Bio and Society Alumna Pursues Her Passion in Urology
Photo by Taylor Rearick
The Beginning
After many years in a very small, competitive preparatory school, I made the decision to attend one of the world’s largest universities on the opposite side of the country. I arrived at Arizona State University (ASU) in 2014 as a Midwest transplant, unsure about how a theater and dance kid with no formal research or hospital experience would ever become an academic researcher, let alone a viable medical school applicant. Truthfully, I didn’t even know what it meant to “do” research. My understanding was based on the more common lab work I watched my pre-med peers do, and pipetting at a bench did not sound fulfilling to me.
I was interested in women’s health, so a research program called the Embryo Project, which the Barrett Honors College advertised at an activity fair, intrigued me. The program described a history and philosophy of science research opportunity involving writing scientific articles. Prior to college, I prided myself in my communication skills because communicating to me meant writing a lot. I’ve always done that. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The group of researchers who make up the Embryo Project (EP) work within the Center for Biology and Society at ASU. Students collectively research, write, and workshop original encyclopedia articles in the EP Writing Seminar and edit them in the EP Editing Seminar. If the articles meet the publication’s very specific typographical and linguistic standards and complete the rigorous editorial process, they get published on the Embryo Project Encyclopedia, an open access scientific resource. There was always a mix of graduate and undergraduate students who wrote many original encyclopedia articles grounded in history and related to any subject broadly connected to development and reproductive science. All of this showed me that this was not your typical research lab.
Embryo Project Training
What topics did we write about? That was entirely up to each author, and one of the most liberating and thrilling aspects of the work we did. During my time at the EP, clustered topics that my peers researched included the aftermath of birth defects following exposure to agent orange during the Vietnam War, the Watson and Crick Semi-conservative DNA replication experiments, early historical association of birth defects with mythical creatures and monsters, and the history of the government supported practice of eugenics in the United States.
At first, my specific research interests surrounded nineteenth century “female physicians.” In my research, I characterized and contextualized the role they played in women’s reproductive healthcare and pregnancy management by filling a niche that the medical field was not addressing prior to the early twentieth century, despite having little to no formal medical training themselves. I later explored further how gender expectations, medical misconceptions and moral traditions of the 1800s shaped the reproductive care that women received for the following two hundred years. 
My mantra had always been: “Write a lot and use big words.” But the first articles I wrote were indigestible, filled with jargon no one without a science degree could understand. I received my first documents back covered with red edits and every sentence structure ripped apart. This deeply invalidated the academic confidence I had developed during my high school years. The structure of the program required students to recommend edits on each other’s written work and share their revisions during in person round-table workshops. Initially, having a room full of academics critiquing your work in real time took some getting used to, but soon I found myself grateful for the environment where we could all grow together.
Ever since joining the EP, my confidence as a researcher, scientist and soon to be physician has grown tremendously. By encouraging the writers to cluster their articles around a very specific concept or event, effectively finding their niche, the EP instructors encourage safe experimentation with writing and investigating, including allowing me to explore writing about science and sex without fear of repercussions or censorship.
With extreme patience and continued work to meet the standards of the project, in my first semester the Encyclopedia accepted two of four of my submitted articles for editing and potentially publication. After my first Embryo Project class, I returned the following semester to continue my work. That second semester turned into five more. Over time, I became more and more confident about receiving edits and giving my feedback to other students. I received positive reinforcement from the editors, who eventually encouraged me to train to be an editor for the Encyclopedia. Fall of 2018 was my sixth and final semester as an EP writer and second semester as a trained technical editor with over 24 publications, a Barrett Honors Thesis and Masters Thesis and Degree and in Biology and Society under my belt. 
I had been so wrong. Saying a lot or using big words isn’t effective communication at all. Communication is about informing different audiences with different reading levels and perspectives effectively. Communication is about tailoring one’s message so that the recipient can easily access the concept, a principle that is so closely tied to the patient-physician relationship I am now navigating as a medical trainee. I can now explain scientific and medical processes to most people in accessible but still accurate language. Doing so promotes a better understanding of health and wellness in the community.
My evolved understanding of what it means to be an effective communicator caused me to view my life and goals differently, especially after being accepted to medical school and later beginning my clinical training. I found myself using the linguistics skills I had sharpened during my time at the EP when meeting a new patient for the first time in the Emergency Department to take a medical history. I also found myself using these skills when formally giving a concise oral SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) presentation of a patient to an attending physician on hospital rounds, more easily picking out the pertinent details in my mind that warranted our immediate attention. I also grew an increased awareness of my peers who had not had the same communication skills training and struggled to form effective patient and professional relationships.
The writing and editing tools I gained from the EP gave me the confidence to pursue research projects outside of my formal medical training in St. Louis and in areas that many of my future physician peers would describe as “atypical” including a systematic review of medical indications for pelvic vibrator use, or an especially ethics-heavy topic like the historical and contemporary censorship of the word “vagina” and how that might affect pelvic health outcomes for patients.
