The Laura Dowling Experience
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The Laura Dowling Experience
Women deserve better menopause care, and Loretta Dignam is making it happen.
From Being Dismissed by Doctors to Revolutionising Menopause Care in Ireland – Loretta Dingham’s Journey Is One Every Woman Needs to Hear
When Loretta experienced her first hot flushes after her periods stopped at age 49, she thought she must be the youngest woman in Ireland to go through the menopause. Little did she know that the constellation of symptoms she had battled throughout her 40s – headaches that led to brain scans, recurrent urinary tract infections, dry eyes that landed her in A&E three times, weight gain, and skin breakouts – were all connected to perimenopause, a term she had never even heard before.
After years of medical gaslighting and being told she was simply “having a bad run of things,” Loretta decided to take matters into her own hands. Her frustration turned into determination after meeting a successful professional woman who had been suffering with menopausal symptoms for over a decade without knowing where to turn.
Within months, Loretta founded The Menopause Hub – Ireland’s first dedicated menopause clinic – long before celebrity campaigns and public discourse made menopause a mainstream topic. What began as a personal mission has become a nationwide movement.
Today, The Menopause Hub provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary care through clinics in Dublin and Cork, with virtual consultations available across the country. But Loretta’s vision goes well beyond clinical care. Through The Menopause Hub Academy, she is transforming workplaces to better support women going through the menopause, aiming to halt the alarming exodus of experienced female talent from the workforce.
Her pioneering efforts have not gone unnoticed. Loretta was recently recognised by Forbes as one of their Top 50 Over 50, honouring her groundbreaking work and continued advocacy.
In this eye-opening conversation, Loretta discusses the barriers women still face in accessing proper menopause care, the life-changing benefits of personalised treatment, and her campaign for free women’s health checks. Her message is clear and urgent: women deserve better, and no one should suffer in silence.
Whether you're navigating menopause yourself or supporting someone who is, this episode is filled with invaluable insights into reclaiming your vitality and advocating for your health. Subscribe now and share this conversation with every woman in your life.
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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.
The impression I had of a menopausal woman was over the hill, crazy lady old passed herself by date and it wasn't anything I could identify with, but I'd never heard the word perimenopause. I look back all the symptoms I had in my 40s were connected. So I ended up with headaches, went for a brain scan, came back clear, so that's positive. But then they developed into focal migraine. Then I got dry eye. I ended up in the Eye and Ear A&E department here in Dublin three times. Nobody mentioned menopause, perimenopause. I had pains in my ankles. I had urinary tract infections.
Speaker 1:To beat the band, I was on antibiotics permanently. If I didn't have that I'd have thrushed and was in that whole cycle. I put on weight. I thought I'd left behind puberty and here I am my skin breakouts and everything. I put on about 10 pounds. I had indigestion issues. I had to go for scopes for that. I got really bad sinusitis and I remember I went back to that doctor and I said, why am I always sick? And he just said, oh, you're having a bad run of things.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Lower Down Experience podcast, where each week, I bring you insightful and inspiring guests that will open your mind and empower your life. Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Loretta Dingham, founder and CEO of the Menopause Hub, ireland's first clinic dedicated solely to menopause care. Loretta shared how her own experience navigating perimenopause and menopause and the lack of adequate support that she encountered inspired her to establish the clinic. She was determined to create a place that offers women with the care, the attention and the answers that they truly deserve, because what she needed for herself she knew every woman needed too. I know this conversation is going to benefit so many of you, so make sure to share it far and wide. Before we get into today's episode, I would love to ask you for a little favor. If you like this podcast and I know so many of you do you could really help me out by giving it a nice rating, sharing it with your friends and subscribing to the podcast. It may not seem like a big deal, but actually this really helps to keep the podcast high up in the charts, and that means that I can keep bringing you brilliant guests who are insightful, inspiring and full of wisdom that we can all learn from. Thanks a million. Now let's get to it. Yes, it's me, the fabulous pharmacist, the woman who poured her whole heart into formulating the multi-award winning supplement known to you all as Fabu Shrooms Menno Peri. I want to improve the lives of peri and menopausal women across the world. But don't just think of Shrooms Menno Peri as just another supplement. Consider this your special treat for you alone. I have put my years of learnings, my heart and my soul into this blend and I want you to have that same feeling, with my shrooms, menno and peri, that you have when you treat yourself to a gorgeous new lipstick or a pair of shoes or whatever floats your boat that little thrill that you are doing something just for you, for your mind, your body and your soul, something that makes you feel more like you again. Check out the amazing reviews from ladies just like you on fabiwellnesscom, available on fabiwellnesscom and in pharmacies and health food stores nationwide. This episode was produced by podcottseditingcom. These guys have taken my podcast production to the next level. Check them out at podcutseditingcom. Tell them Laura Dowling sent you and they might even do your first podcast free of charge. Everyone, I'm so excited for the guests that I have here today Someone really, really special, okay, and someone that has truly changed the landscape of menopause care in Ireland.
Speaker 2:Her name is Loretta Dingham. She is the founder and CEO of the Menopause Hub. With a stellar background in leadership roles across major global brands, loretta brought her passion and business acumen to women's health, funding Ireland's first dedicated multidisciplinary menopause clinic. Not only is she helping thousands of women navigate perimenopause and menopause with expert support and care, but her work has also caught international attention. Forbes recently recognised Loretta and the Menopause Hub for their impact in redefining how we approach menopause care.
Speaker 2:I actually have goosebumps reading this, honestly, though, like I mean, you and I met a number of years ago and we've been on various panel discussions and I've just seen the hub grow from strength to strength. It's lovely to be reading this and you're here in my presence and just knowing what you've done for the women of Ireland. Like it really is. It's just Loretta, you're amazing. In this episode, we're going to chat about her personal journey, the gaps in the system that inspired her to take action, and the powerful work that she's doing to raise awareness in workplaces and across the healthcare system. So, whether you're navigating hormonal changes yourself or you just want better support for the women in your life. This conversation is going to be packed with insights and inspiration. So, loretta, let's just get into it. How are you doing today?
