The long haul: Life in science with a chronic illness

A peek into the lives of women researchers who keep going strong in their academic quest despite battling chronic illnesses for years together

By Bharti Dharapuram

| Posted on March 6, 2025

“I think I do really well in a crisis situation, maybe the training as a field biologist helped me,” says Kadambari Devarajan, about receiving her cancer diagnosis. This was just before she was leaving to study carnivores in Kutch for her Master’s thesis at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru. “I was very calm and methodical, telling myself this is what it is, and focusing on my options for dealing with the situation.”

Emerging from the shadow of cancer and coping with other health challenges in recent years have been difficult for Devarajan. “Endometriosis is a completely different ballgame. It takes a toll on you in a very different way from something like cancer,” Devarajan says. “I am privileged that I managed to get the right kind of support when I needed it to still be here.”

Anasuya Chakrabarty

Mountains were on her mind when Jahnavi Joshi’s rheumatologist warned her that cold and damp conditions could flare up the inflammation in her joints due to rheumatoid arthritis. Joshi had just started a lab at the CSIR Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, to study the evolution of biodiversity in tropical forests, and was very excited about field expeditions. “One of my first thoughts was, will I ever be able to do field work again,” she says. Since then she has jumped at opportunities to test her limits, but with caution. “Being in the field helps,” she says, about her gentle return to forests that fascinate her.

“My symptoms are often disconnected, where inflammation can happen in different places in the body,” says Devapriya Chattopadhyay, a palaeontologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, who leads a research group studying how marine organisms interact with their environment across geological time.

“For the longest time, doctors could not put them all together as one condition,” she says about the bumpy road to diagnosing her rare autoimmune disease. Being transparent about her health with lab members, recognising limitations and finding new ways of designing work have helped her manage her academic work. “Reminding oneself of the small wins helps,” she adds.

“It was difficult for me to cope with the challenges of living alone abroad, while also concentrating on doing research,” says Anasuya Chakrabarty, about pursuing a PhD in Germany, when the first symptoms of bipolar disorder surfaced. She finished her thesis through chaotic years, working when she felt well and taking long breaks to manage her mental health while desperately searching for effective treatment. “Now I know myself better,” says Anasuya, an INSPIRE faculty at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, West Bengal. Chakrabarty studies the genetic basis of trait evolution in humans.

Devapriya Chattopadhyay examining fossils in the lab

Pooja Pawar’s doctor asked her to stop fieldwork for many months. The swelling in her ankles caused by bursitis had made fieldwork related to her study on hornbills in Indian forests difficult. A year-and-a-half later, she returned to research, but her plans ran aground when she started experiencing symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. “I need to always take into account that I have this illness,” Pawar says, about her diagnosis directing the course of her PhD from the Nature Conservation Foundation, Bengaluru. Pawar is also happy about the new research directions this introduced her to, which she otherwise wouldn’t have explored.

Many chronic illnesses do not have a clear course of disease, with diffuse symptoms that may manifest differently between people. This makes diagnosis a nebulous experience, and even when the root cause is identified, finding treatment can be a long process of trial and error. This can leave people second-guessing their experience, filled with trepidation about what comes next, and overwhelmed with the long shadow that the disease can cast on their lives.

Chakrabarty consulted multiple doctors before her bipolar disorder was diagnosed, and tried different combinations of medicines before finding effective treatment. When Chattopadhyay’s doctors struggled to identify her rare autoimmune condition, she sometimes wondered if she was imagining her shape-shifting symptoms. She went through a major surgery for doctors to realise that she did not have the terminal cancer that they were operating her for.

Uncertain progression

Not finding definite answers adds another layer of anxiety to the precarity that comes with chronic diseases, which inherently may not have a clear arc of progression. “I developed full-blown rheumatoid arthritis after I caught COVID-19,” Joshi says. This was very different from how the autoimmune disease usually progresses. Pawar was training in Joshi’s lab when the disease manifested as pain and stiffness in her wrists and hands making it difficult to handle lab instruments. While medicines have helped keep the disease in remission, flare-ups still jolt her. “When this happens, my planning goes for a toss,” Pawar says.

Devapriya Chattopadhyay with students duringafield trip to Kutch

Jahnavi Joshi and Pooja Pawar carrying out field work to sample soil arthropods in the Western Ghats

“The uncertainty worries me the most,” says Chattopadhyay, whose disease symptoms can affect her ability to think clearly, walk and even breathe. “I have to calculate the risks of a project before taking it up,” she says, which can be limiting in her discipline where field expeditions are integral.

Devarajan shares this fear while doing fieldwork in remote places, where medical help can be inaccessible and often inadequate. “I would have to factor in rest days when planning field work in case I am bedridden from debilitating pain,” she says. Joshi confronts the uncertainty related to her health by constantly testing her physical limits. “Unless you test your limits, how will you know what is possible,” she says. “But you must also be ready that you may fail.”