Sexplained Med
During my first year of medical school, my natural interest in the lack of comprehensive sex education in the US (including medical students only receiving 5-8 hours of sex education on average) prompted me to create Sexplained Med, an education initiative via Instagram where I dispel rumors about sex, share evidence-based education, and normalize the importance of addressing sexual problems with a physician and removing shame from medical spaces. My experience with the EP learning how to best “explain” scientific concepts to the average social media scroller heavily inspired the Sexplained Med project.
After receiving thousands of direct messages from people around the world all asking the same question, “Am I normal?” I realized that sexual health problems are far more pervasive and in need of medical recognition than I thought, and that there is not enough urgency within the medical field to prioritize issues of sex. 
I hope to grow Sexplained Med into a podcast and larger website platform with divisions for patients and providers of all specialties, demonstrating the relevance of knowledge of sexual medicine beyond pelvic health specialists. Through my social media growth, my uncommon sexual medicine research interests gained the attention of physicians across the country and allowed me to collaborate virtually with mentors at other institutions that understood and supported my interests. I learned that not only am I capable of writing strong academic papers, but that my voice and perspective matters.
As of May 2022, Sexplained Med (@sexplained.med) has 18.3K followers on Instagram. I discuss anything relating to sexual medicine, urology, my research, produce educational videos, as well as collaborate with physicians (urologists, psychiatrists, and OBGYNS), pelvic floor physical therapists, sex therapists, and providers across the globe. I create educational slide decks on topics like penile and vaginovulvar pathologies, history and philosophy of sex and science, and share evidence-based answers to common medical myths surrounding sex and sexual function. Most importantly, I am working to normalize conversations around sex in medicine and take shame and stigma away from the physician’s office and bedroom. I have collaborated with brands that align with my values in evidence based sexual health, including The Flo App, OLLY, Beducated, Lora Dicarlo, Sweet Vibes, Joyja period underwear, Ohnut, GLISSANT and more. During medical school, I attended the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA) Phoeinix 2021, International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) Dallas 2022, and American Urological Association New Orleans 2022 Conferences where I was able to meet so many of my nation-wide mentors in person and celebrate accepted research abstracts surrounding the historic and contemporary censorship of the word “vagina” as well as a project surrounding possible medical indications for pelvic vibrators as treatments for vulvar pain, urinary incontinence, and sexual dysfunction.
In 2021 I learned that I had been mentioned in The Menopause Manifesto, a book by The New York Times best-selling author Jen Gunter, an OBGYN and popular writer and social media educator. Dr. Gunter discussed my articles surrounding Lydia Pinkham. Pinkham was the nineteenth century women's health influencer and creator of the popular tonic titled Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, which she advertised to remedy menopause symptoms. This was the first time I learned of my EP work getting public recognition. 
Rainey’s Future in Urology
Early on, I had no expectations for myself in terms of degree of specialty rigor I would be interested in applying to after medical school, however the confidence that the EP helped me develop gave me the courage to pursue urology, one of the most competitive surgical specialties with only 10.9% practicing female physicians. My interest in urology came after a long personal struggle with my own sexual shame, personal experience with sexual dysfunction, and coming to the realization that sexual medicine is an incredibly underrepresented field. While there are other specialties that some might consider more suitable for management of female sexual dysfunction, I realized early on that genitourinary and sexual function are intimately related and people experience urologic problems regardless of their gender.
The investigative freedom I grew within at the Embryo Project was really the initial spark that called me to better understand human sexual function from a medical standpoint and how little we understand scientifically and start asking questions. In my medical training, I am working to replace intimidation with empowerment. I am learning from my community members that many patients leave the doctor’s office still lacking the understanding of their bodies or their medical conditions, shrouded in fear of the unknown. That is unacceptable to me. Communicating sexual concepts can be difficult due to stigma, but the communication tools I carry with me from my time in the EP allow me to better articulate the critical importance of understanding sexual function in the medical field. 
While growing as a writer and editor, I learned lessons I hope to use as a physician. For so long, I was confident that discussing topics was the same as communicating them. I relied on my instincts, and I was wrong. That is okay. Life is about editing, revising, and improving. I won’t always be right, and I will constantly “edit” my assumptions to keep growing. Patients deserve unique, individual care, like every article I edited or wrote during my time at the EP. Patients have different needs, requiring fresh eyes with no biases. I aspire to be a physician who uses their position of authority to alleviate confusion from diagnoses and provides patients with knowledge they need to gain confidence and feel in control of their body.
An eternal thank you is due to Drs. Jane Maienschein, Ben Hurlbut, Karin Ellison, Alexis Abboud, Carolina Abboud, Federica Turriziani Colonna, and Dina Ziganshina Lienhard for their help in cultivating my academic voice and growing my confidence as a science scholar!