State must step in to end HRT shortage for suffering women

MENOPAUSE is not a taboo subject, but for too long it has been largely ignored and dismissed as something women just have to deal with – rather than offering them the support they need to cope with the major changes their bodies undergo.

For thousands, hormone replacement therapy, HRT, has made the difference between living relatively normal lives or simply enduring a whole range of ill effects, from hot flushes and night sweats to insomnia and anxiety, to loss of libido and problems with memory and concentration.

The small raised risk of developing breast cancer is no reason to avoid HRT, says Dr Deirdre Lundy of the Complex Menopause Service in the National Maternity Hospital, especially when delivered by skin patches rather than taken orally.

The problem is, there is a chronic supply shortage right now – a shortage unlikely to be remedied until July, according to the Health Products Regulatory Authority. So, women are having to fly to mainland Europe, where HRT is often available without prescription, to stock up, not just for themselves but for friends, too.

It is surely an issue that could be solved quickly. HRT is low cost, so the bigger drugs companies concentrate on making products with higher financial yields. Surely the Government can step in to incentivise one of the many pharmaceutical companies operating on this island to make generic, off-patent HRT freely available, with production subsidised if necessary.

Dr Lundy runs the HSE’s only dedicated menopause clinic.

Five more have been promised by the end of the year, and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly must not drag his heels on this.

It is part of a suite of measures, including free IVF treatment and free contraception for women aged 17 to 25, that have been promised.

Crucially, he also must clear the appalling backlog of 30,000 women who are waiting on appointments for important gynaecological treatments.

For far too long, the reproductive health of half the population has been a low priority for Irish governments.

It is shameful that a shortage of HRT patches is driving women to do as their mothers and grandmothers once had to do to control their fertility, namely importing condoms from other jurisdictions.

In recent times, menopause has been under the spotlight as never before, from a week of harrowing stories on Liveline, to a new documentary about ‘the change’ to be shown on RTÉ One tomorrow night.

The minister must listen and watch – and then take the decisive action needed to alleviate the current crisis.