Whilst working in London on national surveillance of sexually transmitted infections (STI) I was sponsored to study for a Masters in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Upon returning to Dunedin, I took up employment with Dunedin School of Medicine, continuing my research interest in sexual health. I was interested in the relationship between the STI Chlamydia trachomatis and fertility outcomes and, thus, (eventually) embarked on PhD studies on infertility in Otago and Southland, jointly supervised by the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine (PSM) and Women's and Children's Health (WCH).
Since completing my thesis, I have continued to be employed within these departments and had some recent funding successes: We gained a grant to estimate national levels of infertility (with Prof Wayne Gillett as PI) and I received a Lotteries Health Postdoctoral Fellowship for a project which will use Bayesian techniques to estimate total (diagnosed and undiagnosed) incidence of Chlamydia in NZ. So, I am looking forward to getting immersed in these research projects and continuing to be involved with both WCH and PSM.