The Laura Dowling Experience

#AD - This episode is sponsored by AstraZeneca Dr Tonya Leonard was a GP when she found a lump she was sure was a cyst. By half past nine that morning, she was being told it was breast cancer and asked to decide by the following week whether she had finished her family. Her twin boys were just 18 months old. Sixteen years, a second primary cancer and a diagnosis of advanced breast cancer later, Tonya joins Laura alongside Helen Forristal, Director of Nursing Services at the Marie Keating Foundation, for an honest conversation about living with advanced breast cancer. They discuss metastatic or secondary breast cancer, breast cancer recurrence and the signs and symptoms women should be aware of, alongside treatment, scans, scanxiety, cancer fatigue and the difficulty of planning life beyond the next result. Helen explains why advanced breast cancer remains largely invisible in Ireland, with no official count of how many women are living with it, and discusses the importance of specialist cancer support. Tonya shares the reality of living life in three-month segments, navigating mental health after diagnosis and learning that palliative care does not only mean end-of-life care. The conversation is part of Living Loudly, Dying to be Heard, a campaign by AstraZeneca and supported by the Marie Keating Foundation, highlighting the experiences of people living with advanced breast cancer. 🔑 Key Points Advanced breast cancer means it has spread The cancer has moved from the breast to another organ; in Tonya's case, to lesions on her lung and under her arm. Life in three-month segments With a scan every three months, Tonya finds it hard to plan past the next result, the anxiety Laura calls scanxiety. Fatigue is not the same as tiredness Tonya describes cancer fatigue as like an injection of horse tranquilliser: once she feels it rising, she has minutes to lie down. Women are living longer with it Helen calls it the long middle, moving through lines of treatment; one woman in her group has lived with advanced breast cancer for 21 years. Nobody is counting Recurrences aren't recorded the way first diagnoses are; Helen's estimate is around 30% of women with primary breast cancer, and a University of Limerick project has started counting. Know the signs of a recurrence Symptoms depend on where it spreads, from a cough and breathlessness to weight change or bone pain; if something hasn't settled in three weeks, ask your doctor, "Could this be cancer?" Mental health support needs to be specialist Tonya waited eight weeks to see a psychologist; psycho-oncology services now run in Ireland's eight cancer centres. Palliative care is not only for the end of life Palliative teams help manage symptoms and support families, and the CLIMB programme supports children aged 5 to 12 who have a parent with cancer. 📚 Resources Living Loudly. Dying to be Heard A campaign by AstraZeneca and supported by the Marie Keating Foundation Positive Living The Marie Keating Foundation's support programme for people with advanced cancer CLIMB The HSE programme for children aged 5 to 12 affected by a parent's cancer ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Welcome 01:52 — Helen Forristal and the Marie Keating Foundation 02:51 — Dr Tonya Leonard’s breast cancer diagnosis 06:21 — Advanced cancer support and Positive Living 09:28 — Scanxiety and living between results 12:08 — Living longer with advanced breast cancer 17:14 — Cancer fatigue 22:58 — Fertility and “Have you finished your family?” 29:17 — How many women are living with advanced breast cancer? 30:41 — Signs and symptoms of recurrence 37:57 — Mental health and psycho-oncology 46:45 — What palliative care really means 51:40 — Family, milestones and living with uncertainty 56:28 — Advice for young people 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Dr Clodagh Campbell shares two client stories about reclaiming time for yourself, then walks through the Four Ds, a simple way to sort an overwhelming to-do list into what to delete, delegate, delay or do. When your life feels too full, the answer isn't to try harder. It's working out what can give. Psychologist Dr Clodagh Campbell shares two client stories and a simple tool for figuring out what to drop. 🔑Key Points • When life feels too full, the question isn't how to cope better, it's what can change and what can give • Alice, a successful business owner, worked herself into the ground out of a deep fear of letting her parents down • By the end of their work together, Alice had hired a manager, taken a three-month sabbatical and learned that rest could be as simple as walks on the beach • Nikki, a mother of three, couldn't imagine one hour a week for herself, until a small boundary around one yoga class let her husband step up too 🎧 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.

Dr Dan McCartney, dietitian, lecturer in Human Nutrition and Dietetics and Programme Director of the Human Nutrition and Dietetics programme at TU Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, joins Laura to discuss the vitamins and minerals many of us simply aren’t getting enough of — and why that matters for our health. Drawing on Ireland’s national food intake data, Dan reveals striking levels of inadequate intake across essential nutrients including vitamin B6, folate, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc, magnesium and selenium. At least half of the Irish population have inadequate intakes of magnesium and selenium, while more than 40% have inadequate vitamin C intakes. Laura and Dan also discuss the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and proposals to lower or restrict the levels of certain vitamins and minerals available through supplements. Dan questions the rationale for reducing these levels when nutrient intakes are already low, discussing proposed levels for vitamin D, as well as restrictions affecting magnesium and the importance of vitamin C. He explains why he believes a restrictive, one-size-fits-all European approach may not meet the nutritional needs of the Irish population. They also explore whether some recommended daily amounts are focused more on preventing severe deficiency than achieving optimal health, including vitamin C recommendations based around preventing scurvy and vitamin D recommendations historically centred on bone health rather than immune function. The conversation returns to Dan’s early research into vitamin D and COVID-19, before moving into nutrition and immunity, healthy ageing, dementia, pregnancy and epigenetics — and why the nutritional choices we make today can influence our health decades into the future. 🔑 Key Points Half the population are falling short on key nutrients Dan discusses inadequate intakes of magnesium, selenium, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin C, vitamin A and zinc in Ireland. Why are nutrient intakes so low? Poor diet quality, low fruit and vegetable intake, low wholegrain consumption and highly refined diets. EFSA and proposed supplement restrictions Laura and Dan discuss EFSA and proposed European changes affecting vitamin and mineral supplements, including vitamin D and magnesium, and why Dan is concerned about further restrictions. Are recommended intakes actually optimal? Dan questions whether some guidelines focus on preventing severe deficiency rather than supporting optimal health. Vitamin D, immunity and COVID-19 Dan revisits the research that led him and Dr Declan Byrne to propose a link between vitamin D deficiency and severe COVID-19 in 2020. Nutrition across a lifetime From pregnancy and epigenetics to ageing and cognitive health, Dan explains why nutrition today can affect health decades later. 📚 Resources Optimisation of Vitamin D Status for Enhanced Immuno-protection Against Covid-19 Dan and Declan Byrne, Irish Medical Journal, 2020 Vitamin D Deficiency and ARDS after SARS-CoV-2 Infection Faul et al., Irish Medical Journal, 2020 Autocrine vitamin D signaling switches off pro-inflammatory programs of TH1 cells Chauss et al., Nature Immunology, 2022 Nutrition, immunity and COVID-19 Philip Calder, BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, 2020 European vitamin D supplementation trials, meta-analysis Rupprecht et al., Nutrients, 2023 ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Cold open 02:07 — Meet Dr Dan McCartney 04:03 — Vitamin D and COVID-19 06:10 — The 2020 research 13:49 — Why vitamin D levels run low 19:08 — Vitamin D and immunity 32:00 — Ireland’s nutrient inadequacies 34:02 — Poor diet quality 35:09 — Zinc, magnesium and selenium 37:24 — Are nutrient guidelines out of date? 38:03 — Scurvy vs optimal health 45:48 — EFSA and proposed supplement restrictions 46:24 — Vitamin D supplement levels 50:11 — Magnesium restrictions 51:03 — Nutrition guidelines for Ireland 54:35 — Primates and vitamin D 55:51 — Ageing and dementia 57:39 — Pregnancy and epigenetics 1:02:43 — Why good habits compound 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Dr Denis O'Driscoll, pharmacist working in the HSE addiction services gives a straight, compassionate answer on how hard it is to come off drugs and stay off, and why staying stable on treatment counts as success too. Is staying on treatment for life a failure, or is that thinking part of the problem? Dr Denis O'Driscoll gives an honest answer. 🔑Key Points • Coming off drugs and staying off is never easy, and that is worth saying out loud • Recovery is not one straight line; staying stable on treatment is a positive outcome, not something to be ashamed of • Coming off completely is wonderful when it happens, but it is very challenging, and it is not the only measure of success • Relapse is part of recovery, not a failure, and the priority afterwards is getting people back into support quickly 💛 If you or someone you love needs support, the HSE Drugs and Alcohol Helpline is there on 1800 459 459. 🎧 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.

