HPV or Human Papillomavirus is a virus, there are more than 100 different types of HPV, and some can cause cancer. Most of us will have HPV at some point or another, but the great news is that most people will never know, their immune system will fight it off, and within two years, they’ll naturally have cleared it from their system.

Scars come in all shapes and sizes and most people will have at least one at some point in their lives. For a lot of people, they cause some degree of self-consciousness, particularly if they are in a visible spot on the body, and I was certainly no exception as a teenager.

Periods. Every woman in my contact book – perhaps every single one on the planet – despises them. They’re messy, painful, and agonising – some ordeals come with extra details uncalled for: from migraines to vomiting episodes.

My heart ached for the girl, more likely girls, who had ostensibly been caught in the same trap as I had. My partner had an innate knack for making me feel like a rare acquisition, but clearly, this was simply one more talent distributed with abandon. I felt angry for them by proxy, too. They would never, in all probability, have knowledge of the betrayal which ensnared them like flies in a spider’s web.

Most people have heard of eating disorders but unless you have suffered or have a loved one who has its unlikely you will understand the true damage that they often cause. They are like a tornado spinning uncontrollably through one’s life, destroying everything they touch. There isn’t a single part of my life which hasn’t been impacted by it in some way.

Disability is something that is still deeply misunderstood and feared. The narratives that surround it are either of victimisation or martyrdom. Disability needs to become normalised. For this to happen disability needs to become an everyday aspect of people’s working lives.

Genderfluidity, even among trans and non-binary spaces, is frequently misunderstood. “Sometimes a man, sometimes a woman” is a common phrasing and while that is one possibility, it is a gross oversimplification of an enormous breadth of experience.

I’ve suffered from pelvic nerve pain for five years now, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint the feeling of being free from any form of mild discomfort or searing agony ever since I was a teenager. As a 25-year-old cisgender woman from Ireland, our healthcare services have had numerous scandals over the last few decades relating to treatments for people who identify as female.

If anything plagues social media it is the toxic combo of hustle culture and toxic positivity. The message of keep working towards your goals with a smile on your face until you drop thrives under the influencing world and influencers are the biggest culprits when it comes to projecting this message through their “inspirational” posts.

I’ve always wanted children. In fact, when our time came to try, and we didn’t fall pregnant immediately, I was crushed. I will never forget the heartache of walking through the maternity clinic to get to our fertility appointment: bitterly jealous of every woman in there with a bump. Everyone apart from me.