Speaker 1:Great, laura, thanks a million. I was thinking back to when I first met you and I just set up the menopause hub in Mount Merion. So I dropped into where you were working in Lloyd's Pharmacy in Stillorgan with some leaflets and I got to meet you and I said, oh my goodness, she's very approachable and very knowledgeable and I could see the care that you put into the. You know the clients or the customers.
Speaker 2:I was delighted that there was a dedicated menopause care clinic right up the road for me it was just because up till then really we hadn't really been having those conversations. What year was that? 2019, probably so just before the kind of explosion. So it goes to show you, and I'm sure it took a couple of years to get there as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. It just goes to show you how forward thinking you were. Wow, it's brilliant. So, and congratulations to you and all the work that you've been doing on shedding the light, the spotlight on these taboo and what were considered embarrassing conversations that women felt shame about, that kind of thing. So there's, you know, quite a few of us in the space trying to improve things for women's health and, I think, well overdue.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and really.
Speaker 1:the reason why you set it up was because of your own menopause yeah, so basically I had a career before a very successful career, I might say working in the corporate sector for about 25 years or whatever big multinational brands and so on. As you've said, internationally I worked, and in Ireland, when my daughter was young, very small, my ex was a bit left and so I reared my kids myself and did my career, did those two things in tandem.
Speaker 2:That must have been loads of fun, was it?
Speaker 1:It was tough going on occasions, absolutely. But you know you put one step in front of the other and you just keep going and nobody has a manual for child rearing and therefore you just have to go with. You know what you think is best and you know I had help from a childminder and some au pairs and things like that and of course meanwhile I was competing in a male dominated industry and you said your kid was sick one day, you had to go home.
Speaker 2:It just wasn't really done back then, was it?
Speaker 1:No, and like you know the idea of saying I'm leaving to pick up the kids, and you didn't really talk about your kids in school. You definitely didn't talk about your periods, you definitely didn't talk about menopause. You didn't talk about anything other than work. And we, I used to always, every day I went into work, that was my work persona and then I had my home persona, and never the two shall meet. Do you know that kind of way?
Speaker 1:But, things have changed a lot, obviously COVID and working from home and all that, which is great, but anyway, when I was 49, I had what was to be my last period and I didn't know it was my last period. And very soon after that, within I don't know, maybe a few weeks, I started to get hot flushes. And they were the only two things I knew about menopause and I considered myself to be a reasonably intelligent, reasonably well-educated woman. I was blindsided by this and I was horrified. Horrified. I felt I was way too young. For starters, I thought, oh my God, the impression I had of a menopausal woman you know, apologies to anybody, but this is what I had was, you know over the hill crazy lady old past it, you know past herself by date, and it wasn't anything I could identify with. So I thought, god, I must be the youngest woman in Ireland to ever have menopause.
Speaker 1:And when I started to do my research, I realized, oh no, the average age is 51 when periods stop. But I'd never heard the word perimenopause. I'm only going back to 2014, 2015, 2016. And when my friend first mentioned the word perimenopause to me, I said go away, that's a made up word. I'd never heard of that. But then, once I started to learn more, I look back. All the symptoms I had in my forties were connected. So I ended up with headaches, went for a brain scan.
Speaker 2:So this was all prior to your period. Stopping, yeah, stopping. So this is your early 40s, mid 40s, yeah absolutely the average age of perimenopause.
Speaker 1:But I knew nothing. So I went to the doctor oh, we'll send you for a. Brain scan came back clear, I suppose that's positive. But then they developed into focal migraine. Then I got dry eye. I ended up in the Eye and Ear A&E department here in Dublin three times. Nobody mentioned menopause, perimenopause. I had pains in my ankles. I had urinary tract infections. To beat the band, I was on antibiotics permanently and then, if I didn't have that, I'd have thrushed and was in that whole cycle. I put on weight. My skin was oh. I felt like oh my God. I thought I'd left behind puberty. And here I am my skin breakouts and everything. I put on about 10 pounds. I had about indigestion issues. I had to go for scopes for that. I got really bad sinusitis.
Speaker 2:And was this all at the same time, or is it kind of rolling symptoms? Like you know, every month a new one would pop up, one would go. Some of them were in tandem.
Speaker 1:And I remember my son, who's now? I call my children my kiddos because they're over 18. They cringe and hate it. But my son used to say, mum, why are you always sick? So I went back to that doctor and I said, who's no longer my doctor? And I said, why am I always sick? And he just said, oh, you're having a bad run of things. And that was it. That was the explanation. Nothing about menopause, nothing about perimenopause, and really until I got the hot flushes. And then what do I do? A I'm not saying anything to anybody in work because they might know my age, even though they could probably guess my age if you take five years.
Speaker 1:B. Better consult Dr Google. And so I consulted Dr Google and all the information I got back was so conflicting Don't take HRT. Take HRT, it's dangerous. Try this, try that. So I said lose weight, do yoga.
Speaker 2:I got a message in from someone there just at the weekend saying that she'd gone to a doctor. She had like 12,000 symptoms. She was, I think, 50 and she went to her doctor and her doctor told her, asked, asked her did she drink enough water during the day? She needs to exercise and do a bit of yoga. Now, that kind of shit fills me with rage, that it still goes on, that it still goes on, absolutely we hear about it every day from women.
Speaker 1:I mean, I just read a LinkedIn message this morning and a woman was congratulating me but also the Menopause Hub, about the treatment and the care that she got, that she was turned away by two different GPs and she was dismissed and then she came to us and she said she had a doctor who listened, who finally engaged and you know, she got sorted out with some treatment and everything. I think, oh, everybody knows about menopause.