Kenneth Keavey has a PhD in chemistry and spent his early career in pharma and biotech. He now grows organic vegetables on twenty-five acres outside Galway, and he's the first to point out the irony: he was an organic chemist, and now he's an organic farmer. In this episode he takes Laura through what's actually on the food we eat, and how little of it we're told. Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment or another. Citrus is dipped or sprayed after harvest in waxes containing quite toxic, in some cases carcinogenic, chemicals to stop fungus growing on the skin. Most of it is legal, disclosed somewhere, and almost never read. Then comes the detail that stops the conversation. In the EU you're allowed 10mg of glyphosate per kilogram of wheat and 20mg per kilogram of oats — twice as much of a probable carcinogen in your porridge as in your toast. Kenneth and Darina Allen went to the Department of Agriculture to ask why. They were told that people eat less porridge than they do toast. It isn't all alarm. Kenneth refuses to scaremonger and is as clear about what isn't known as what is. He's also quietly hopeful: his own land is full of insects and birdsong, and he has watched how fast nature comes back when you let it. 🔑 Key Points He was an organic chemist before he was an organic farmer His PhD is in chemistry and his first career was in pharma and biotech, which is where the caution comes from. Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment Post-harvest waxes on citrus contain toxic and in some cases carcinogenic chemicals, and some produce carries up to fifteen applications. You're allowed twice as much glyphosate in porridge as in bread The EU limit is 10mg per kilogram of wheat and 20mg per kilogram of oats. Kenneth and Darina Allen asked the Department of Agriculture why, and were told people eat less porridge than they do toast. The safety data usually comes from the manufacturers Unlike medicines, pesticide safety data is largely supplied by the companies selling the chemicals, and permitted limits have risen since the 1990s as application increased. 80% of the world's insect biomass is gone A test anyone can run from memory: a windscreen after a night drive used to be covered in insects, and now there's virtually nothing on it. Ireland has gone from 600 vegetable growers to about 60 The sector has hollowed out in twenty years, we import 85% of our fresh fruit and veg, and vegetables are the one thing that hasn't risen in price — which is why a 39c bag of carrots is a problem, not a bargain. Nature comes back faster than you'd think His farm is full of insects and birds, with nine native Irish honeybee hives that out-produce every other apiary his beekeeper runs. 📚 Resources Green Earth Organics Kenneth's organic farm and nationwide home delivery service in Co Galway Silent Spring Rachel Carson's book on the effects of blanket pesticide use, discussed in the episode IARC (World Health Organization) The classification of glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans ⏱️ Timestamps 01:26 — Twenty years of Green Earth Organics 02:35 — From a PhD in chemistry to organic farming 03:57 — Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment 06:34 — Glyphosate, the most applied chemical in history 06:59 — Twice as much allowed in your porridge as in your toast 07:17 — What the Department of Agriculture said when they asked why 10:39 — Silent Spring, and the year the birdsong stopped 12:25 — 80% of the world's insect biomass is gone 22:15 — From 600 vegetable growers to about 60 50:06 — Five summers of farm work, three sheep, and the leap 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Prof Robert Kelly admits he lost his own balance after a TED Talk and book launch, then shares the pillars-of-life exercise and a patient's story that helped him refocus on family and friends. What happens when a cardiologist looks at his own heart health and realises the answer isn't his diet, it's his diary? 🔑Key Points • A busy run of a TED Talk, a book launch and Christmas left him with no space in his day for three months • Taking one full week off showed him just how stretched he had become • He learned a pillars-of-life exercise from another doctor's podcast: financial health, family, friends, own health and work • Looking at his own pillars, he realised work was crowding out everything else, especially his own health 🎧 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Siobhan Murray, psychotherapist and burnout strategist explains why she has banned the phrase self care, and shares the small daily habits, walks, box breathing and a mindfulness trick called the purple alien, that she uses instead to avoid burnout. What if self care isn't a retreat or a spa day at all, but something you can do in the two minutes it takes to boil the kettle? 🔑Key Points • Siobhan bans the phrase self care and replaces it with care of self, something practised daily, not as an occasional treat • A one-off pilates class, a retreat or getting your nails done is maintenance, not care of self • She does four ten-minute walks every day without fail, even in the rain, simply to change her physical state • She practises box breathing, in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four, while making a cup of tea 🎧 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.

Laura is joined by Dr Cillian Keogh, a GP and co-founder of Dublin City Clinic, for a frank and surprisingly funny conversation about haemorrhoids — what they actually are, who gets them, and why almost nobody wants to say the word out loud. Cillian explains that haemorrhoids are anal cushions that swell under increased pelvic pressure, and goes through who is most at risk: pregnancy, obesity, chronic coughs, straining, long hours sitting and heavy lifting in the gym. He also describes a newer group he sees far more of now, people staying on the toilet much longer than they need to because their phone is in their hand. From there, he walks the treatment ladder. Creams like Anusol and Preparation H settle a flare-up but, in his words, only paper over it. At the far end sits the haemorrhoidectomy, a hospital operation with weeks of recovery — the thing he says, with his GP hat on, you want to avoid. In between is the electrotherapy his clinic offers, where a small current constricts the blood vessel feeding the haemorrhoid so it shrinks, with no real downtime. Underneath it all is why the episode matters. Haemorrhoids are, as Cillian puts it, the last taboo of healthcare, and people live with them for years rather than mention them. He also makes the case, carefully, that bleeding is worth having looked at rather than assumed. 🔑 Key Points Haemorrhoids are not a growth, they are cushions under pressure Cillian describes them as anal cushions that become engorged and swollen when pelvic pressure rises, which is where the bleeding comes from. Almost everything that causes them works the same way Pregnancy, obesity, chronic coughs, straining, long hours driving and heavy lifting in the gym all raise pelvic pressure. Phones on the toilet are a genuinely new risk factor Cillian sees a group he did not see ten years ago, people sitting far longer than they need to because they are still reading the headlines or scrolling. They can sit there silently for years Internal haemorrhoids often go unnoticed until a flare-up, while thrombosed ones stay permanently outside, lose their blood flow and come close to a medical emergency. Creams and suppositories only paper over the problem Anusol, Preparation H and the prescription versions settle a flare-up without treating the cause, and once you have had them the threshold for getting them again drops. The operation is the thing worth avoiding A haemorrhoidectomy means a general anaesthetic, a hospital stay and weeks lying on your front, which is exactly why Cillian would rather catch it earlier. Electrotherapy sits in the gap between creams and surgery A small electric current constricts the blood vessel feeding the haemorrhoid so the tissue shrinks over a few weeks, and you go back to work the same day. The real barrier is embarrassment, not treatment Cillian calls it the last taboo of healthcare, because people cannot imagine raising it without being met with an eye roll. 📚 Resources Dublin City Clinic Dr Cillian Keogh's clinic in Dublin 2, where the electrotherapy is carried out eXroid The non-surgical electrotherapy treatment discussed throughout the episode BowelScreen Ireland's national bowel screening programme ⏱️ Timestamps 04:19 — What a haemorrhoid actually is 04:58 — Who is most at risk 05:12 — The newest risk group: phones on the toilet 08:33 — Anusol, Preparation H and the limits of creams 09:19 — Where electrotherapy sits on the treatment ladder 10:05 — The haemorrhoidectomy, and why you want to avoid it 11:40 — “The last taboo of healthcare” 17:54 — What applying an electric current actually does 24:06 — Bleeding, bowel cancer and when to get checked 29:01 — The privilege of being let into people's lives 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.

