The Laura Dowling Experience

How many women quietly put up with heavy bleeding, painful periods or a difficult coil fitting, telling themselves it is just part of being a woman?

In this episode, Laura sits down with obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Áine Dempsey, who works at BlackRock Women's Health and at the Rotunda, for an honest, practical conversation about the things women are so often told to live with - and what can actually be done about them.

Áine explains what a hysteroscopy really involves, why polyps and fibroids drive heavy bleeding, and when the Mirena coil is the right first step before ablation or surgery. She is candid about pain relief during coil fittings, the six-month settling period, and where the copper coil fits in.

The conversation moves into perimenopause and HRT, smear tests, HPV and colposcopy, and the realities of painful sex, vaginismus and caring for women who carry past sexual trauma. She closes on labour ward life, her own two pregnancies, the magic of epidurals, and why no woman should feel she has to suffer in silence.

At its core, this episode is about taking your own symptoms seriously and making your gynae health a priority.

🔑 Key Points

Heavy bleeding is not something to put up with
changing a pad every hour, bleeding for more than five days, or planning your life around your period all count, and there is plenty that can help.

Flooding is a symptom women rarely volunteer
Áine asks directly because most women never mention soaking through their clothes or sheets.

A hysteroscopy is not as frightening as it sounds
a thin camera and a well-briefed team can investigate bleeding, polyps and fibroids, usually without a general anaesthetic.

You deserve proper pain relief for a coil fitting
from paracetamol and ibuprofen beforehand to numbing gel and a local cervical block.

The Mirena coil takes about six months to settle
bloating, tenderness or mood changes often ease, and it can be used as part of HRT.

HRT is about long-term health, not just symptoms
beyond brain fog and night sweats, it supports heart and bone health.

Painful sex is not normal
whether it stems from low oestrogen, endometriosis or past trauma, there are options that help.

You do not have to suffer in silence
if something is affecting your quality of life, make your gynae health a priority.

📚 Resources

BlackRock Health Women's Health Centre
Hysteroscopy (HSE)
The Mirena and copper coils (HSE)
HRT and menopause treatment (HSE)
Cervical screening and HPV (CervicalCheck, HSE)

⏱️ Timestamps

02:04 - Inside a day at BlackRock Women's Health
03:23 - What a hysteroscopy actually involves
06:21 - Polyps, fibroids and heavy bleeding
09:02 - Heavy bleeding and flooding in perimenopause
10:11 - The Mirena coil as a first-line treatment
13:56 - Pain relief and what to expect from a coil fitting
18:02 - The Mirena as part of HRT, and sleep
20:04 - Mental health support through menopause
22:35 - Smear tests, HPV and colposcopy
24:35 - Painful sex and trauma-informed care
29:18 - Vaginismus, physio and the pelvic floor
33:34 - Her own pregnancies and epidurals
37:56 - Don't suffer in silence
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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Aimee Donnellan joins Laura to talk about her new book Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity, and the much bigger story sitting underneath it - how generations of women learned to live with food.

Through interviews with women across the world, Aimee found the same pattern repeating. A trip to a dietitian around the age of seven. A mother quietly carrying her own dieting story, passing it on through Weight Watchers, rice cakes and "don't think cute clothes mean you can come off your diet." For some, GLP-1 medications like Wegovy and Mounjaro have quietened the food noise for the first time in their lives. For others, the more confronting realisation is how differently the world treats them when they shrink.

Aimee also explores how the men in her book relate to their bodies very differently, the rising scale of childhood obesity and the shame attached to it, and why the food industry has barely adjusted to a world where appetite itself is shifting. She and Laura reflect on body positivity, menopause and the pressure women carry at every stage of life, before closing on something simpler - why she thinks the meaning of life comes down to picking up the phone.

