, what I do and enjoy doesn't fit very well into the STP as a clinical scientist.

If I got onto GEM after I finish my PhD, I'd graduate around age 33 and then ideally do foundation training for 2 years.
The main reasons I'm hesitant are

• not having an income for 4 years and my partner having to support us both, including the mortgage
• being moved around for placement/training
• dealing with shift work in my early to mid 30s
• potentially becoming a first-time mother in the middle of foundation or speciality training

I'm also thankfully in a good financial situation after some inheritance; I could survive off the money for the 4 years, but it would make a huge dent.

Does anyone have experience of GEM and/or the SFP at a similar stage of life? Or navigating training programmes as a first-time mother?
Should I just aim to work in clinical trials or something similar instead?

There is a good thread on r@ddit with lots of info and posts from people who have studied GEM

I know a female doctor who left school with strong science A levels and went to drama school, tried working as an actor for several years and then applied to medical school. She was about 8-10 yrs older than her fellow students, took it all far more seriously (no turning up hung over etc) and excelled. She also went off and had a baby on her own (IVF, no known father) and is working in a hospital in London, raising her now teenage daughter. Also some inheritance to help with childcare, to be fair.

I think if she can do it, you can absolutely do it, if you're determined enough.

I started a 4 year dietetics degree at 30. Not exactly the same I’m aware but I have placement etc and also want kids at the end of it. There are lots on the course at my age. It’s good you have inheritance though as my DH was meant to support us through it but he got sick so now our income is £1200 a month. Very hard.

Id go for it. You miss 100% of the chances you don’t take.

Medicine is a rough path nowadays but you already have experience of academic and scientific rigour. That’s slightly different but I think you have a better idea than most of what you’re getting into. I don’t think your age is an issue. The financial side seems doable and short term long distancing in your relationship during the registrar years, if necessary, is no different from what many academics must do anyway.

My question is, do you have a plan for achieving that academic/clinical career afterwards? My understanding is that this is when the career challenges will get brutal. I am not suggesting that you hold back. I do wonder whether you have interacted with others on this pathway, particularly women, to get a sense of whether you are really up for the challenge - particularly if you want to combine it with motherhood.

Slightly different but I know a male family friend who went into GEM in his early 30s. Him and his wife already had a child and went on to have 2 more kids while he was training. The registrar years were brutal on him and his wife but they got through it.