21 - Breaking barriers in women’s health: Hormones, education and HRT with Dr Fionnuala Vernon
The Dr Louise Newson Podcast
Dr Louise Newson
4.8 • 798 Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“The fire in the belly is coming from people’s want and need to help patients and to make a change”
This week, Dr Fionnuala Vernon, Medical Director of Blackwater Private Clinics and GP trainer in Ireland, joins Dr Louise Newson for a compelling conversation about breaking down barriers in healthcare and addressing the ways in which the system often fails women.
They discuss how global gaps in training for healthcare professionals can result in women’s health needs – particularly during menopause – being overlooked and highlight the critical role of education in equipping clinicians with the skills and confidence to ask the right questions and connect patients with the support they need.
Fionnuala also outlines recent developments in women’s healthcare in Ireland, such as the introduction of free hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
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Disclaimer
The information provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dr Louise Newson or the Newson Health Group.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In my podcast today, I've got Dr. Fenula Vernon with me, who's a GP and educator from Ireland. |
| 0:06.8 | We have a really open conversation about how the healthcare system is failing women |
| 0:11.2 | and how we need to improve education for all healthcare professionals. |
| 0:15.9 | So hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:19.3 | So exciting, you're over from Ireland. Yes. Last time I saw you was in the conference, I think, wasn't it? Yeah, so we were in the Royal College of Surgeons. Yeah. Which was great, actually. This is a conference that I'd organised for healthcare professionals. And we had people from 18 different countries there. Yeah. Yeah, I did say to someone, it felt even more exciting than my wedding. |
| 0:38.1 | And they said that probably wasn't the right thing to say. |
| 0:40.3 | Yeah, Paul was really reassured by that. |
| 0:41.8 | I'm sure. My husband was there. Yeah, it was. He was there. Yeah, he was. He spoke. It was great. But it was what I found about that day, I don't know what you felt sort of sitting there, was that everyone had this fire in their belly. |
| 0:35.6 | Everyone was like looking at hormones in a different way. |
| 0:39.4 | They were gynecologists there, there were psychiatrists. Everyone had this fire in their belly. Everyone was like looking at hormones in a different way. |
| 0:55.7 | There were gynaecologists there. |
| 0:57.4 | There were psychiatrists there were GPs there, nurses, pharmacists. |
| 1:01.5 | People coming from all sorts of educational backgrounds. |
| 1:05.1 | But there was this real and it got noisier and noisier actually as the day went on, didn't it? |
| 1:09.1 | It did, yeah. |
| 1:09.8 | It was a kind of an unruly |
| 1:10.8 | bunch at the end. We're there with very like-minded people, cardiologists, surgeons, gynecologists, |
| 1:17.1 | GPs, nurses as you say. And the fire in their belly is coming from people's kind of want and |
| 1:23.8 | need to help patients and to make a change. And I think that momentum was very palpable |
| 1:29.6 | on that day for sure. Yeah. I mean, I was really honoured because we had great lectures, |
| 1:33.9 | including, as you know, from US and Singapore. And they came because they wanted to, the conference |
| 1:39.7 | was not funded by pharmaceutical companies. So it, you know, we had a really lean budget. Everyone knew that. And that was fine. But also, I've been, and I don't know if you have, but you probably have, been to conferences where in the break, people are just a bit awkward. They're not really chatting. They're not talking. You know, and it's almost a bit hostile. Whereas here it was very inclusive, wasn't it? |
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