🔑 Key Points

1. Dieting often starts in childhood — Many of the women Aimee spoke to were first sent to a dietitian around age seven, framing food as something to manage rather than enjoy.
2. Mothers carry the story forward — Weight Watchers, calorie counting and "good" and "bad" foods pass quietly from mother to daughter across generations.
3. Food noise can dominate a life — Constant thoughts about food and shame-based self-talk shape how many women move through the world.
4. GLP-1 drugs change more than weight — When the food noise quietens, work, relationships, shopping and how others treat you can all shift.
5. Men and women relate to weight differently — Men often seek treatment for health reasons, while women carry decades of body criticism and comparison.
6. These drugs are not a quick fix — Muscle loss, side effects, cost and the reality of injecting long-term are rarely talked about honestly.
7. Childhood obesity is rising — Shame and clinics that don't fit larger bodies stop many families seeking help early.
8. The food industry has barely adjusted — Cheap, ultra-processed food still fills shelves, and meaningful change runs into cost and lobbying.

📚 Resources

Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity — Aimee Donnellan

⏱️ Timestamps

01:00 — Welcome and the focus of the book
03:00 — Why the dieting story starts at age seven
04:30 — Rice cakes, Hershey's sauce and a mother's diet
06:00 — Sarah's first Wegovy injection
07:00 — Losing 70 pounds and a life that changes overnight
12:00 — Menopause, microdosing and Ozempic on the black market
14:00 — Body positivity, celebrity bodies and the shift back
22:00 — Plateaus, muscle loss and life-long drugs
28:00 — A Mars executive on a pharma board
36:00 — How men relate to their bodies differently
41:00 — Childhood obesity, shame and small clinic rooms
44:00 — Food deserts and the cost of real change
56:00 — Picking up the phone and choosing connection
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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Darragh Fleming went viral last year for a poem — but this conversation is about everything that came before it. The Cork writer talks to Laura about a childhood spent lost in books, a long detour through sport and self-doubt, and the years he spent convinced he wasn't creative at all.

At seventeen, Darragh lost his close friend Irby to suicide, and the grief changed him profoundly. For years afterwards he felt almost nothing — a numbness he didn't recognise as depression — while quietly performing the emotions other people expected of him. He's honest about the survivor's guilt that made him sabotage his own happiness, the panic attack that became his rock bottom, and how therapy and journaling slowly led him back to writing.

From there the conversation opens out into the work Darragh is known for now: poetry that reimagines what it means to be a man. He and Laura discuss why anger is so often the only emotion men feel allowed to show, how language like "toxic masculinity" can shape the way boys see themselves, and why he believes emotionally healthier men make life safer for everyone. Warm, funny and full of hope, it's also a conversation about creativity in everyday life and Darragh's belief that the meaning of life is found in the people we share it with.

🔑 Key Points

Grief can arrive as numbness, not sadness
After losing his friend Irby at seventeen, Darragh didn't feel constant sadness but a flatness he didn't recognise as depression for years.

Survivor's guilt can quietly sabotage a life
He describes an unconscious sense that he wasn't allowed to be happy, which led him to undo good things whenever they started going well.

Writing became a way back to feeling
Journaling suggested by his therapist turned naturally into poetry, helping him name emotions he otherwise couldn't reach.

Anger is often the only emotion men feel permitted
Darragh argues that sadness, rejection and disappointment frequently come out as anger because men aren't given other outlets.

Language shapes how boys see themselves
Hearing "toxic" almost always paired with "masculinity" can lead young men to believe masculinity itself is something bad.

A lighthouse, not a lifeboat
Rather than trying to rescue everyone, Darragh sees his public work as showing people a way through and reminding them they're not alone.

Success can arrive at the right time
He reflects on being glad his career didn't take off in his twenties, when he wouldn't have been ready to carry it.

📚 Resources

Thoughts Too Big — Darragh's long-running mental health blog

If I Ever Have Boys — Darragh Fleming

If I Ever Have Girls — Darragh Fleming

Waiting for the Good Guys — Darragh Fleming

The Hole — Darragh Fleming, a poem on depression and coping

Dangerous Men — Lucas Jones, the poem Darragh's "If I Ever Have Boys" responded to

Mental health support — Samaritans, freephone 116 123; Pieta, freephone 1800 247 247 or text 51444

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 — "My Dad Could Beat Up Your Dad" (cold open)
01:13 — Welcome and introduction
05:40 — Going viral with "If I Ever Have Boys"
14:53 — Why he started writing
17:31 — Losing Irby at seventeen
18:42 — The numbness he didn't know was depression
21:45 — The panic attack, therapy and journaling
33:35 — A lighthouse, not a lifeboat
35:23 — Masculinity, the manosphere and raising sons
42:42 — Language, mental illness and "toxic masculinity"
50:30 — "A Snake Named Snake" and his dad
01:01:36 — Darragh reads "My Dad Could Beat Up Your Dad"
01:03:09 — Advice for young people and the meaning of life
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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In this episode, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Fadi joins Laura for an open, practical conversation about pelvic floor health, incontinence, prolapse and the realities of modern obstetrics.

