Um, I think we'd better establish precisely what plant you mean - Portugal Laurel is the common name for Prunus lusitanica, and these plants don't have male and female varieties. Do you mean Skimmia by any chance?

Bamboo,
I am not a gardener, but I thought that the plants which carried flowers were female. I have checked and the hedge is not Skimmia, but Portugal Laurel. Can you advise me?
Thanks

Bamboo is correct, the flowers are both male /female.

Need more info on the problem with the shrubs - photographs would be useful, but otherwise, what's happening? Are they a hedge? And are the affected plants all growing together, or spaced out with healthy ones in between. How long have you had them?

I will be in contact at the beginning of the week. Away for the weekend.
Speak soon

I have added images of some of my laurels. Thanks Irene

In the top one of the pictures, I can see a snail on the leaves, so that would account for some damage, and on the back of one of the holey leaves, I can see what look like raised or sunken brown things, not sure what they are, not close enough to tell. There are lots of small holes everywhere too, so perhaps you have had a sawfly infestation, coupled possibly with a fungal infection, but hard to say for sure from a distance.

Thanks. I could post some close-up images, if that would help indentify the problem. I didn't notice the snail. The hedge is in the country beside fields which have been planted in barley.

Certainly a close up view of the back of the leaves with the brown marks showing would be useful.