In this episode, former Connacht rugby player Fergus Farrell tells Laura what happened after he lifted a metal bench in his own yard in October 2018 — and severed his spinal cord by ninety per cent. He was paralysed from the ribcage down and told he had a five per cent chance of walking again, on the condition he moved within seventy-two hours. He didn’t move. Instead he lay in a bed for twenty-one days and built a picture in his head: a circuit board for his brain, a light switch for his big right toe, and a wire he had to run between them. At half two in the morning on day twenty-one, the toe flickered. When the doctor came round, he watched it move three times before he’d call it anything other than a spasm. Fergus is candid about what recovery costs — pain around the clock, no balance, no feeling from his feet to his waist, and the hidden disability nobody sees in a big man walking down the street. He talks about the businesses he lost, the family who carried it, the guilt of being one who got back on his feet, and why he now calls the accident the best thing that happened to him. In August he set out from Brooklyn Bridge to walk 4,500 kilometres to Santa Monica Pier for Spinal Injuries Ireland — six million steps, and each one as important as the next. 🔑 Key Points The injury came from lifting, not impact He carried a 60–80kg bench about fifteen metres, dropped it, took a breath and lifted it again. The second lift ruptured a disc into his spinal column and severed the cord by 90%. The five per cent came with a condition A 5% chance of walking again if he moved within 72 hours. He didn’t. The toe moved on day twenty-one. Visualisation was a tool he already had He’d used it to win selection and to build his business. In hospital he made it concrete: a circuit board as his brain, a switch as his toe, and the work of wiring them together. The doctor called it a spasm — twice Dr Cullen made him move it three times before saying “that’s most unexpected, Fergus.” Not every disability is visible He walks, so people assume he’s fine. Zero balance, no feeling from his feet to his waist, constant pain on 3,000mg of gabapentin a day. The people around an injury carry it too His then-wife finished the house, worked and raised three young children. “The person that’s left behind injured affects so many different people.” He never visualised himself walking He started with the smallest thing he could actually see: one toe, with the blanket off. Setting the finish line at walking would only have set him up to fail. The walk is the same method at scale Brooklyn Bridge to Santa Monica Pier, 4,500km, six million steps, 75 days as a target rather than a deadline. 📚 Resources Fergus Walks Fergus’s walk across America for Spinal Injuries Ireland Spinal Injuries Ireland The only Irish organisation dedicated solely to supporting people living with a spinal cord injury and their families Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Supporting the American leg of the walk National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dún Laoghaire Where Fergus did his spinal rehabilitation Fergus Farrell on Instagram Following the walk day by day ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 02:10 — Lifting a metal bench in his own yard 05:35 — The disability nobody can see 06:44 — Pain 24/7, and refusing it attention 08:46 — A five per cent chance, and the seventy-two hours 10:00 — The circuit board, the switch and the wire 12:04 — Day twenty-one, half two in the morning 13:11 — Dr Cullen: “these could be involuntary spasms” 17:50 — The guilt of getting back on his feet 19:42 — What it did to his family 21:53 — Losing the businesses 25:09 — Walking across America 30:56 — “Every day is a new day to improve” 32:42 — 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aimée Farrell-Courtney was six years old when she saw three girls playing the bodhrán in her school yard, the sun behind them and the sound going round the walls. She went home and announced she wanted to learn. Her mother's reply - "Oh my God, smelly pub" - is the first clue that this instrument arrived with a reputation attached, and with assumptions about who gets to hold one. She learned anyway, was helping to teach by the age of twelve, and in 2010 won the World Bodhrán Championship. What she has spent the years since doing is quieter and, in its way, harder: asking why so many women take up the drum and so few are ever seen playing it. She and Laura go from goat skin and tuning systems to the survey Aimée ran into women's experiences of trad sessions - the player left standing at the bar while everyone else is asked what they're drinking. She talks about being told she only got a Royal Albert Hall booking because she could wear a dress, about designing a drum that fits the body holding it, and about the two communities she has built for people who want music without the judgement. 🔑 Key Points She was six, and three girls in a schoolyard decided it Aimée watched them rehearsing with the sun behind them and thought they looked like superwomen - with no idea yet that the bodhrán was a male-dominated instrument. "My youngest student is four, my eldest student is 94" The bodhrán is unusually easy to start, which Aimée sees as its gift and also the reason some people dismiss it without ever learning it properly. A survey put evidence behind what women already knew Working with a UK researcher, Aimée surveyed bodhrán players worldwide and found most women reported poor experiences bringing their drum to sessions. "You only got that because you could wear a dress" After a 2014 gig at the Royal Albert Hall, a peer told her the booking had nothing to do with how she played. Male players are described by technique, women by appearance Read how the two are written about online, Aimée says, and the difference is immediate. The instrument was never designed around the body playing it Smaller drums with deeper frames chase a sound, not a posture, so Aimée has been designing a bodhrán that works with the body rather than against it. Music can be used, not only performed Trained as a sound therapist, she works with frame drum, gong and singing bowls — and says three minutes of a slow, steady rhythm is enough to settle yourself at home. Trad Drum and Drummy Mummy exist to take the judgement out of it Trad Drum grew out of lockdown check-ins with her students; Drummy Mummy, launching shortly, is a drumming space for mothers — no children, no competition, nobody marking you. 📚 Resources Aimée Farrell-Courtney Bodhrán lessons, workshops and Traddrum Productions. FairPlé Campaigning for gender balance in Irish traditional and folk music. Rhythm2Recovery The Australian drumming programme for social and emotional development Aimée is certified in. Basic Income for the Arts The Irish scheme behind the conversation about supporting artists. ⏱️ Timestamps 02:30 — Three girls in a schoolyard 03:24 — "Oh my God, smelly pub" 08:02 — "It's just a frame drum, essentially" 10:32 — Designing a drum that fits the body 15:23 — Winning the world championship in 2010 17:32 — The survey into women and the bodhrán 18:50 — "My youngest student is four, my eldest is 94" 24:39 — "You only got that because you could wear a dress" 27:04 — Sound therapy, and what entrainment does 41:08 — Trad Drum, and the new Drummy Mummy 51:00 — The woman nobody spoke to at the session 01:01:44 — Trust yourself 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, consultant anaesthetist Dr Anne Doherty offers two simple, evergreen pieces of wisdom from the close of her conversation with Laura. Nothing is as permanent as you think — the good times and the bad both pass — and almost every hard choice people make, even the ones you disagree with, comes from a place of love. 🔑Key Points • Why the good times and the bad times both pass • The freedom in not needing an answer for everything right now • How love sits underneath even the choices we disagree with • A gentler, more compassionate way to see people 🎧 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.

Daniel Buckley was thirty-two before he had a name for what was going on in his head. For as long as he could remember he had been restless, discontented, unable to sit still or hold his focus on anything that didn’t grip him - and he had simply assumed that was him. That was the way he was, and the way life was. His wife Simone saw it long before he did. For more than a decade she told him something wasn’t right, that he couldn’t rest, that he had no structure. He wasn’t ready to hear it. The day before she died, after years of illness, she went through his symptoms one by one and asked him to get help for his ADHD. Daniel tells Laura what happened next - the newspaper article that felt like a tap on the shoulder, the Irish clinics that never rang him back, the trip to England to be assessed at all. He is open about drinking to escape thoughts he had no other way of managing, about the day he stopped, and about the ordinary moment months later when he heard his son laughing outside an open window and realised he had never felt peace before. It’s also the story of what he built out of it: a service designed, in his words, to get people to a clinician in weeks rather than years. 🔑 Key Points He spent thirty-two years assuming that was just who he was Restless, discontented, unable to focus — Daniel had no framework for any of it until he was assessed at thirty-two. Simone saw it more than a decade before he accepted it He only heard it the day before she died, when she went through his symptoms and asked him to get help. Undiagnosed ADHD and alcohol are closely linked Daniel describes drinking to escape feelings he couldn’t regulate. He stopped in August 2022, so he could be the father his son deserved. There was no route to a diagnosis in Ireland Public waiting lists ran to years, and not one of the private clinics he rang or emailed came back to him. He was assessed in England instead. He chose therapy and coaching over medication Having stopped drinking, he worked weekly on emotional regulation, learning to recognise emotions he’d never had names for. Peace arrived as an ordinary moment Months after his diagnosis he heard his son laughing with friends through an open window and felt, for the first time, that he was all right. A diagnosis is a turning point, not an end point The piece of paper changes nothing on its own. What matters is the understanding and the support that come after it. He built the service he couldn’t find ADHD Now offers access to a clinician within seven days and has grown to over a hundred clinicians across ADHD and autism care. 📚 Resources ADHD Now Daniel’s online ADHD assessment and support service AutismCare The autism and AuDHD assessment service built alongside it ADHD Ireland The national charity, with support groups and information Samaritans Ireland Free, confidential support, any time, on 116 123 ⏱️ Timestamps 02:54 — Diagnosed at thirty-two, and the bottlenecks he hit 03:38 — “That’s the way I am, that’s the way life is” 04:24 — Illness, Joey’s arrival, and Simone going on dialysis 07:33 — Drinking to escape, and the day he stopped 09:38 — A decade of Simone telling him something was wrong 10:05 — The day before she died: “please get help for your ADHD” 11:45 — The newspaper article that felt like a tap on the shoulder 12:23 — No one called back, so he went to England 16:55 — “A diagnosis is not the end point. That’s the turning point.” 19:35 — Hearing his son laugh, and feeling peace for the first time 21:12 — The stranger outside the hospital who became his business partner 40:00 — Advice for young people, and what he thinks life means 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, comedian and content creator Dympna Little shares how humour helped her family carry her mother's terminal illness and final days. She describes laughing together even in the palliative care room, the moment her mother noticed and said "it's lovely," and the voice message her mother recorded that became her legacy. Tender, warm and bittersweet. 🔑Key Points • How humour can hold a family together through the hardest time • Why laughter and grief are not opposites • The moment her mother noticed them laughing and said "it's lovely" • The voice message her mother left, and what legacy can look like 💛 If you're grieving, be gentle with yourself. There's no right way to do it. 🎧 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.

Anna Lechleiter works with people who have never been able to speak, and who have spent their lives being treated as though they had nothing to say. She is a Spelling to Communicate practitioner, and her job is to give non-speakers a way to tell the world what has been going on in their heads all along. She explains why speech is a motor problem rather than a thinking one: the words are there, but the brain cannot reliably drive the body that produces them. That distinction changes how non-speaking people are assessed, educated and spoken to, because almost every standard autism assessment measures motor control and reports the result as intelligence. Anna talks Laura through what happens in a session, from stencil boards to a keyboard, and tells the story that changed her mind completely: a young man called Caoimh, a letter board, and a freezing afternoon when he spelled out that he hoped it would snow. The last stretch belongs to the spellers themselves, as Anna reads the words of Max, Caoimh and Megha in their own language. 🔑 Key Points Non-speaking is a motor problem, not a thinking one The words are there. The difficulty is the brain reliably getting the body to produce them, which Anna describes as a brain-body disconnect rather than an absence of understanding. Spelling to Communicate moves communication out of the fine motor Speech, writing, texting and sign language all depend on fine motor control, so S2C uses the gross motor instead: a pointing motion towards letters on a board. Assessments measure motor control and report it as intelligence Because the tests need reliable motor responses, people who cannot produce them are recorded as profoundly intellectually disabled, and that label follows them for life. Most non-speakers can already read Text is everywhere, on signs, subtitles and packaging, and spellers have usually absorbed far more than anyone assumed. That is why sessions start with age-appropriate material rather than the basics. Progress is built like any other motor skill New neural pathways are created and then myelinated through repetition, so lessons change every session and words are never spelled twice, keeping the focus on the motor rather than the answer. The spellers make the argument better than anyone Max, Caoimh and Megha describe apraxia, sensory overwhelm and their own ambitions. Keith's line, that his mind works perfectly but the messages get mixed up on the way to his body, sums up the conversation. 📚 Resources PALZ (Play and Language Zone) — Anna's hub in Naas, Co. Kildare Spelling to Communicate at PALZ — how the method is taught in Ireland I-ASC — the International Association for Spelling as Communication Elizabeth Vosseller — the speech-language pathologist who developed S2C AsIAm — Ireland's national autism charity, information and support line ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Max's message to the world 02:18 — The colleague's brother who suddenly had a voice 03:05 — What Spelling to Communicate actually is 07:24 — How assessments measure motor and report intelligence 09:37 — How many non-speakers there are in Ireland 10:10 — Inside a first session at the hub 17:21 — Neuroplasticity and building a brand-new motor skill 24:50 — Stencils, letter boards and moving to a keyboard 36:23 — Anna's ABA background, and why she moved away from it 44:01 — Keith, the letter board and "I hope it snows" 48:55 — Max, Keith and Megha, in their own words 53:54 — Art, an exhibition 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, preventive cardiologist Dr Paddy Barrett argues that most people chase health without ever defining it — like a blindfolded archer aiming at a target they can't see. He lays out three things actually worth optimising, and tells the story of walking away from the peak of his career when he realised he'd climbed the wrong mountain. 🔑Key Points • Why "I want to be healthy" means nothing without a target • The blindfolded archer, and aiming at something you can actually see • Three things worth optimising: how long you live, the quality of those years, and how you spend your time • Why it's never too late to climb back down and start again 🎧 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.