Managing debilitating symptoms that keep returning can be physically and mentally draining. After multiple surgeries for endometriosis and monthly hospitalisations for years, Devarajan was at her wit’s end by the time she defended her PhD thesis from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dealing with flare-ups every so often and without warning, Pawar feels overwhelmed by the reality that there is currently no cure for her autoimmune condition.

It is harder to deal with a chronic illness when there is a lack of social awareness. When Chakrabarty was struggling with bipolar disorder, people around her did not understand what she was going through and how to support her. “There is a lack of training and exposure in tackling such situations,” she says.

Devarajan’s experiences reflect a societal apathy towards women’s health issues. “You are expected to just put up with the pain,” she says, about how healthcare professionals have disregarded the severity of her endometriosis pain on a few occasions. “They think there are millions of women having periods, so what is the big deal?” For her, finding an understanding and supportive gynaecologist, therapist, and medical support team made a world of difference.

Crossover with academic challenges

Many of the challenges these researchers face are intricately tied to those of an academic career. Formal provisions at the institutional level and support from peers and the community can help them.

“Knowing that I had this condition from the beginning helped me plan my PhD,” Pawar says. When travelling for fieldwork, she carefully plans for weather, travel and accessible support systems. “Fortunately, we had the funds to accommodate it,” she says. “This is an important factor when I think about the options after my PhD.”

Group photo of school teachers who attended a SeasonWatch workshop in 2020

Pooja Pawar collecting hornbill samples during a field trip to Arunachal Pradesh

Chakrabarty needed to take breaks every few months throughout her PhD in Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. “The university was extremely flexible. Taking breaks for two to three months was perfectly fine,” she says. Even two years after her term ended, she could finish analysis and writing from India and defend her thesis. “I do not know if I would have had the opportunity to finish my PhD in India,” she says.

When the University of Rhode Island approached Devarajan with a postdoc position to analyse a large dataset of animal activity patterns, her answer was a clear no. She did not want to move back to the US, away from family after many years of long-distance relationship with her spouse. The research was exciting and right up her alley, but she also wanted to take a break, lay all the scientific information about endometriosis on the table and look at her treatment options.

“I got lucky,” she says about accepting the position when the hosts heard her concerns, advocated for her at the university and set up a system for her to work remotely. “I had another surgery during my postdoc, I got pregnant during this time, and the team was very supportive through all my health troubles,” says Devarajan.

When Joshii received her diagnosis, she was lucky to have the security of her recent faculty position, but it was also a huge responsibility. When the first line of treatment failed and she was away navigating treatment options, her new lab kept the work going with the support of colleagues. She taught her first course remotely, lying down and barely able to move. “I could walk only after three months.”

As a young faculty at IISER Kolkata, Chattopadhyay went through many years of inconclusive diagnosis. She had a young child and elderly parents, and her spouse was based in another city. “It took us nine years to figure it out,” she says. Differing rules for promotion and moving an experimental lab can set one back by many years, she says. “With medical issues this shoots up exponentially.”

Support systems make a difference

All of them emphasise how support systems help them make it through the challenges of life and work. They spoke about developing self-awareness to recognise warning signs, showing self-compassion, establishing boundaries, adopting an openness to share their experiences, and accepting that change is inevitable.

Joshi remembers reaching out to her postdoc mentor early on, who himself has managed rheumatoid arthritis for many years. “He wrote me a long email about what I should expect and assured me that I would figure it out.” Joshi’s motivation to take care of her health is to immerse herself in doing what she loves. “My real respite is work.”

Kadambari Devarajan setting up camera traps during field work

Devapriya Chattopadhyay profile

After many turbulent years, things started looking up when Chakrabarty won a postdoctoral fellowship in India, where she was closer to family and friends. “I am keeping quite well and have not really gotten sick for almost five years,” she says. “I can identify when I am falling ill, and also know how not to fall ill.”

Both Joshi and Chakrabarty say that their illness has helped them recognise what they value. “It puts into perspective what is important to you, and you stop bothering about unnecessary things,” Joshi notes.

Halfway past her PhD, Pawar does not hesitate to ask for help when unwell and accepts that her plans can change abruptly. “I have a very supportive bunch of people around me, from friends to colleagues to mentors,” she says. She is exploring new disciplines and immersing herself in learning completely new computational skills. “I am very happy with this decision. I see this as an opportunity, which is as exciting as being on the field,” says the seasoned field ecologist.

Chattopadhyay’s family works together and seeks help to navigate the challenges of work, travel and caregiving. Devarajan is lucky to have people rooting for her through the years. “I have not been alone in this the entire time,” she says about the enormous support from her spouse and family. Mentors and colleagues chose to see her passion and skills over her illness, dissuaded her from dropping out, and went the extra mile to enable her work.

“The past two years have been really good for me, even professionally it all came together,” says Devarajan.

About the author

Bharti is an ecologist with a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where she studied how ocean currents and environment shape coastal biodiversity. Following this, she studied arthropod diversity in the forests of the Western Ghats for her postdoctoral research at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. She has been drawn to language and writing since childhood, which led her to the annual Science Journalism course offered by the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore. During the challenging phases of her PhD research, she found solace and fulfilment in writing about scientific discoveries and the people behind them.