Speaker 2:Now it's a hot topic, everybody must be up to speed, but actually the truth truth is it's not necessarily so yeah, and actually because you know, I put out videos all the time, particularly about the vaginal health area, because I'm you know, I just see it all the time and the amount of new people that come on, go, oh god. I didn't realize that my 12 000 utis over the last two years could be related to you know, a reduction in vaginal estrogen.
Speaker 2:So there is, we're in a bubble, probably because we still haven't breathed it. Oh yeah, we are absolutely yeah. So yeah, it's so important. There's still a lot of work to be done. There is, yeah.
Speaker 1:So then anyway, I tried everything natural under the sun and the sage and the you know, belaco hush that I got in from the UK, and various different things anyway, and nothing was really working. And so, after three years of putting up with symptoms, I decided to give in and go and seek help from a doctor and look for hatred. And the thing is, the narrative in my brain was strong women, power through menopause. That was the narrative I read about myself, and hatred is dangerous and natural is best. So that was my narrative.
Speaker 1:Now, when I was going to have my babies a long time ago, when I went into the coom I nearly knocked down half the staff trying to ask for the epidural, so I wasn't going to power my way through childbirth, but I said I'm definitely going to power my way through menopause. I'd also and I tell this story because I think it's it's funny, but it also tells you how desperate women are and I was desperate. I bought a magnet. You know the magnet story where I bought a magnet for 35 euros in boots and it's called a lady care magnet and I put it in my underwear under my belly button, and it's supposed to help with hot flushes, because hot flushes were the thing, one of the things that I knew about, and were they debilitating for you?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'd have to have 20 or 30 a day and that I knew about, and were they debilitating for you? Oh, I'd have to have 20 or 30 a day and then at night, with the duvet on and off and the sleep broken, and getting up to go to the loo at night and all the rest. So you know, my daughter was going through puberty. She'd be sitting in the front seat of the car beside me and she'd press the window down and radiating from me in the front seat of the car, like that'll tell you. But anyway, I don't want to dwell on the hot flushes. Really, it's just that that was the only thing that triggered to me. That was menopause, because we know that some women do not experience absolutely, and they're absolutely even.
Speaker 2:Even for a lot of women they're way down the list of priority when it comes to trying to manage menopausal symptoms. A lot of them are like I am just so tired or so depressed or, you know, my mood is awful, anxious, panicked whatever, and UTIs and other things.
Speaker 1:And women often think if they didn't get a hot flush they didn't experience menopause. And I'm like sorry. So eventually, as I said, I gave in and I went to my GP and I basically said to her I haven't had a period in three years and I have hot flushes. And she said to me oh, you're post-menopausal. I said I know, and so HRT isn't as dangerous as it used to be. The research says blah, blah, blah. So she's quite informed and she started me on a patch and, to be honest with you, if the conversation had been less than more than 10 minutes and then more in depth, she wouldn't have prescribed that for me because I have a bit of a kind of a progesterone sensitivity thing.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I tore the patch off after a while and I went to someone else who specialized in hormones and all the rest and I had an amazing consultation and one of the questions he asked me was any joint pain or aches? And I said no. And he said, don't worry about that. Any pains in your ankles? And I said, yeah, how do you know about those? I was gobsmacked that anyone would know about those. Back to the magnet. So I put the magnet in my underwear and it was meant to help with the hot flushes and, as a result, what happened was I went into the supermarket, the wire basket went vroom and stuck to me. The chain for the trolley vroom, stuck to me.
Speaker 1:What was the magnet supposed to do Help with hot flushes and did it? No, okay, but it stuck to everything metallic, oh my gosh. And I remember one of the doctors in the menopause hub saying to me where's the science behind that, loretta? And I said, well, there's a lot of very good Google reviews.
Speaker 1:But anyway so then I started on hormone replacement therapy and after three months I started to feel an awful lot better. I started on an estrogen progesterone, the bio-identical, body-identical, nature-identical stuff. After three months I went back and then my estrogen was increased a little bit and my dosage. And then I went on testosterone, which I didn't know women needed or could take, and it was like I'm back. All my symptoms went, genuinely all my symptoms went, and I started to feel great and I, you know, got my eyebrows threaded and I started to feel great and I, you know, got my eyebrows threaded and I got a new moisturizer and all this and people kept saying you, god, you look great, loretta, god you look great. I thought I must have looked awful before and, but anyway.
Speaker 1:I put this down to my new threading and my new, but actually it was the HRT. To be honest, my vitality was back, my mojo, because that was to, to me, the biggest thing. My energy levels and so on.
Speaker 2:Can I ask you about your mood during your perimenopause? Those 40s Was your mood? Ok, I didn't have anxiety.
Speaker 1:Thank goodness, because I've experienced that and it's awful I didn't have that. I'll tell you what I had was I had more low mood, you know, not necessarily depressed, but everything was an effort. You know, to go out was an effort, socialize was an effort, everything was an effort and it was. It was like, instead of walking on a flat surface, I was now on a bit of an incline Right, so it was just taking more energy to do the same, and the fatigue was something else. And the lack of mojo, the lack of va-va-voom, that was. That was really, plus all the other things. Yeah, of course, you know they were big things for me, because I'd be relatively high energy person and you don't say yeah never would have guessed so you can imagine how it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was back and then I decided okay, I'll talk to more women. So I held focus groups in my house, went chatting to more people to understand that women hadn't a clue.
Speaker 2:Did you get the focus groups into your house? Was this an idea in your mind? I need to do something with this.
Speaker 1:So partly I was outraged, I actually felt rage and anger, to be quite honest. I felt angry for my mother's generation, that there was nothing available for them. And you know, when I was growing up, you'd hear about women who suffered with their nerves, who took to the beds.
Speaker 2:Or put in psychiatric use.