Vicki Notaro is back! Her new novel, Anywhere but Here, follows three friends all hovering around 40 and living completely different lives. As Vicki puts it, you can be 40 and you can be a granny, or trying to conceive, or single, or divorced. She and Laura talk about the pressure women feel to have everything sorted by a certain age, and why marriage or a mortgage was never meant to be a finish line. Vicki also gives an honest update on her women's health journey: years of very painful periods, a suspected endometriosis that turned out to be ovarian cysts, a PMDD diagnosis and cyclical depression alongside lifelong anxiety, a coil, surgery, a recurrence, and the oral progesterone that cleared her brain fog within two days. From there the conversation turns to what young people lost when magazines disappeared. Vicki spent four years at Kiss from the age of 22, acting as a "big sis" to teenage readers, and she makes a warm case for edited, expert-checked advice over the "wild wild west of TikTok" — before Laura hands her a pile of anonymous listener confessions to answer. 🔑 Key Points Women the same age are living completely different lives "You can be 40 and you can be a granny" — Vicki's novel follows three friends around 40 at entirely different stages, something she sees as new in Irish life. Milestones are a beginning, not a finish line Vicki talks about the pressure to have the house, the relationship and possibly a baby sorted by a certain age, and why she has never seen those moments as the end of the story. Writing about being child-free by choice once brought hate mail She first wrote about not wanting children at 22, when it was still taboo, and was told again and again that she just hadn't met the right man. Years of pain, and a diagnosis that came later Suspected endometriosis turned out to be ovarian cysts, and a PMDD diagnosis explained the low, cyclical days sitting on top of lifelong anxiety. Hormones can lift brain fog within days After a cyst returned, her consultant added oral progesterone alongside the coil she already had, and Vicki describes her brain fog clearing within two days. Magazines did a job nothing has replaced. At Kiss, Vicki answered readers' questions about periods, spots and first kisses as their "big sis" — advice that was edited, curated and expert-checked. Confessions, answered without judgement Laura hands Vicki anonymous confessions from the Love Your Vulva live show — desire, hygiene, being left out for not having children, Botox and breast reduction — and the answers stay kind throughout. 📚 Resources Anywhere but Here Vicki Notaro's fourth novel, published by Penguin Endometriosis the condition first suspected behind Vicki's years of period pain Period problems and PMDD HSE guidance on severe premenstrual symptoms Love Your Vulva Live Laura's live show, where the anonymous confessions were gathered ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Vicki takes over as host for the summer 06:23 — Anywhere but Here: three women, three different lives at 40 09:29 — The pressure to have it all sorted by a certain age 10:34 — Writing about being child-free at 22 13:30 — Kiss magazine and being everyone's "big sis" 21:51 — Writer's block in her mother-in-law's spare room 24:50 — Painful periods, suspected endometriosis and ovarian cysts 25:50 — A PMDD diagnosis and cyclical depression 26:39 — Oral progesterone and brain fog lifting in two days 28:27 — Listener confessions, answered honestly 35:40 — Botox honesty, and why Laura stopped 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, fitness coach, author and speaker Brian Keane tells the story of hating his first career as a teacher — and the line from his mum that changed everything. He's honest that reinvention isn't instant (he went broke twice before it worked) and lands on a reframe anyone can use: it's not being stuck that traps you, it's the feeling of being stuck. 🔑Key Points • The day Brian knew his first career was the wrong fit • His mum's question: "what would you do for free?" • Why it's the feeling of being stuck, not the situation, that holds you back • How reinvention can take time, including failing along the way 🎧 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.

What do you do when you feel stuck - in a job you hate, a relationship that has gone flat, or a version of yourself you no longer recognise? Life and business coach Mark Fennell joins Laura for a warm, practical conversation about how people actually get moving again - starting not with a grand plan, but with a single next step. A qualified electrician who began as a youth volunteer worker, Mark shares how coaching became his life's work, and why identity - how you see yourself - sits underneath almost everything. He speaks with real tenderness about the loss he and his wife carried when they were told they couldn't have children, and how they slowly built a genuinely contented life by asking one question: what can we still do that brings us in that direction? From the medical student who became a millionaire painter-decorator to the young carer who believed he would never laugh again, Mark's stories keep returning to the same truths: make the decision, take the action, and be careful what you define yourself as. Along the way, he and Laura take a more realistic look at manifestation, the fluff in the wellness world, and why, in relationships especially, action communicates far more than words. 🔑 Key Points You don't have to figure out your whole life — just the next step When a young medical student admitted he only knew what he didn't want, Mark's question — when were you last fully content? — led him to painting, and eventually to running a hugely successful painting and decorating business. Identity is the most important vision board How you see yourself matters more than any board on the wall — even a Fortune 500 CFO Mark worked with was gripped by imposter syndrome until she saw that her experience, not her credentials, had earned her the role. Contentment can be rebuilt after loss When Mark and his wife were told they couldn't have children, they refused to let it ruin their lives — and by taking small steps towards contentment, without putting a time on it, they reached a place with no void. Take manifestation with a pinch of salt What you focus on shapes what you notice, but thinking without action is dead — and the most important thing to manifest isn't the bigger house or the best job, it's a content life. Burnout ends where honesty begins Mark collapsed in the gym and was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack — what followed was health anxiety, and a recovery built on balance, movement and refusing to say "I am an anxious person". Action communicates far more than words A couple Mark worked with rediscovered each other not through big emotional talks but through a date night — a reminder that relationships, like gardens, need tending before you decide they're done. Be careful what you define yourself as Mark learned from his granny, who refused to see herself as a cancer victim, that the labels we accept shape how we live — and, as he reminds young people, nobody is confident all of the time. 📚 Resources Breakthrough — Mark Fennell's book on moving from stuck to unstoppable, published by Gill Mark's practical guide to getting unstuck. Mark Fennell — coaching, courses and speaking Also on Instagram and TikTok. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction 02:36 — From electrician and youth worker to coach 05:47 — Identity: the most important vision board 07:32 — Fertility loss and choosing contentment 10:00 — The med student who became a painter-decorator 13:07 — Manifestation with a pinch of salt 16:46 — How the book Breakthrough came about 19:15 — Is contentment actually realistic? 20:35 — The fluff in the wellness world 23:29 — The young carer who thought he'd never laugh again 30:13 — Burnout, the gym collapse and health anxiety 39:27 — The date-night story 57:32 — 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, former lawyer turned businesswoman Nikki Dwyer explains why coercive, narcissistic abuse rarely looks the way people expect — it's a slow erosion of confidence through criticism, gaslighting and isolation. She speaks candidly about how losing nearly everything became the moment she could stop drifting and consciously choose who she wanted to be. It's honest, raw and ultimately hopeful. 🔑Key Points • Why abusive relationships rarely look the way people expect from the outside • How criticism, gaslighting and isolation slowly wear down confidence • Why being capable or strong doesn't make you immune • Turning the loss of everything into a chance to choose who you want to be 💛 If anything here feels close to home, it's not your fault. In Ireland, Women's Aid (womensaid.ie) offers free, confidential support. 🎧 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.

This week Laura sits down with Dr John Loy, one of the busiest weight-loss surgeons working between Ireland and the UK. He grew up behind the bar of a family pub in County Down, which he says was the best training in medicine he ever had, before a chance meeting in New York changed how he thinks about the whole job. It's a warm, funny and genuinely eye-opening conversation about obesity as a disease rather than a choice, and about the person on the other side of the desk. John explains why more than half of his patients cry at their first appointment, why he never asks how much weight they've lost, and why the goals that matter are seeing your own child's First Communion from behind the camera — not the number on the scales. He also gives one of the clearest explanations you'll hear of how weight-loss surgery actually works - the gastric balloon, the sleeve and the bypass - why a bypass is like "a free GLP-1 injection every day for life", and why, despite the rise of the weight-loss injections, demand for surgery is climbing rather than falling. 🔑 Key Points Obesity is a disease, not a choice John argues it should be treated in stages, like cancer, and that denying people care on a BMI cut-off is simply wrong. A gastric bypass is like "a free GLP-1 injection for life" The surgery isn't just about a smaller stomach; it changes the gut hormones that tell your brain you're full. The weight-loss injections haven't ended surgery — the opposite Many patients try the injections first, stall or can't afford them, and find a sleeve pays for itself within a few years. Three procedures, three different jobs The swallowable balloon, the sleeve and the bypass each suit a different stage — John explains who each one is for. Blood sugar settles before the weight comes off Diabetes can resolve within days of surgery, long before any weight is lost — proof of how closely the gut and brain talk. The best consultation starts with "why are you here?" Rather than judging, John asks patients their story — and finds the roots often reach right back to childhood. Non-scale victories are what matter He never asks how much weight a patient has lost; he asks whether they can finally take their kids to Disney World. A childhood in the pub was the best training he ever had Learning to talk to people across a bar counter, he says, taught him more about medicine than any exam. 📚 Resources Auralia Dr John Loy's clinic in Dublin, offering gastric sleeve, bypass and balloon procedures ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction 00:50 — The cruise-ship patient who thought it was his last trip 04:23 — Why half his patients cry at the first appointment 05:20 — Obesity: the last acceptable prejudice 06:52 — From a County Tyrone pub to the operating theatre 09:29 — The gut-brain link: why blood sugar settles first 10:20 — Sleeve, bypass and "a free GLP-1 for life" 10:48 — Are the injections ending surgery? The opposite 13:47 — The balloon, the sleeve and the bypass explained 19:42 — New York and the philosophy of surgery 22:52 — Non-scale victories and the surgical-cat tattoo 34:34 — Ikigai, travel 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, broadcaster and mental health advocate Keith Walsh shares what it was like to be diagnosed with ADHD in his late forties — and how going through his son's assessment led to his own. He's honest and funny about what undiagnosed ADHD looked like day to day, the small systems he built to cope, and why a diagnosis can feel like relief rather than a label. 🔑Key Points • How going through his son's assessment led to his own diagnosis • The everyday reality of undiagnosed adult ADHD • Why a diagnosis can feel like relief rather than a label • The small systems that helped him cope 🎧 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.

