Access to a new women’s health service to be available in Limerick

A NEW health specialist service is to be made available to women in Limerick.

Health insurance provider, Irish Life Health, has announced the expansion of the female health specialist GP service, which will lead to a further 11 in-person centric health clinics, set to be available by the end of March.

Access to the new service will be available at centres based in Limerick, Dublin, Galway, Louth and Meath.

Irish Life Health’s women health service offers an initial digital consultation with GPs who specialise in women's health issues, as well as direct access to an in-person consultation if a referral is required.

This will bring the total number of clinics offering female health consultations with a specialist GP to 27 nationwide.

Since the launch of this first of its kind female health consultation in August 2023, almost half the consultations are for issues relating to menopause which aligns with research commissioned by Irish Life Health in July 2023, which found that almost half of 35– 54 year-olds are worried about perimenopause or menopause.

A further one in three appointments with women aged 18–34 highlights the need for such services amongst younger women in Ireland.

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The research identified that 89% of 18-34 year-olds want to understand more about female health, while 75% are curious about their fertility status.

The average consultation time through this service is 20 minutes, giving more time to women to discuss their health concerns, in comparison to a standard GP consultation.

Dr Maire Finn, one of Centric Health’s specialist GPs, said: “The research carried out by Irish Life Health indicated that women wanted to know more about the health matters that relate specifically to them and that they were finding it hard to access specialist female health expertise.”

Dr Finn added: “We have seen from the response in the first four months that this new Irish Life Health female health consultation is an important and necessary step in providing specialised care and information that women need and want.”