Speaker 1:Disappeared from society, that kind of thing, and I just thought, gosh. And then I was thinking about my own. So the pivotal moment was January 2018. I was in Bewley's on Graffin Street. It had just reopened. I was having a cup of coffee with the woman. She picked up a menu, started, you know, fanning her face and I thought she was feeling faint and I said is everything okay? She was turning 60 to follow me again and she said no, it's just a hot flush. And I was offering her water don't go outside, you feel faint. She said no, it's just a hot flush. I said at 60? She said yeah, and I said how long have you had these? This woman was a really high-flying professional, somebody I admired, and she said well, let them in on for about 10 years. And I said and who did you go to?
Speaker 2:Who did you?
Speaker 1:see Nobody. I don't know where to go, I don't know who to trust. And on that morning, and by December, I opened in December and it was the first dedicated menopause clinic in 2018. And nobody was talking about menopause but through social media and so on, we had a waiting list before we opened and we were able to see women and the feedback was phenomenal and I got a lot of PR around it and so on and so on, and I guess the rest is history. But that was 2018, december. So that was before Davina McCall, it was before Joe Duffy, it was before you know everybody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just grew from strength to strength. And then we decided to open a clinic on the north side of Dublin. Oh, COVID happened. And I was convinced, then that was the end of the business. But we pivoted, as they say, to telehealth video.
Speaker 1:So, we use a lot of video consultation in our clinics and you know, like we had before COVID, we had women coming down from Donegal getting a train and a bus and a taxi to get to us, or people coming up from Kerry, from Ballyferd or something, and it was a whole day out of their life. And all of a sudden we can now offer consultations to women in their home, in their car, wherever they wanted, through telehealth video and that transformed. And then you know obviously about the pharmacy industry that now prescriptions didn't have to be handwritten and handed in.
Speaker 1:They could be sent electronically. So that was a massive step and a change for us to be able to reach women all over the country.
Speaker 2:And now you can do that, still, still. Yeah, it's great, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It really has transformed it, and if they do need to have the blood pressure done, they can go to the pharmacy and have that done and send that in to us. They can if they need bloods done, you know, for a particular reason, although they're not routinely done for women over the age of 45, but if they need a blood test, we'll with us around that and they usually are very cooperative and so on. So there's always another way, you know, and if we need to refer them, if our doctors need to refer them out to somebody else in a gynecology clinic or in another hospital or whatever, they can do that too to a local area. So it's made that very easy. So then it was 2020, 2021. And so I'd planned to open more clinics, but that had to all be put on hold. So, 2022, we opened the menopause hub in Asantri, and then we opened a clinic in 2023 in Cork and Ballin Collig, and so what I'd like to do maybe is open another one, maybe in the Midlands and one in the West of Ireland.
Speaker 2:So I'm looking at that now. What about Southern Ireland as well? Like what about kind of Wexford Waterford area?
Speaker 1:as well? Yeah, possibly. Yeah, you know what I mean, but you see, because of telehealth video and some women are actually willing to travel.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, up to them One day out they tell their families I'm going for a health check, but sure they're up shopping and they'll pop into the way home. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And pop into the way home. Yeah, exactly, and they deserve it. So, yeah, so. And then when I set up, initially it was mostly you know, medical team. But then very quickly I realized actually, you know, this is menopause multifaceted and you know there's not just one solution. As I often say to women, you know we're not a HRT clinic, we're actually a menopause and perimenopause, postmenopause, surgical menopause, premature menopause, early menopause, every type of menopause clinic. So when I opened the menopause hub, I realised that you know, hrt isn't the silver bullet that can fix everything. So menopause can be very multifaceted. So we also have a psychologist who's trained in CBT for menopause, which is a proven technique, scientifically proven. And she's trained by theT for menopause, which is a proven technique, scientifically proven.
Speaker 2:And she's trained by the British Menopause Society and I just ask you on that CBT, can you just give me a little insight into what it is, because we hear it, but some people, just even me. What is it? What do they do?
Speaker 1:So it's basically cognitive behavioral therapy. So it's actually using your mind and your cognition to help you more or less respond to situations yourself.
Speaker 2:Can I think myself out of a hot flash, Loretta?
Speaker 1:You can reduce the intensity of a hot flash. You may not be able to make it not appear, but instead of becoming panicked and instead of responding in that way, you can say look, I know this hot flash, I know it's happening, I know it's happening, I know what to expect, etc. And you sort of take the intensity out of it really. So for women who can't take any medication to help them with the hot flushes, it can be useful, or anxiety or sleep mood things, so that you can basically sort of retrain your mind.
Speaker 2:So the psychological elements of menopause you can help with as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it can reduce the intensity of hot flushes. Now, I would not have relied on that myself because I had so many during the day that I just said no you know I can't do this myself. And we also have a dietitian and nutritionist, because diet and lifestyle is really important. That's a cornerstone actually of menopause treatment.
Speaker 2:Could someone not just look up on Google what they should eat?
Speaker 1:They can, of course, but you know everybody's different and what you would do in advance of that is anybody coming to the clinic. They'd do a food diary in advance, so that you know. So your food diary and my food diary would be very different.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm perfectly honest with my food diary and you won't get the best out of it, Laura. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's the reason to keep a food diary. And so what women will often do, I think, is in menopause, they just haven't got the energy and they're fatigued. And they might be really good during the day, and then it comes to the evening time and you know they've no energy to exercise and then they might get unhealthy snacks or the glass of wine.
Speaker 2:I hear that a lot. It's the glass of wine, because it just helps them to relax. And I can understand why. So can I? You know, I really can.
Speaker 1:Yes, I drank a lot more wine in my 40s when I was going through my perimenopause symptoms than I did post-menopause. Once I got sort of treated and whatever and that in and of itself can be a difficult habit to break. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You know it really can, particularly if you're feeling that like that stress and you just want to unwind.