Ahead of National Sisters Day on Sunday 2 August, Laura hands the mic to the one guest who has known her longest - her younger sister Rachel, making her podcast debut. What follows is less an interview than a lifetime of shared history: the smear tests they were both booked in for that morning, Laura's abandoned marathon training, the running mishap Rachel has never been allowed to live down, and the commentary only a sister can give. Then, halfway through, Laura mentions something she assumed Rachel already knew - that their dad wasn't there when she was born. He was at home with the other two. Rachel had no idea. What happens next is the reason this one is worth listening to: Laura calls their mother into the studio, live, to confirm it. From there it's the full archive — the crooked teeth and the orthodontist bill that nearly cost their parents the house, the green gabardine Laura convinced her was school uniform, growing up around a mother working night shifts as a midwife, and the football trials Rachel was told she'd have been sent to if she'd been a boy. Underneath the slagging is the thing sisters rarely say out loud, and by the end they both say it. If you have a sister, this is one to send her before Sunday. 🔑Key Points Some family history only surfaces by accident Rachel had never been told her father missed her birth — it came out mid-conversation, not through any big reveal. Ask the person who was actually there Rather than leave it hanging, Laura brought their mother into the room to confirm the story first-hand. Sisters keep the receipts Years on, the teeth, the gabardine and the running stories are all still admissible evidence. Childhood teasing lands differently in hindsight The stories that were mortifying at the time are the ones they now tell most fondly. Growing up in an older sister's shadow shapes you Hand-me-downs, comparisons and a very particular sense of humour come with the territory. Girls were quietly steered away from sport Rachel was told that if she'd been a boy she'd have been sent for trials — a throwaway line that stayed with her. A parent's shift work sets the tone of a house Their mother working nights as a midwife shaped how the siblings behaved, argued and looked after each other. Slagging can be its own love language As they put it themselves, it was mostly slagging — sprinkled with a lot of love. 📚Resources CervicalCheck Ireland's free cervical screening programme ADHD Ireland Support and information on adult ADHD ⏱️Timestamps 01:00 Why this one — National Sisters Day, and Rachel's debut 02:10 Both booked in for smear tests on the same morning 04:05 Laura's abandoned marathon training — and Rachel's running mishap 11:23 "Dad wasn't even there for your birth" — Rachel finds out 12:02 Laura calls their mother into the studio to confirm it 15:14 A female version of Rod Stewart: the crooked-teeth years 16:49 The gabardine that wasn't school uniform 19:45 Mark's first day at school — and Laura stepping in 24:40 "If you'd been a boy, you'd have been sent to trials" 27:00 What having a sister teaches you about conflict 34:13 Slagging, sprinkled with a lot of love 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, psychiatric nurse and intuitive eating counsellor Sinéad Crowe explains what intuitive eating really is — a way of caring for yourself, not another set of rules. She shares why letting go of the diet mentality comes first, and how making peace with food can quiet years of guilt and reconnect you with your body's own signals. 🔑Key Points • What intuitive eating actually means (a self-care framework, not a diet) • Why "rejecting the diet mentality" is the starting point • How making peace with food can ease guilt around eating • Reconnecting with the body's own signals 💛 If anything here resonates, you're not alone. In Ireland, Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland (bodywhys.ie), offers support and information. 🎧 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.

Bob Cullen isn't a doctor or a traditional academic — he's a man who spent his early life around violence and addiction, spent years in prison, and has spent the time since trying to understand where that violence actually comes from. Now finishing a master's and preparing to start a PhD, he leads the Success Stories Programme, running workshops with men — including in prisons and on probation — about patriarchy, masculinity and the beliefs that quietly shape how boys become men. In this conversation, Bob and Laura trace violence back to its roots: the way boys are taught that emotion is weakness, how shame and poverty drive harm, and why Bob believes we can't reduce violence against women without understanding masculinity itself. He's honest about the misogyny he still hears from men when no women are around, and clear that shaming men or simply telling them to "talk more" misses how the harm is learned in the first place. The episode also turns inward. Bob speaks openly about the drugs, the self-harm and the years he couldn't look at himself in the mirror, and about the education, meditation and steady relationships that slowly turned things around. It closes on regret, accountability and self-forgiveness — and why, after all the work he's done, he still chooses to hold on to some of the guilt he carries. Please note: this episode discusses violence, prison, abuse, misogyny and suicide, and may be difficult to listen to. Support links are included below. 🔑 Key Points Violence has roots we rarely look at Bob argues we'll never reduce violence against women by focusing on it alone — it has to be traced back to patriarchy and how masculinity is formed. Boys learn early that emotion is weakness From "boys don't cry" to the fear of being called weak by friends, boys are taught to suppress feeling and to prove they'll use violence if needed. Shame is one of the biggest drivers of violence Drawing on James Gilligan's work, Bob links most harm to shame, poverty and exposure to violence, and notes people are usually victims before they become perpetrators. Misogyny didn't start with social media He traces how men talk about women when none are around back through history, rather than blaming figures like Andrew Tate alone. "Just get men talking" isn't enough Bob explains why shaming men or telling them to open up misses how the harm is learned, and why his work is built on accountability and community instead. Change came through education and connection Getting clean in prison, meditation, journaling and a teacher named Andrea opened a path into study, feminism and the Success Stories work he now leads. Accountability over easy self-forgiveness Bob speaks honestly about the guilt he still carries, and why he chooses to hold it: not to punish himself, but as a reminder of who he doesn't want to become. 📚 Resources Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes — James Gilligan On shame, poverty and the roots of violence. The Will to Change — bell hooks On men, masculinity and love. The Patriarchs — Angela Saini How patriarchy took hold. Success Stories Programme The anti-patriarchy, anti-violence programme Bob runs with men. Samaritans Ireland Free 24/7 on 116 123. Pieta Free 24/7 crisis support on 1800 247 247. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction and the Success Stories Program 03:52 — Patriarchy, domination and masculinity 06:34 — Why focusing only on violence against women falls short 09:56 — "Boys don't cry" and the fear of weakness 12:45 — Shame, poverty and the roots of violence 13:40 — Misogyny's long history, from Pandora to Descartes 27:40 — Why "men just need to talk" isn't enough 32:56 — Victims before perpetrators 41:30 — Accountability, integrity and community 50:00 — Drugs, self-harm and going to prison 63:00 — The teacher who changed everything 79:23 — Regret, accountability and self-forgiveness 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, child and adolescent psychotherapist Dr Coleman Noctor explains why so many of us feel anxious and "behind," even when life is objectively fine. He shows how the gap between expectation and reality fuels anxiety, why chasing "exceptional" leaves us discontent, and how aiming for his "four to seven zone" can bring us back to balance. 🔑Key Points • Why anxiety often lives in the gap between expectation and reality • How "demonising average" sets most of us up to feel like we're failing • Why happiness is a passing moment, not a permanent state • The "four to seven zone" as a practical way to aim for balance 🎧 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.

