A post-pregnancy ailment once suffered in silence, urine leakage used to ruin social lives and restrict exercise. Now, more women are willing to discuss the issue, and cures are more readily available, writes Áilín Quinlan.

Young Irish women tend to to stick to traditional methods of birth control rather than using effective, long-term contraceptives that cut out the risk of forgetting to take a daily tablet, says Ailin Quinlan.

A mockumentary on STI sniffer dogs is racking up the views on YouTube as it attempts to shock

Testing for chlamydia, the most common sexually transmitted infection, is now back at Celtic Tiger levels, prompting warnings about the dangers of unprotected sex after office Christmas parties.

The number of people getting tested for chlamydia in Dublin has peaked, and is now back at its highest level in years.

The cyclical mood swings experienced by many women can be due to hormonal imbalances, though GPs may not see the full picture, says Helen O’Callaghan.

Women over the age of 40 are less likely to present for smear tests or use contraception, according to data from the Dublin Well Woman Centre.

One in three Irish women do not use any form of contraception and almost one in 10 rely on natural methods.

A third of Irish women do not use any form of contraception.

There has been a dramatic increase in sexually transmitted infections in the past year - according to the Dublin Well Woman Centre.

IRISH women are shunning the pill, opting for long-acting methods of birth control, according to figures from the Dublin Well Woman Centre.

For many teenage girls, there is nothing more sobering than an unwanted pregnancy - and the contraceptive pill has been providing security against this eventuality for the past five decades.

The number of women attending sexual health clinics has plummeted, with emigration as well as the availability of emergency contraception over the counter a factor in the reduction.

The number of women considering a termination because of financial concerns is on the increase.

The results of a new survey have found that 55% of Irish people do not use contraception when having sex for the first time.

THE most popular oral contraceptive in Ireland is not the safest, research suggests.

Women from poorer backgrounds are more likely to have an abnormal smear test result than those from more well-off areas, according to the Dublin Well Woman Centre.

Schoolgirls will be given the life-saving cervical cancer vaccination in a pilot scheme launched today by a family planning clinic.

A women's welfare group is criticising the Government's plans to abandon the HPV vaccination programme.

MORE than half of Irish people did not use contraception when having sex for the first time with a new partner, a study shows.

More than half of Irish people did not use contraception when having sex with a new partner for the first time, it was revealed today.

FEARS that the outsourcing of cervical smear tests for analysis in the United States may have caused some abnormal tests to slip through the net were dismissed yesterday by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

AT least 1,000 young women face the dilemma of an unplanned pregnancy every year in Ireland, according to the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).