Speaker 1:But it has a knock-on effect on your sleep and your mood and all that, and if you make hot flushes worse and you know can affect urinary tract infections and you know, put on the weight and make you feel a bit groggy the next morning and you can end up with more brain fog.
Speaker 2:Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:So I'm not saying listen, far from me to be a lecturer, I'm not lecturing any single woman about anything, but I know that you know women need coping mechanisms. And I would say to any woman out there look, this is the 21st century. We've come a long way in menopause in the last few years, and I say menopause I mean every type of menopause, but don't suffer in silence, like please, do not suffer in silence. There's lots of treatment available and it doesn't have to be HRT, although it can be really helpful. So I would say like, don't suffer in silence. And I would also say is that there is light at the end of menopause? There really is. I've been on my hormone replacement therapy for about six or seven years and I'm planning to stay in it for as long as I possibly can.
Speaker 2:When you say that you know there is a lot of talk nowadays about HRT for much longer than what we originally said like first of all, it's like have the lowest possible dose for the shortest amount of time no more than five years. Then it's kind of like no more than 10 years, but now it's kind of considered to be very individual, very individual, and everything we do at the Menopause Hub is individual.
Speaker 1:So every woman is listened to, is treated. The consultations are about 30 minutes. You know it's not a 10 minute. Quick, tell us what's going on. We get all your information in advance. We actually have an app now that people can use. It's free. You can download it from Google Play Store. Google App Store track your symptoms. So we get all this history in advance, your symptoms in advance, your medical history.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that when the individual has the consultation, instead of trying oh I forgot to say that, I forgot to say that and you could forget to say something that's really, really important could change the outcome of the consultation, we have all that information in advance so that the doctor can then focus, or the psychologist, or whoever it is, can focus directly on the key things that are impacting women, and it's usually one of the top five symptoms that are really bothersome. That would be the start place.
Speaker 2:You were talking about the psychologist and I stopped you with the CBT, so you're talking about the other.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the pelvic physiotherapy Very important. Oh. So we talked about diet and lifestyle Really important. We talked about cognitive behavior therapy and symptoms for psychological and so on symptoms. And then there's what we call the genitourinary symptoms, and I know that's an area that you're very interested in as well. So it's all the area around the pelvis, the bladder, the vagina, the vulva, all of that. Women suffer with incontinence, so I, for example, would have had leaks when I laughed, coughed and sneezed urine leak if I was jumping on the trampoline with the kids or running, sometimes jumping jacks, those kind of things. I used to get up to go to the loo in the night as well, which I never did before. My mother used to have that. So I thought, oh, that must be hereditary or it must be because I've had babies, you know.
Speaker 2:And has that stopped now?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Great. And have you had pelvic floor physio care? No, I didn't. What I did is once.
Speaker 1:I started on the HRT, the estrogen was really helpful for that. I then also was worried about vaginal dryness and UTIs and things like that. So I also am on Vagifem and I take that. So I really do. And then lubricants are really really important, for if you're, you know, sexually active or you can take vaginal moisturizers. So I would say, you know, and very much as you say, like you know, as we put stuff on our face and our hands, we should be lubricating. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's very expensive being a woman isn't it?
Speaker 1:Do you know what Christ almighty, I believe, and I said this before. I actually think there should be a special tax for women, a lower tax for women, and if I ever go into politics and you never know I would very much say that women should pay lower tax. We've had to pay for period products, so we bear a disproportionate economic burden. Period products then we used to be mostly the ones taking the contraception, so that was not free, but it is now free. And then I campaigned with government, got a petition and everything gave to Stephen Donnelly along with Sally Ann Brady.
Speaker 1:The two of us did that to get HRT free for women. Because here you go, you get to, you know, 45 plus or whatever, and you're going to have to fork out more money. Now my bill for my hormone replacement therapy because I'm on oestrogen and progesterone and testosterone and Vagifem is about 80 quid a month. That's a lot of money that I didn't used to have to spend, and so I do believe every woman in Ireland deserves to have the economic burden of being a woman reduced and we thought that was going to come in in January, but we were promised it in January we're still no nearer to it.
Speaker 2:I don't think no, we're not.
Speaker 1:And I know there's conversations with the pharmacist and the Department of Health and the Minister, that kind of thing, and you know.
Speaker 2:We still don't know what's going to be covered either, loretta, if I was to be perfectly honest, because there's unlicensed use of HRT, there's antidepressants, sometimes that can be prescribed a few days a month like there's talk that won't be covered, you know.
Speaker 1:Absolutely non-hormonal. It's an absolute shit show.
Speaker 2:If I was to be you know, say it's true say it's true and it's really unfair it is. How it was advertised initially and now it's not happening. So I just want to be really straight about how I feel about the situation. I'm not going to go on about it because I'll just sound like a real, I'll sound like an angry woman, but it's terrible that we got it and now we don't have it.
Speaker 1:There's no real clear path in sight. Yeah, it's April now and that's four months after it was promised. So I have gone into the media and said it's an insult to women. Women's health is always at the end of the agenda. Do you know? There's like more research done on erectile dysfunction and male balding than there is on something like endometriosis.
Speaker 1:I do, I do know that so you know we're at the end of the queue again. We're 50% of the population, we're 50% of the voters. So I always say to women you know they write to us and say what are you doing about the free HRT? And I'd say, well, I'm doing as much as I can. But what I recommend is that you go to your local TD, your local counsellor, and you complain that you're not happy that there's a cost to you. So I believe that we should have free women's health checks and midlife health checks.
Speaker 2:This is great, because I want to get into this, because obviously the Menopause Hub is a private clinic, exactly Okay. And you know, some people would say that what is the initial consultation?