Becca Maberly did everything "right." An A-grade student with an obstetrician father, she got to the hospital, had her baby with no pain relief, and was home for lunch - certain she was going to be brilliant at motherhood. Then the postnatal period arrived, and she went, in her words, straight to the bottom of the class. In this honest, funny and disarming conversation, Becca and Laura pull apart the gap between what we're told motherhood will feel like and what it can actually be. Becca talks about feeling like an unnatural mother, the loneliness of the long hours in between, and the maternal rage that surges from nought to a hundred over spilled milk. She shares the day she asked her GP for help and was sent to a psychiatric unit, only to be handed a leaflet and told to count to ten. She also names something few people hear about: D-MER, or dysphoric milk ejection reflex - the wave of crushing sadness that hit her at every let-down, which she only understood years later. The conversation moves on through renegotiating a relationship after a baby, a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that nearly went unnoticed, and why Becca now believes the meaning of life is simply finding your own balance. It's a reminder that if you're not loving every moment, you're not failing - and you're far from alone. 🔑 Key Points From A-grade student to the bottom of the class Becca sailed through pregnancy and birth, then found the postnatal period the hardest thing she'd ever done — and the mismatch between expectation and reality floored her. "Enjoy every moment" can do real harm Being told to treasure a stage you are quietly struggling through can leave mothers feeling ashamed and isolated rather than supported. Not bonding straight away is more common than we admit Becca loved her son but didn't feel the instant, overwhelming rush she'd been promised — and says a baby can feel like a stranger for a long time. D-MER is real and rarely talked about Dysphoric milk ejection reflex brought a homesick, crushing sadness at every let-down; naming it, years later, changed how she understood it. Maternal rage often comes from feeling unsupported The nought-to-a-hundred surge over something tiny is frequently about exhaustion, unmet expectations and carrying too much alone. Asking for help doesn't always get the right response When Becca told her GP she was angry and shouting, she was sent to a psychiatric unit and handed a CBT leaflet — a reminder of how far perinatal support still has to go. Talking openly is its own kind of therapy Ranting honestly online led Becca to realise she wasn't the only one — and connecting with other women became the support she couldn't find elsewhere. Honesty is the most useful thing we can offer new parents Not to frighten anyone, but to sit somewhere between "you'll be great" and "this could be the hardest thing you ever do" — the truth is usually in between. 📚 Resources A Mother Place Becca's platform for honest, unfiltered motherhood Postnatal Depression (HSE) HSE information and support Talk Therapy (HSE) Talk therapy and counselling options ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 01:51 — From A-grade student to the bottom of the class 04:00 — Calling BS on "enjoy every moment" 04:52 — The feeding nobody warns you about 09:31 — Loneliness and the hours in between 11:58 — The GP, a psychiatric unit and a CBT leaflet 15:13 — D-MER: the sadness that comes with let-down 19:19 — Maternal rage and the spilled-milk surge 22:16 — When your baby feels like a stranger 24:02 — Renegotiating the relationship after a baby 37:11 — Her book, and a ruptured ectopic pregnancy 42:28 — The meaning of life is balance 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, skin expert and Skin Nerd founder Jennifer Rock explains why so much health and skincare advice online is built to entertain rather than educate — and how to tell the difference. She makes a straight-talking case for checking qualifications, standards and the source behind any advice before you act on it, so the next viral "must buy" doesn't catch you out. 🔑Key Points • Why qualifications and standards matter in skincare and health • How social media is designed to entertain, not educate • Why you should always check the source of your advice • A simple filter for viral trends and "must buy" claims 🎧 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.

Laura sits down with community pharmacist Darragh Connolly, who has built a men's health service — Men's Health Downunder — around something most clinics rush past: helping men get their sexual function back after prostate surgery. It's a candid, frequently very funny conversation about a subject usually wrapped in silence and shame. Darragh explains the male anatomy in plain (and memorable) terms, why nightly "micro-erections" keep the penis healthy, and what actually changes after a prostatectomy. He walks through how a penis pump works, what constriction rings are for, and why this isn't only for men who've had cancer surgery — smoking, diabetes, spinal injury, certain medicines and simply getting older can all play a part. Running through all of it is a hopeful message: a prostate diagnosis or surgery is not the end of sex, intimacy is far more than penetration, and men well into their 80s can still enjoy a full sex life. Darragh also makes the case for meeting men's sexual health at the pharmacy counter, not only the consultant's clinic. 🔑 Key Points Sexual health is health — and still taboo There's deep shame and silence around men's genitals and sexual function, and Darragh's whole approach is to demystify it, often with humour, so men actually seek help. Micro-erections keep the penis healthy Men have around five micro-erections a night that bring blood, oxygen and nutrients to the tissue; without them it's "use it or lose it", and the penis can shrink and lose function. Erectile dysfunction has many causes, not just prostate surgery Ageing, smoking, diabetes, lower-back trauma, spinal injury and some medications can all affect erectile function. How a penis pump actually works Used for five to ten minutes a day, it draws blood into the penis like training a muscle, improving vascular and nerve health over time. Constriction rings let men maintain an erection for sex Paired with the pump, a constriction ring traps blood to hold an erection for penetrative sex — but should never be left on more than six to eight minutes. A prostate diagnosis is not the end of sex With the right tools, men who hadn't had an erection in months or years can have penetrative sex again — and intimacy is always more than penetration. Know the warning signs of prostate trouble Dribbling, a weak stream, going more often (especially at night) and "stage fright" can point to an enlarged prostate; Movember is a good place to learn the signs. 📚 Resources Men's Health Downunder Darragh Connolly's Irish men's health service and the surgical-grade penis pumps discussed Movember the men's health charity Darragh recommends for prostate cancer, testicular cancer and male suicide awareness ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Welcome and sponsor 01:36 — Why a pharmacist is talking about men's health 03:24 — How Darragh got into men's health 04:32 — What a prostatectomy actually involves 07:28 — Male anatomy explained simply 13:48 — Micro-erections and "use it or lose it" 20:55 — How a penis pump works 24:31 — Constriction rings and maintaining an erection 38:33 — The prostate and its warning signs 52:44 — How Viagra and Cialis were discovered 57:00 — Low-dose Cialis, the pump and the post-surgery "void" 1:01:24 — Couples, intimacy and a hopeful note 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, GP Dr Mick Crotty explains why weight is far less within our conscious control than we are led to believe — and why so many people carry a load of self-blame they never deserved. He walks Laura through the genetics of appetite, the brain's reward response to food, and the "set point" it quietly defends, which is why weight so often returns after a diet. It's a clip that gently takes apart the "just eat less and move more" myth. 🔑Key Points • Why "just eat less and move more" is an oversimplification • How genetics and the appetite system shape hunger and fullness • What the brain's "set point" is, and why weight often returns after dieting • Why this is a medical issue, not a personal failing 🎧 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.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

What does proper midlife care actually look like, and who keeps getting left out of it? In this episode, Laura sits down with Dr Caoimhe Hartley - founder of Menopause Health in Dalkey, clinical lead of the Complex Menopause Clinic in the Rotunda, and clinical lead for women's medicine at the new BlackRock Health Women's Health Centre. They talk about the women being told no - those over 60 who feel they have missed the boat on HRT, and those who have come through breast cancer and are still struggling with symptoms. Caoimhe explains where the evidence actually sits on bones, blood vessels and brain, why so much of what gets repeated still comes from the Women's Health Initiative, and how modern HRT differs from the older oral preparations. The conversation moves through midlife weight gain and changing body shape, the rise in adult ADHD diagnoses, and the link between oestrogen and dopamine. They also dig into osteoporosis screening in Ireland, why there is no national DEXA programme, dietary calcium, and the histamine flare some women notice on HRT. Throughout, Caoimhe keeps coming back to the same point - care should be personal, joined up and built around the woman in front of you. 🔑 Key Points Guidelines are broad, not personal They are starting points, not prescriptions, and individual risk-benefit has to lead the conversation. Women over 60 are not automatically locked out of HRT There is no longer evidence that starting later raises heart attack risk, and bone benefit is available at any age. The WHI still shapes the conversation A flawed 1990s study using Premarin and older progestins is still behind fears that do not map onto modern HRT. The brain adapts after menopause Hot flushes, night sweats and brain fog are not designed to last forever, and most women in their 70s and 80s are not symptomatic. Breast cancer survivors deserve a real menopause conversation Vaginal oestrogen is generally safe, complex menopause clinics exist for a reason, and non-hormonal options matter. Body shape change is real and largely hormonal Central weight gain is one of the top three things women raise, and no specific HRT fixes it, though better sleep and mood help. ADHD is being unmasked in midlife As oestrogen falls, dopamine regulation shifts and previously well-managed traits can come to the surface. Ireland has no national DEXA screening Despite international guidance over 65, screening here is opportunistic and goes through your GP. 80% of bone density is genetic Peak bone density is in your 30s, with the remaining fifth shaped by vitamin D, calcium, weight-bearing exercise and not smoking. 📚 Resources Menopause Health Clinic, Dalkey BlackRock Health Women's Health Centre Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Danish Osteoporosis Prevention Study (DOPS) International Osteoporosis Foundation calcium calculator British Menopause Society National BreastCheck ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Why joined-up midlife care matters 03:20 — Women over 60 and HRT 05:10 — Bones, brain and the limits of the 60 cut-off 07:50 — Why the WHI still shapes the conversation 13:00 — The brain adapts after menopause 16:00 — Breast cancer and complex menopause care 20:30 — Cardiovascular health and nitric oxide 23:00 — Body shape change and central weight gain 27:00 — Ozempic and oral progesterone 28:30 — ADHD, oestrogen and dopamine 33:00 — Osteoporosis and DEXA screening in Ireland 41:00 — Histamine, HRT and hay fever 43:00 — Later motherhood and perimenopause overlap 54:30 — Advice for younger women 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, menopause specialist Dr Deirdre Lundy walks Laura through how decisions about HRT and family history of breast cancer actually get made in clinic — and why a blanket "no" rarely tells the full story. If you've ever been handed that flat refusal, this is for you. She unpacks the difference between "a family history" and a strong family history, why outdated fears around HRT and breast cancer have cost women years of their lives, and why surviving cancer shouldn't mean accepting a wrecked quality of life with no support. 🔑 Key Points What "strong family history" really means — and why it isn't a blanket no How specialists balance risk versus quality of life in real clinic conversations Why so many women have been wrongly told HRT is off the table The wider point: survivorship deserves more than "you should be grateful" What to ask for if you've been refused HRT and want a second look 🎧 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.

