IMAGE The Check-in

Pregnancy is often described as a natural milestone in a woman’s life. But medically, it is also one of the most complex physiological events the body will ever experience.

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Vicky O'Dwyer, Consultant Obstetrician and Director of Gynaecology at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. Dr O'Dwyer has a special interest in preventing preterm birth and caring for women who experience pregnancy with pre-existing medical conditions.

In this thoughtful and reassuring conversation, we explore how doctors identify and manage risk in pregnancy, what preterm birth really means, and why pregnancy can offer important insights into a woman’s future health.

We also discuss the realities of modern motherhood, including pregnancy later in life and the growing number of women navigating pregnancy with chronic health conditions.

This episode offers clarity, reassurance and expert insight for women who are pregnant, planning a pregnancy or simply interested in understanding more about how pregnancy shapes long-term health.

This conversation is about understanding, preparation and reassurance. Because when women have access to good information, they are empowered to navigate their pregnancy with confidence.

IMAGE The Check-in is part of the IMAGE Women’s Health Clinic and proudly empowered by Boots and sponsored by Samsung and Waterstone Clinic.

Did you know that heart disease is the number one cause of death for women? Yet many of us still associate it more strongly with men.
Women’s cardiovascular health has historically been under-researched, under-recognised and sometimes under-treated. With hormones influencing risk throughout our lives, our symptoms can look different, and life events such as pregnancy and menopause can significantly shape our cardiovascular health.
In this episode, we are joined by Dr Róisín Colleran, Consultant Cardiologist at the Mater Private Network, to explore the reality of heart disease in women and what we can do to better protect our hearts.
Dr Colleran recently led a Women’s Heart Summit for the clinical community, highlighting that women’s heart health requires its own focus and more understanding among medics.
In this episode, we discuss why heart attacks can present differently in women, how risk develops across our lives, and what numbers and tests we should actually know. This is a thoughtful and informative conversation that aims to give women the knowledge we need to understand and protect our hearts.
IMAGE The Check-in is part of the IMAGE Women’s Health Clinic and proudly empowered by @boots.ireland and sponsored by @samsungireland & @waterstoneclinicireland

In this episode of IMAGE The Check-in, host Ellie Balfe is joined by Claire O’Brien, a functional medicine nutritional therapist, for an insightful and grounded conversation about women’s gut health, nutrition and the deep interconnectivity of our body’s systems.

Together, they explore how gut health, hormones, metabolism, stress and energy levels are all linked, and why looking at the body in isolation via single symptoms rarely gives us the full picture.

Claire shares what she sees most often in her clinic, including fatigue, digestive issues, hormonal symptoms and the pressure many women feel to ‘get it right’ with food. She explains why striving for perfection can actually work against our health, and why balance, consistency and self-awareness matter more.

The conversation covers nutrition across the life stages, including menstrual cycles, fertility, perimenopause and menopause, highlighting how our needs change over time and why what worked once in terms of nutrition may not always work later.

This is a reassuring, informative listen for any woman who wants to understand her body better, support her health with confidence, and move away from overwhelm around nutritional choices.

IMAGE The Check-in is part of the IMAGE Women’s Health Clinic and proudly empowered by Boots and sponsored by Samsung and Waterstone Clinic

In this episode of IMAGE The Check-in, host Ellie Balfe is joined by Dr Aisling Loy, Consultant in Sexual Health and Genitourinary Medicine at St James’s Hospital in Dublin.

This is an interesting, informative and vital conversation about sexual and genitourinary health, an area of health that affects all of us, yet is still too often surrounded by shame, silence and misunderstanding.

Together, they talk about what sexual health really means across a lifetime, why STI rates are rising, and how modern sexual health care has evolved. Dr Loy also explains why removing stigma is so important for both physical and emotional wellbeing, and how open, judgement-free care leads to earlier diagnosis, better outcomes and greater peace of mind.

This episode is about knowledge, reassurance and empowerment. It is an invitation to see sexual and genitourinary health as a normal, essential part of looking after yourself.

IMAGE The Check-in is part of the IMAGE Women’s Health Clinic and proudly empowered by Boots and sponsored by Samsung Ireland and Waterstone Clinic

In this episode of IMAGE The Check-in, Ellie is joined by Dr Harriet Treacy from Beyond BMI for a thoughtful and compassionate conversation about weight, health and longevity.

*** A gentle note for listeners that conversations about weight can be emotionally tender. Healthy weight looks different for everybody, and this episode is grounded in health, wellbeing and longevity rather than appearance. If you are living with or recovering from disordered eating, please take care while listening and feel free to step away if needed. ***

This is not a discussion about aesthetics or chasing a number on the scales. Instead, it explores what healthy weight management actually means from a medical perspective. The conversation also covers the role of medication, where appropriate, always framed within evidence-based, compassionate care, and how we need to break the cycle of shame surrounding weight.

This episode is for anyone who wants a clearer, kinder and more medically grounded understanding of metabolic health, and reassurance that wellbeing is about far more than what we see on the outside.

IMAGE The Check-in is part of the IMAGE Women’s Health Clinic and proudly empowered by Boots and sponsored by Samsung Ireland and Waterstone Clinic