Dr Fadi explains how childbirth, ageing and menopause affect the pelvic floor, and why so many women end up living with stress incontinence, prolapse and faecal incontinence in silence. He walks through the full range of treatment options — from physiotherapy and pessaries to urethral bulking, Botox, sacral neuromodulation, robotic surgery, and the mesh procedures paused in Ireland since 2018.

The conversation also takes in interstitial cystitis, vaginal oestrogen, the impact of long inductions on older mothers, and the trade-offs women now weigh up between a vaginal delivery and a caesarean section. Dr Fadi closes with a reflection on his time working with Syrian refugees, where he met 13-year-old mothers and a 26-year-old grandmother.

🔑 Key Points

1. Pelvic floor problems are common and treatable — Stress incontinence, prolapse and faecal incontinence are usually linked to childbirth, not an inevitable part of being a woman.
2. Mesh for incontinence has been paused in Ireland since 2018 — Ireland is the only country in the world where this procedure is currently unavailable, and patients are being sent to Spain to access it.
3. There is no single fix for incontinence — Treatment depends on the type, from physiotherapy and urethral bulking to mesh slings, Botox into the bladder wall, and sacral neuromodulators.
4. Prolapse is not just the womb — Bladder, womb and rectum can all prolapse, each with their own grade and treatment pathway.
5. Pessaries give women back some control — Different types of pessary can hold a prolapse in place, and many women can learn to manage their own at home.
6. Faecal incontinence is more common than women admit — Third and fourth degree tears at delivery can damage the anal sphincter, and primary repair at the time of birth gives the best outcome.
7. Vaginal oestrogen is a low-risk, high-impact tool — It can ease overactive bladder, recurrent UTIs, dryness, and slow the progression of prolapse after menopause.
8. Older mothers face different trade-offs — Long inductions, instrumental deliveries and unplanned caesareans are more common, which is why some women are now actively asking for a planned section.

📚 Resources

Love Your Vulva — Laura Dowling
fabÜ Hello Healing
Continence Foundation of Ireland

⏱️ Timestamps

01:46 — Introducing Dr Fadi and urogynaecology
02:49 — Why pelvic floor problems happen
04:14 — Assessing pelvis and baby size before delivery
05:09 — Robotic surgery and vault prolapse
06:34 — Stress incontinence and mesh as the gold standard
09:01 — Why mesh has been paused in Ireland
12:31 — Sending Irish patients to Spain for mesh
14:25 — Botox for overactive bladder and Interstim
15:43 — Faecal incontinence and tears at delivery
19:17 — Interstitial cystitis and hyaluronic acid
21:21 — Types and grades of prolapse
24:25 — How a pessary works
28:01 — Surgery for prolapse
34:18 — Vaginal oestrogen and pelvic floor
36:08 — Epidurals and instrumental delivery
37:25 — Why more women are asking for caesareans
45:00 — Working with Syrian refugees
48:32 — Advice for young people and the meaning of life
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, GP Dr Sarah Carty explains why ADHD looks so different in girls and women — and why so many only recognise it years, sometimes decades, after it first showed up.

She tells Laura how the "quiet" presentation — daydreaming, internal restlessness, working twice as hard to look fine — slowly turns into anxiety, perfectionism, and a quiet erosion of confidence. It's a clip that gives language to something a lot of women have silently carried for years.

🔑 Key Points
Why girls are diagnosed much later than boys — and what gets missed
Masking, and how it shows up as perfectionism, daydreaming, or "just being quiet"
The link between unrecognised ADHD and anxiety, panic and exhaustion
How girls end up labelling themselves as "stupid", "lazy" or "not academic" — and why that's so far from the truth
Why the right diagnosis can change a person's whole self-story

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.