Pamela Deasy was in her early 40s, working full time and volunteering with the RNLI, when fatigue started dragging her back into bed in the middle of the day. Her bloods were clear. She was told it was perimenopause, then depression. Months passed before a kinesiologist, of all people, pointed at her pancreas — and within days she was in a Cork hospital being told she had a tumour. In this episode, Pamela sits down with Laura to walk through what happened next: the chemotherapy that made her legs turn to jelly, the five and a half weeks of daily radiotherapy that put her on her back in hospital, and the Whipple surgery that took out the head of her pancreas, part of her stomach, part of her intestine, her gallbladder and her spleen. Then the slower, quieter battle that came after — the seven and a half stone she lost, the survivor guilt nobody warned her about, the Survive and Thrive programme that helped her step back into the world, and the small camping toilet she now keeps in her car because that is the honest reality of life after Whipple surgery. Pamela also shares why she co-founded Pancreatic Cancer Ireland, what the signs of pancreatic cancer actually look like, and why "listen to your gut and keep going back" might be the most important sentence you hear this week. 🔑 Key Points Why fatigue was Pamela's only consistent symptom — and how easy it was to put down to a busy life, perimenopause and then depression The signs of pancreatic cancer worth knowing: persistent tiredness, pain in the tummy that radiates to the back, floaty stools, dark urine, jaundice, an itch with no rash, new pre-diabetes What Whipple surgery actually involves, and why it is described as life-saving but life-altering The realities of life after a rewired digestive system, from packing a change of clothes to always knowing where the toilet is The chemotherapy side effects that have lingered for years — neuropathy, Raynaud's, cold intolerance Survivor guilt, the drop-off in support after the "all clear", and finding her way back through the Survive and Thrive programme Why pancreatic cancer is projected to be the second leading cause of cancer-related death by 2030 Pamela's everyday philosophy: advocate for yourself, listen to your gut, and treasure the ordinary days 📚 Resources Pancreatic Cancer Ireland Survive and Thrive ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Welcome 00:27 — Blackrock Health Women's Health Centre 01:34 — Introducing Pamela and trusting your gut 02:13 — 2018: fatigue, busy work and the RNLI 03:04 — Going back to the GP again and again 05:01 — A kidney scan and "the good news is there's no cancer" 06:00 — Being told she might be depressed 06:16 — A kinesiologist who pointed at her pancreas 07:17 — Jaundice and the alarm bell 08:51 — Friday 7th December: into hospital in Cork 09:22 — "You have a tumour in your pancreas" 12:02 — What Whipple surgery actually is 13:00 — Six rounds of chemotherapy 13:30 — Side effects: falling, neuropathy, Raynaud's 17:48 — Radiotherapy, gemcitabine and six weeks in hospital 21:51 — Whipple surgery on 15 August 2019 23:20 — What was removed during Whipple 24:17 — Losing seven and a half stone and severe cachexia 26:14 — Ascites and the slow road back 29:48 — From patient to survivor 30:23 — Survivor guilt and finding therapy 31:11 — The Survive and Thrive programme 31:38 — Life after a rewired digestive system 34:55 — Pancreatic cancer statistics in Ireland 36:00 — The signs and symptoms worth knowing 42:00 — Setting up Pancreatic Cancer Ireland 47:58 — Where to find Pamela 49:25 — Advice for younger people, and the meaning of life 51:38 — Blackrock Health Women's Health Centre 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, endocrinologist Dr Mary Ryan opens up about losing her husband unexpectedly while raising three small children, and what grief actually looked like for her in the years that followed. She tells Laura about the shock, the anger, and the long fog of those first two years — and the small, practical things that helped: leaning into bonding routines with her kids, accepting help from family, friends and even her own patients, and letting people in when every part of her wanted to push them away. 🔑 Key Points Why grief, in her experience, takes around two years — and why the second Christmas is often the hardest The "dark hole" she fell into, and what slowly pulled her out How she kept life moving day-to-day for three young children The quiet role of family, friends and patients in keeping her going A gentle, honest take on how you don't really "get over" loss — you come through it 🎧 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.

Anxiety author Caroline Foran joins Laura for a deeply personal conversation about parenting a young son recently diagnosed as autistic with a PDA profile, alongside her own long history with anxiety. Caroline talks openly about the years before the diagnosis, the blame she turned inward, and everything she has had to unlearn about parenting. She explains what PDA — Pervasive Drive for Autonomy — actually looks like day to day, why traditional approaches can make things worse, and the social pressure of being seen to "manage" a child whose nervous system is set on high alert. She also shares her own anxiety story, from a frightening breakdown at sixteen in Italy through to the severe physical anxiety that took over her twenties. Caroline talks about medication, CBT, and the years of work behind her new book Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety, and why so much of recovery came from showing her body safety rather than trying to outthink her own mind. 🔑 Key Points Discovering a PDA profile — Caroline explains Pervasive Drive for Autonomy and what it means for her son's nervous system day to day. Why traditional parenting backfires — Holding firm boundaries can push a PDA child straight into fight or flight, even at five. Lowering the demands — A low-demand, declarative-language approach has reshaped everyday life at home. Performative parenting — The urge to respond to her son for the benefit of onlookers, even with close friends. The years before the diagnosis — A bumpy COVID start, severe separation anxiety and two preschool attempts that left him distressed. Caroline's anxiety story — A breakdown at sixteen in Italy and a severe physical episode at twenty-five. Medication, CBT and self-compassion — Prozac, behavioural therapy and learning to respond to anxiety with kindness rather than self-attack. Showing the body safety — Why walking, rhythm and bottom-up regulation worked better than trying to master her thoughts. The cost of constant stimulation — Social media, the pleasure–pain balance and collective anxiety since COVID. 📚 Resources Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety Owning It PDA Society Casey Ehrlich (Peace Parents) Dr Anna Lembke — Dopamine Nation ⏱️ Timestamps 02:00 — "Is he non-verbal?" introducing her son 02:30 — Autism with a PDA profile 03:00 — What PDA stands for 04:30 — Nervous system disability and perceived demand 06:00 — Why traditional parenting can backfire 08:00 — Performative parenting in public 10:00 — A pillow on the grass and what dysregulation looks like 13:00 — Blaming herself before the diagnosis 17:00 — Sensory overwhelm and rethinking exposure 20:00 — Preschool, school and what comes next 30:00 — Family life, marriage and never a date night 33:30 — Caroline's anxiety story begins in Italy 39:00 — A severe breakdown at twenty-five 45:00 — Starting medication and what Prozac actually did 51:00 — CBT, behavioural experiments and getting her life back 56:00 — Showing the body safety 59:00 — Social media and the pleasure–pain balance 01:04:00 — Caroline's new book 01:05:30 — Advice 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, comedian Kyla Cobbler shares an honest, no-frills account of how her drinking quietly turned into dependency — while she was still training, working, and gigging five nights a week. She tells Laura how being a regular performer in Barcelona blurred the lines between socialising and self-medicating, and how Dry January cracked the whole thing open. What started as a simple challenge ended in withdrawal, therapy, AA, and a completely new relationship with fear, nerves, and joy on stage. 🔑 Key Points How "high-functioning" drinking can hide a much bigger problem The cycle of running, gigging, free drinks — and waking up groggy every single morning What withdrawal actually felt like by day two of Dry January Why it was never about the red wine — it was about wanting to feel different Performing sober for the first time, and learning to feel everything instead of numbing it 🎧 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.

Barbara Scully sits down with Laura for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with her own recent run-in with the medical system and opens out into what it actually means to age as a woman in Ireland today. Barbara talks about months of hip pain, a string of MRIs, a suspected stroke that turned out to be nothing, and the moment she decided to step off the treadmill of tests, hand back the prescription and rebuild her strength in the gym. She also shares her type 2 diabetes diagnosis in her mid-50s and the two years of remission she achieved through diet and exercise before her mother died and life became harder again. The conversation moves into menopause, brain fog, mood swings and the language used about older women. Barbara reframes brain fog as an information retrieval slowdown, makes the case that women's anger after menopause is real and warranted, and argues that being underestimated as you get older is closer to a superpower than to invisibility. There is also room for the story behind it all. Growing up tall in a male-dominated house. Becoming an unmarried mother in 1987 and listening to politicians and clergy describe women like her as a scourge on the radio. The close, unconventional friendship she had with her mother, who set up her own business teaching women word processing in the late 1980s. And the comedy career she fell into in her 60s, now touring with her one-woman show Older Bolder Wiser. Her best-selling book ‘Wise Up’ is available now in Irish bookstores nationwide & on Amazon.ie 📚 🔑 Key Points Trusting your gut with healthcare After months of MRIs and a hip replacement referral, Barbara declined the surgery and rebuilt her strength through physio and the gym. A diabetes diagnosis as a wake-up call A type 2 diagnosis in her mid-50s pushed her into healthier habits and into remission for two years. Brain fog reframed Women in their 60s have decades more information stored than younger people; what is labelled brain fog is information retrieval slowdown. Anger after menopause is real As life pressures lift, you have the headspace to notice ongoing inequalities, and that anger is not a hormonal mood swing. Underestimated, not invisible Being overlooked as an older woman gives you the element of surprise and the freedom to take risks without caring what people think. The cost of conformity A senior CEO told Barbara she would love to let her hair go grey but feared not being taken seriously at work. Becoming an unmarried mother in 1987 Barbara remembers her father going upstairs to be sick, three weeks of silence, then a quiet "we'll stand by you" on a snowy morning. A friendship with her mother Her mother bought her her first baby cham at 12, set up her own business in her 50s and was a collaborator throughout Barbara's life. 📚 Resources Wise Up — Barbara Scully Memoir reflecting on the years after menopause. Older Bolder Wiser Barbara's one-woman comedy show currently touring Irish theatres. Funny Women Ireland Set up by Orla Doherty and Val Troy to promote women in comedy. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Hip pain and the MRI run-around 03:00 — Stepping off the treadmill of tests 07:30 — Type 2 diabetes and remission 09:30 — Why brain fog is not what we are told 11:00 — Anger after menopause is real 13:00 — Underestimated rather than invisible 17:00 — Letting the hair go grey 22:00 — The freedom of getting older 28:00 — A first smear test in the 80s 36:00 — Growing up tall and the slow set 44:00 — Giving up red wine and finding gin 48:00 — Her mother as collaborator 56:00 — Losing her mother in 2022 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.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, GP and menopause specialist Dr Sarah Callaghan explains why perimenopause so rarely arrives with a bang — and why so many women spend years "muddling through" before they realise what's actually going on. She tells Laura about the slow, sneaky creep of symptoms, the patterns she sees most often in clinic, and the women who mistake their perimenopause for postnatal anxiety, burnout, grief, or "just life". It's a powerful reframe: if something feels off, you deserve more than "just cope". 🔑 Key Points Why perimenopause symptoms rarely arrive all at once — and why that matters The fluctuating, "good week / bad week" pattern that makes women doubt themselves Common mislabels: postnatal anxiety, stress, grief, COVID, burnout The "I just don't feel like myself" phrase she hears in clinic over and over Why you don't need to be in crisis to ask for help — even a 20–30% drop in functioning is worth investigating 🎧 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.