Speaker 1:So the reason I set up as a private clinic is because that is the only way I could set up a clinic, because if you're a medical card patient, you're assigned to a GP, that's it, so you can't come to us. Well, you can come to us, but your medical card is not covered on the medical card. So women who have a medical card can come to us. We give them a small discount. Try to do our best. However, you know I don't want menopause to be just, you know, a middle class condition. No, menopause affects every woman. So the initial consultation with us is 200 euros. It sounds expensive, but you're getting a 30 minute consultation with somebody who is a specialist, who is works. We've doctors who work five days a week in menopause.
Speaker 2:That is all they do, you're guaranteed to walk out with something in your hand that's going to help you girls? No, and you know, I think it's really important because I get messages all the time from people that go to the doctors and they don't get heard. Yes, but it is so the price. So the price is to put people off.
Speaker 1:But I think and I don't mean you'll probably get people writing in and saying how dare you? But you know, know, how much would we spend to get our hair done and our color and our cut and all that kind of thing? How much do we spend on our kids trainers or their the latest, you know, whatever runners? We put ourselves last for the things that are really, really important, and I would say that that is, you know, probably the best money you could ever spend in general I can't say it's going to fix everybody, because that's not always true and then after three months you're booked in. So before you leave, after the first consultation, you're booked in for three months review. That's 100 euros and that's to make sure that you know, see how you go, whatever the treatment plan is, and then it's the chance to tweak it or change it or whatever. And if you want to go back to your GP after that, great. Some women say to us look, loretta, you know I really don't trust my GP to be able to. You know, look after me. Other women do go back to their GP. And then they come back to us maybe if they need a change or a tweak to their medication. To be honest with you, I would love to offer the service free to everybody, but you know, I can't because.
Speaker 1:I have to pay doctors, have to pay staff, administrators and so on. So is it expensive and I think it's all relative. But I would just say to women you know, go and seek help, even if it's not the menopause hub and you want to go somewhere locally, go and seek help, because there are lots of different treatment options available and we no longer have to suffer in silence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're actually campaigning for these free women's health checks as well aren't you which you'd love to you know, obviously it has to be subsidized by the government, but they have to see it as something that's worthwhile. Yeah, and I say it's worthwhile.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you why it absolutely is, because when women reach we call it a midlife health check things like osteoporosis are something that women can potentially experience postmenopause because of the decline in estrogen can potentially experience postmenopause because of the decline in estrogen. There's a huge cost to treating osteoporosis osteopenia. Women who break bones end up in hospital, end up losing their independence, end up in nursing homes. Then there's also the heart health risk. Heart disease is the number one killer of women in Ireland and globally. So there's a lot of heart disease being stored up and therefore, if you could put in place a midlife health check, maybe have a DEXA scan, a bone density scan. You get that free and earned after 65.
Speaker 1:But sure the damage is done by 65. Exactly exactly. So I always like to appeal you know I like facts I like to appeal to the business, to the economic sense of all of this. So basically, we have this bill associated with women's health. Women live longer than men, but they actually live in poorer health because of these declines in the hormones and therefore the government is actually storing up costs later which they could address or look to address earlier and maybe save money in the longer term and improve the quality of women's health.
Speaker 2:And improve the quality of society as a result, because these women are mothers partners sisters, they're grandmothers, they are also workers.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And the actual, the biggest I think the largest growing demographic in the workplace is women in perimenopause menopause Absolutely, and so that's why I actually set up a sister business, if you like, called Menopause Hub Academy.
Speaker 2:Of course you do, because you load the time in your hands, don't you? Well, you know we. You just see a problem and you fix it. Then you're like, oh, here's another problem.
Speaker 1:I'm going to try and do something like this, yeah probably my biggest talent or skill is my can-do mentality, is my ability to just get on and do it. That's probably my biggest skill. We do research. We have a survey out actually, which, if your listeners would be kind enough to fill in, we've been doing a menopause and perimenopause survey since 2018, when no data existed in Ireland, and all that information that we got. In the last survey, we had 3,044 women complete the survey, which is fantastic, and what we do is we use that data to go and talk to the government, to go and talk to ministers, to go and talk to the healthcare professionals, to talk to the Department of Health, to talk to the media, to talk to the workplaces, to talk to every different stakeholder, because that data helps us say you know, this isn't just my opinion, loretta Dignam, this is what we hear back from thousands of women across Ireland. So it'll be on our website, themenopausehubie, or through our Menopause Hub Academy, the site that looks after business.
Speaker 1:But what I found out through that research is that up to 10% of women leave work because of their symptoms, and this is the age that women are coming into their own, coming into their power. They're taking on more responsibility, bigger jobs, going for promotion, trying to get on boards. We have a gender pay gap, so this is going to help close the gender pay gap. If we get more women into these roles, what happens? They're leaving. Four in 10 considered giving up work. Can you believe that?
Speaker 2:And what a brain drain that is. All those years of experience have you accumulated them together?
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. But this infuriates me as well. So we started then offering and women take four in ten. Women take time off work. The amount of time I had off work going for the brain scan here and going for the dry eye there and the physio for the ankles and the scope for the Reflux or whatever.
Speaker 1:The reflux, yeah, all these different things. I mean, if you'd said to me did you take time off work because of your menopause, I wouldn't have thought I took time off until I look back and went, oh yeah, I was off for that. That, that, that, that. So all of these things impact in the workplace and so, therefore, if we get organizations to be supportive and what we call menopause inclusive, they can actually support their colleagues to stay in work. And women tell us that the biggest stressor they have is hiding their symptoms.
Speaker 2:I know it's terrible. It's like hiding your children, isn't it? Yeah, exactly Exactly. Or hiding that they're sick yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And so we work with organizations, we train managers, we train HR, we train menopause champions.
Speaker 2:And do you go in and do that yourself?
Speaker 1:Yes, some of it. I do Some with a team that goes in. We also have e-learning for bigger companies. It's all CPD accredited training and we also have launched accreditation for organizations. So we have some companies now that have an accredited logo saying that they're menopause inclusive. So Lidl, Aldi, IRFU, Consilient Health and more.
