Working Life: I would like to see urinary incontinence treated as a vital public health issue

Dr Breffini Anglim O’Regan, consultant obstetrician, gynaecologist and urogynaecologist, The Coombe Hospital

“I’m from Wexford, but I’ve been in Dublin since I was 17, when I came to UCD to study medicine. What attracted me was the combination of logical thinking and responsibility. You’re solving problems, but the answer actually matters to someone sitting in front of you.

“My specialty training took another 10 years. I chose obs/gynae because I loved the diversity, from managing young women in labour to acute emergency situations. One of the biggest challenges when delivering a baby is a shoulder dystocia, when the baby’s head is out but a shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pubic bone. When that happens, decisions have to be made quickly, and communication needs to be clear. The stakes are very high for mother and baby.

“After I decided to sub-specialise in urogynaecology, I did a two-year fellowship in Toronto. The surgical exposure was amazing. My husband Brian stayed in Ireland but came out every few weeks. When covid came along, I didn’t see him for three months. It was hard, but the clinical and surgical experience kept me going.

Dr Breffini Anglim O’Regan, consultant obstetrician, gynaecologist and urogynaecologist, The Coombe Hospital

“When I returned to Ireland, I was 28 weeks pregnant with my first baby and I had six months training left. I went straight into a consultancy job in The Coombe once my training finished.

“My gynae clinics are mainly urogynaecology cases. Many of the women are post-menopausal and have pelvic organ prolapse or urine leakage, either because of an overactive bladder, where you may not make it to the loo or stress incontinence as a result of walking, jumping, or sneezing.

“As president of the Continence Foundation of Ireland, I would like to see urinary incontinence treated as a vital public health issue. We would also like the HSE to support clinicians to perform mesh sling surgery in Ireland— the gold standard for stress incontinence. Currently, we have the ludicrous situation of the HSE paying for women to travel to Spain or elsewhere in Europe under the Treatment Abroad Scheme to have this done.

“My job is very busy, but I’m good at time management. I’m creative, so I always have a project on the go. I love to stay fit, and run and do reformer pilates most days. I have downtime when my kids, Morgan (nearly five) and Eloise (three), go to bed.”