Laura sits down with MEP Maria Walsh for a wide-ranging conversation about women, power and what is shifting in Europe right now. Maria has just returned from the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, where for the first time in seventy years member states could not agree a final text on access to justice for women. She talks honestly about online misogyny, the deepfakes already circulating in Irish secondary schools, conversion therapy, and the website created about her during the 2019 election that is still live today. Alongside that, she opens up about internalised homophobia, the loneliness of political life, and growing up as the gay Rose of Tralee at a time when Ireland was shifting on marriage equality. The conversation also moves through period poverty, FGM, the underfunding of women's healthcare, the pink tax, and what it would take to close the gap on cardiovascular care, menopause and reproductive health. It is a frank look at the work still ahead and the toll it takes on the women trying to do it. 🔑 Key Points The UN couldn't agree on access to justice for women — For the first time in seventy years the Commission on the Status of Women failed to find consensus, after the US tabled eight late amendments including the definition of a woman. Deepfakes are already in Irish secondary schools — 99% of generated deepfakes are pornographic and 96% of victims are women and young girls, with nudification apps making explicit content from a single photo. Online attacks follow women in politics A website created during the 2019 election is still live, and Coco's Law catches those who share content but not those who build or host the apps. Conversion therapy is still legal in most of the EU Only eight EU countries have banned it, and Ireland's commitment sits inside the programme for government. Women's healthcare is underfunded More research funding has gone into male baldness than endometriosis, and there are only six menopause clinics across Ireland. Cardiovascular care is still built around men Heart attack symptoms are taught through male presentation, leaving women under-treated when it matters. The pink tax keeps quietly costing women Razors, dry cleaning and a 23% VAT rate on sunscreen all add up across a lifetime. Politics takes a real personal toll Maria speaks openly about loneliness, comfort eating, and learning to take up space in Brussels. 📚 Resources UN Commission on the Status of Women Coco's Law ILGA-Europe Belong To Women for Election See Her Elected Riley Hope Foundation Ruhama Esker House Her Last Search (Croí) ⏱️ Timestamps 03:39 — Back from the UN Commission on the Status of Women 07:33 — Why the US tabled eight amendments at the eleventh hour 12:37 — Deepfakes, disinformation and the 90% statistic 15:04 — Conversion therapy and the EU debate 19:23 — The Burke website that is still live 27:38 — Deepfakes in Irish secondary schools 35:43 — What policy needs to do, and Ireland's chance to lead 40:53 — Cardiovascular care and Her Last Search 45:06 — Pink tax, menopause clinics and the funding gap 49:29 — Why women are still underrepresented in politics 53:01 — Period poverty, Riley and Any Time of the Month 58:25 — Loneliness and learning to take up space 59:30 — Calcutta, Hope Foundation and human trafficking 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.

🎧 Episode Description In this episode, Michelle Flynn shares her deeply personal and professional insight into birth trauma, and why it’s not always about what happens, but how it’s experienced. Drawing on her own journey through pregnancy anxiety and her work as a perinatal psychotherapist, Michelle explains how trauma can live in the nervous system, showing up long after the moment has passed. From hypervigilance and intrusive thoughts to sensory triggers that bring the body straight back into the experience, she breaks down why these reactions happen and what they actually mean. Together, Michelle and Laura unpack the importance of feeling safe, seen and supported, both for patients and for healthcare professionals. This really comes back to understanding your body and how trauma can show up differently for each of us. 📚 Mentioned in this Episode Postnatal Depression A type of depression that can occur after childbirth, affecting mood, energy, and ability to care for yourself or your baby. Postnatal Anxiety A condition involving excessive worry, fear, or intrusive thoughts during the postpartum period. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) A mental health condition involving intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviours, which can present during pregnancy or postpartum. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) A condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, including childbirth. Perinatal Mental Health Mental health during pregnancy and the early years after birth, typically up until a child is around two years old, when individuals may be more vulnerable to anxiety and mood disorders. Somatic Experiencing (Peter Levine) A body-based trauma therapy focused on how the nervous system stores and processes traumatic experiences. The Body Keeps the Score - Dr Bessel van der Kolk A widely recognised book exploring how trauma is stored in the body and how it can be treated. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) A psychotherapy approach used to help people process and recover from traumatic memories. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) A structured therapy that focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thought and behaviour patterns. MBRRACE-UK Report A UK report examining maternal deaths and inequalities, including higher risks among Black and ethnic minority women. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 - What is birth trauma 02:00 - Michelle’s personal pregnancy experience 04:00 - Pregnancy anxiety and early fears 07:30 - Feeling dismissed and unsupported 10:30 - Who is more vulnerable to trauma 20:00 - PTSD in healthcare professionals 24:00 - Communication and consent in care 28:00 - Can trauma be prevented 36:00 - The lemon experiment and body response 45:00 - Understanding somatic therapy 50:00 - Why CBT may not work for trauma 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.

🎧 Episode Description How many women have been told that pain is just part of being a woman? For many women, painful or heavy periods become something they learn to live with. In this conversation, periods are reframed as something far more important - a vital sign that reflects what’s happening across the whole body, not just a monthly inconvenience. Through real clinical stories, we hear how women can spend years feeling exhausted, run down, or unwell without ever realising the root cause. These symptoms are normalised, when in reality they need to be recognised and supported much earlier. Drawing on decades of clinical experience, Mary shares how early intervention can prevent long-term conditions like PCOS and endometriosis. The discussion also expands into menopause, hormone therapy, and the importance of lifestyle - from nutrition and sleep to stress and daily habits - in supporting the body. Alongside the science, the episode reflects on modern life - the pressure to do too much, the importance of boundaries, and the need to delegate and share the load. At its core, this episode is about listening to your body, questioning what doesn’t feel right, and giving yourself permission to take your health seriously. 🔑 Key Points Your period is a vital sign Your menstrual cycle reflects overall health, yet many women are never taught what is normal and what isn’t. Severe pain and heavy bleeding aren’t normal Symptoms like prolonged periods, extreme pain, or vomiting are often dismissed, but they signal underlying imbalance that should be investigated. Early intervention changes everything Addressing irregular periods in teenage years can prevent long-term conditions like PCOS and endometriosis. Hormones affect the whole body Imbalances don’t just impact periods - they influence energy, mood, weight, skin, and long-term health outcomes. Lifestyle is the foundation of hormone health Nutrition, sleep, exercise, and gut health all play a key role in regulating hormones and supporting the body. Conditions like PCOS are often missed Weight gain, acne, and irregular cycles are common early signs, yet many women go undiagnosed for years. Hormonal support can restore balance Treatments like progesterone and metformin can help regulate cycles and improve symptoms when used appropriately. Women are doing too much Chronic stress, over-responsibility, and lack of boundaries can impact hormone health and overall wellbeing. 📚 Mentioned in this Episode It’s Probably Your Period by Mary Ryan Mary’s book focused on understanding menstrual health and early intervention Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) A hormonal condition that can affect periods, weight, skin, and fertility Endometriosis A condition where tissue similar to the womb lining grows outside the uterus, often causing severe pain Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) Treatment used to relieve symptoms of menopause by replacing hormones Progesterone A hormone involved in regulating the menstrual cycle and supporting pregnancy Metformin A medication commonly used for type 2 diabetes, also used in managing PCOS Insulin Resistance A condition where the body doesn’t respond properly to insulin, often linked to PCOS Prostaglandins Hormone-like substances that can cause inflammation and menstrual cramps ⏱️ Timestamps 01:00 – Periods as a vital sign 02:30 – What a normal period looks like 04:00 – Severe pain and inflammation 06:30 – Early intervention and prevention 08:30 – PCOS, weight gain and acne 11:30 – Treatment and metformin 14:30 – Hormone balance and long-term health 16:30 – Menopause and progesterone 18:30 – Spotting, flooding and hormone changes 20:30 – HRT and hormone therapy 22:30 – Testosterone and brain fog 24:00 – Fibroids and prevention 25:30 – Women doing too much 27:00 – Delegation and sharing the load 28:30 – Relationships, stress and health impact 30:00 – Raising resilient children 31:30 – Loss, grief and perspective 33:30 – Life lessons and self-worth 35:00 – Final advice for young people 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.