Speaker 2:You need to get into the GAA now and get their menopause approved.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, that's next. That's next to be any contacts.
Speaker 2:Fabulous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I look after, so we look after the workplace. And then I've just closed a fundraising round last year where I went out to private investors and Enterprise Ireland to give me funding to actually accelerate that part of the business and go internationally. So now I'm going into the UK and looking abroad, because Ireland and the UK actually lead out on the whole thing about menopause, menopause education, whether it's personally for women or professionally in the workplace. America, the US they're only catching up there by five years behind Continental Europe.
Speaker 2:Is America by five years behind oh yeah, it'll be even more behind now after Trump gets.
Speaker 1:Oh, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Things are already going backwards for women over there, so that's quite frightening.
Speaker 1:And in Germany women don't believe menopause is a topic for the workplace. Scandinavia, all those different countries. Really, I would have thought Scandinavia would be quite, you know, more thinking and I lived in Sweden when, honest to God, the benefits for women were absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2:When they're having babies.
Speaker 1:Yeah but not necessarily menopause. So yeah, so Ireland and the UK, we're global leaders, and that's why Forbes obviously chose to include me in their top 50 over 50 for the work that I'm doing. So I'm on a kind of a crusade now to you know make menopause mainstream internationally. You know so many women impacted my goodness.
Speaker 2:I know I see it and hear it all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Loretta, were you a good student when you were in school, or were you a bit of an oldie?
Speaker 1:Oh my God no, I was honest to God, I was such a goody two-shoes. I was in the Leighton Mary, I was in the Order of Malta, I was always helping people. Actually, I didn't drink until I went to university and, oh my God, goody two-shoes very studious, honestly, were you. I went a bit mad, did you? Yeah, enjoyed that thoroughly and to this day now I'd be play hard, work hard. Okay, good one, I like it. Yeah, I do. I'm a big believer in that, and my daughter is 23 and sometimes I say, god, you know, maybe you need to play a little harder. My mother is busy telling her children to play harder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know Did you ever envisage that you'd be doing something like this, though you know, because in the corporate world that you worked in, what did you do? I was in marketing. I worked for Diageo, for Care.
Speaker 1:Group for Mars. I won Marketer of the Year when I was working in Jacob Fruitfield. I lectured in the Michael Smurfett Business School on their MBA and MScc programs, was on the board of the Abbey Theatre. I chaired the Gender Equality Committee when they did a big issue around gender equality. That was something actually that encouraged me to do more for women, because I saw the power of policy to make changes in the theatre community, and so that was fascinating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was doing all that and then I had this idea and then I just decided actually and that's one thing that happens, I think, in menopause as well is that I kind of wanted to learn, I wanted to do new things. I'd kind of said, right, I've done enough of that. My hormones are even so. I don't have ups and downs every month or periods. My children are, you know, grown up. They don't need me. In the same way, my elderly parents, whom I would have been caring for in their not full time now when I was in my 40s, have passed away. Now I have some elderly relatives, but I have a lot more free time. I have a lot of wisdom.
Speaker 1:I don't care so much I have more confidence. I really don't care what people think of me, and therefore there's a newfound freedom in that, and every day is a school day. I swear to God, I have learned so much in the last six years. I never envisaged that I'd be doing this, never envisaged.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, I know you've a book I'm about to, yeah, put pen to paper and a book Good for you. Yeah, and you know, there's always things to do. Every day I have ideas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know there's all these things to do. Every day I have ideas. But isn't it so interesting? Because I think sometimes women think, oh, I'd be too old now to jump ship and set up my own business. Absolutely not, so. I did it at what? 41? You did it at 51?
Speaker 1:54.
Speaker 2:54. So I think that there's such endless possibilities for us.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think sometimes women can be the best cheerleaders for each other as well, can't they really?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm part of a number of different networks. I'm part of EY, entrepreneurial Winning Women, which is Ernst Young, and we're in a group I'm now in this Forbes top 50 over 50 group and everybody is always, you know, encouraging each other. If they have any issues, they can, or queries or challenges, they can put them into the WhatsApp groups.
Speaker 2:They swap patches for gels and all the other kind of thing.
Speaker 1:When they're stuck.
Speaker 2:We don't encourage that, but yes, Can I just ask you about ladies that feel that they missed out on the whole perimenopause menopause conversation? So say, women that would have been in around 50 when the WHI study came out. Now they're in their early 70s, or even women that were a little bit younger than that. They're in their 60s and they feel they've got no care and they want to protect their bones or they want maybe they still have the odd hot flash or something like that. Is there hope for them? Can they go to a doctor in your clinic and get help or come out with a prescription for HRT?
Speaker 1:How does it work? So, basically, what we'd say is that it depends If you're a 45 year old or a 51 year old woman. You may not necessarily get HRT either. It depends. So we very much take an individualized approach in the clinic. Every person is an individual, their situation. So everything depends on your medical history, your, your family history, your own health and your symptoms, and each individual is treated as an individual.
Speaker 1:And, yes, we have had women past their 60s coming to us who would maybe still have symptoms or want to discuss treatment options for the future and, as I said, it depends on all of those things. So I would say, you know, if you really do want to investigate this, be prepared to have a conversation and, depending on a lot of things, it may be possible for you to start hormone replacement therapy. The risks go up the longer your body is without estrogen. That's the issue. So you know the plaque starts to set down the arteries of the heart and so on. So that's why, the longer it is, the greater the risk. But there are some tests that can be sent for to check out things your heart and cascading on the heart and all of that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:So it is possible We've had women who've come to us in their 70s who maybe have been on HRT with their GP and the GP says I'm not prescribing it anymore after 10 years or whatever the thing. And if they've been on hormone replacement therapy and taking into account all those other things about their general health, we would prescribe and say, for example, myself I'm saying, well, I think I'll stay on HRT forever. Now if something happens to my health and I develop some major risk factor, well then I have to reconsider that, which is why it's important to go back and get checked, and going off to Spain and getting your patches. I know they're cheaper and I know the supply is probably more guaranteed. But you know, without checking back in with your doctor doing the blood pressure checks and so on, I don't think that's a good idea to stay on hormone replacement therapy for years and never go near a doctor, though anybody's doing that. I'd suggest you check in on that.
