Although she’s known online to her almost 300 thousand Instagram followers as the Fabulous Pharmacist, Laura Dowling is also becoming recognised as something of a “vulva whisperer”.
It’s a nickname that came from Dowling’s desire to get women talking about their bodies. On her Instagram page, which she set up through the Covid lockdown, the community pharmacist offers advice about women’s intimate health and encourages open discussion on once-taboo topics.
“Women’s health in general, particularly our intimate area, has been minimised or not talked about and it’s made women feel that they can’t go to anyone when they experience issues,” she tells Róisín Ingle on the latest episode of the Irish Times Women’s Podcast.
This shame around the female body is evident, she says, through the words that women sometimes use instead of vulva, including “Betsy, Mary, muffin, fufu… even the word front bum”. Adding that “women have always been made to feel ashamed about our vulvas, to not talk about them”.
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On a mission to empower women with knowledge, the mother of three, travels the country with her Viva La Vulva tour and has just released a book with a similarly striking title: Love your Vulva.
The book covers everything to do with the vulva from pelvic floor health, personal hygiene, periods, perimenopause and menopause, because as Dowling explains “our intimate health is connected to our self-confidence, our mental health and our physical health”.
“It’s very important that people understand that nothing should be shameful, nothing should be off the table. Our bodies are all natural and beautiful and we should celebrate them,” she adds.
You can listen back to this conversation in full, in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
In association with Kildare Village.