Speaker 2:I would absolutely second that.
Speaker 1:Yes, very important.
Speaker 2:Nothing wrong with going to Spain to get your patches if they're cheaper, but absolutely you need to be under the care of a doctor.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so I plan. As I said, and we've heard women say to us about HRT I went off it and I just never felt as vital as I did when I was on it. I off it and I just never felt as vital as I did when I was on it. I didn't feel my hair and my skin and my vava boom was as good and they went back on it. Some others have come off it and said, yeah, I'm fine, I feel okay, that's fine too. So it's all down to individuals.
Speaker 2:So is everything to do with the menopause, and whether it's diet, exercise, supplementation.
Speaker 1:CBT.
Speaker 2:It all needs to be kind of taken into account are you seeing a trend of younger women coming into, even women in their late 30s? Very, you know. Maybe thinking I've xyz symptom. I think I'm perimenopausal.
Speaker 1:I want to go on hrt, yeah I do think hrt is a hot topic pun intended at the moment and there's also a reference to millennials experiencing menopause and it's referred to as the millennopause.
Speaker 2:Okay, so now every day is a school day, because that's the first time I've heard of that.
Speaker 1:Millennopause yes.
Speaker 2:Millennopause. How old are they? Twenties.
Speaker 1:No, they're coming into their forties.
Speaker 2:Oh right, okay, okay, okay. So they're the millennials, millennopause, okay, wow, the millennials are getting older. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Imagine how old I feel. So, anyway, they are very well versed and they'll be much more vocal in the workplace. So organizations need to be prepared for that. But they also be better advocates for themselves. They have period tracker apps, they come in, they know all about their symptoms and so on.
Speaker 1:But you know, sometimes people might think that they're perimenopausal because of mood, because of sleep. And it may not be, it may be lifestyle and so on. But there's a greater awareness and, to be honest, you know, people have said to me before, don't you think you know, there's just too much talk about menopause and I'd say, look, we went from an era of radio silence, taboo gaslighting, all sorts, women just having an awful time, and then the pendulum will swing the other way and eventually it will swing back into the center at some point, and I'm all for that. So you do need to go, the pendulum does need to swing the other way. I also think you know that people talk about over-medicalizing menopause. Oh, given HRT and all the rest. I disagree with that too. I mean, if I look back at all the different treatments I was on in my 40s and the different tests.
Speaker 2:I went to.
Speaker 1:Yes, magnets included the cost, the suboptimal quality of life that I had from my health, all the different health issues, going for this test, going for that test, taking antibiotics taking you know women are often antidepressants, sometimes unnecessarily all those different things. My perimenopause was being medicalized in a very different way and I wasn't getting any relief. So everything has a place and, yes, the pendulum has swung and I'm delighted about that, but it will eventually swing back into the middle. But definitely the melanopause and the younger women are coming up and they're much more vocal and they're advocating for themselves in a way that say, my generation are only learning to do now, and I think that's a great thing and it will force the medical society, industry, everything to pull their socks up and embrace it yeah.
Speaker 2:One thing you did say there and it's something that I think it's an important and it probably is a lovely close off to the whole conversation is that you had a suboptimal quality of life. And that's what we hear time and time again and women should not be living suboptimal qualities of life, particularly when they're in this era and the age where maybe their kids are a little bit older. They should be beginning to enjoy their life again.
Speaker 2:And then they're thrown into this. So if you're experiencing any kind of decrease in your quality of life, you definitely need to be going and asking questions, whether that be of your doctor, your pharmacist or the menopause hub, of course. Where can people find the menopause hub? Is it just Google?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you can Google us menopause hub, so themenopause hub, so the menopause hubie, and we've clinics in mount merion, in the north side, santry, near ikea, just opposite ikea there, and in balling college in cork. You can also do virtual consultation, so you can live anywhere in the country and still do that. And so, yeah, you can check it out. You can book directly online for an appointment or you can contact appointments at the menopause hububie and one of my colleagues will deal with you. One of my. I have a few things, you know, mantras. One is if in doubt, check it out. And then the other one is don't suffer in silence, and I genuinely mean that to every single woman that's listening.
Speaker 2:Well, I would. I would absolutely second that. It's like listening to myself sometimes, listening to you sitting there, Loretta. What piece of advice would you give young people today?
Speaker 1:Young people today. In terms of health, I would say advocate for yourself, do your research. I would say to all women actually be just careful about influencers and so on. I think there's an awful lot of misinformation out there and therefore you need to go to evidence-based, trusted sources. So that's the thing, whatever your age. And then to a young person, I'd say the world is your oyster. I say this to my kids all the time. When I was starting off in my career, it was you know, get a permanent pensionable job. But they will actually have multiple careers. And so I think, think, go for it, do what you want. They say, if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. I'm not sure I can wholly agree with that, because it is hard work being an entrepreneur. It sounds sexy, but it's hard work, and although I love what I'm doing, I do, you know but it's less.
Speaker 2:It's not as glamorous as it sounds.
Speaker 1:No, but it's not as hard as doing something you don't love. So I would just say to you know, you know that Nike or Nike, whatever, however it's pronounced just do it.
Speaker 2:I'd say, just do it. And what is the meaning of life?
Speaker 1:My mother used to have this great saying, which was she passed away now, but she used to say listen, there's no such thing as hell. Hell is on earth, and I think she's right with all the things that are thrown at us. So I think for me, my meaning in life is to try and live in the present, to learn every day, learn something new, and to try and either pay it forward or give back. They're my three things.
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