Commons touch of glamour
Stars call for menopause GP champions
CELEBRITIES have joined a campaign for GP practices to have a dedicated menopause ‘champion’ to help diagnose patients and ensure they receive the right treatment.
Women across the country face a ‘postcode lottery’ when it comes to being prescribed HRT for menopause symptoms.
Some end up waiting years for a diagnosis and are often wrongly given antidepressants or referred for endless tests.
At an event held in Parliament yesterday, experts and celebrities called for a ‘revolution’ in the support and advice received by menopausal women.
Attendees included journalist Mariella Frostrup, presenter and model Lisa Snowdon, model Penny Lancaster and Labour MP Carolyn Harris, co-chairman of the UK menopause taskforce.
Speaking to campaigner and TV presenter Davina McCall at the ‘Menopause Mandate’ meeting, Dr Juliet Balfour, an NHS GP who runs a menopause service in Somerset, said: ‘What we really need is more NHS specialist menopause clinics.
‘We need more specialists’
We can’t expect GPs to know every single thing, but we want every GP to have basic knowledge so they can signpost to someone else in the practice who has got a bit more specialist knowledge.
‘If every practice has what we call a menopause champion – and that could be a GP or nurse practitioner – then if another GP isn’t sure what to do they could signpost to them.
‘And then if that person isn’t sure what to do, they can signpost to a menopause specialist clinic.’
Dr Balfour said there are 127 specialist NHS menopause clinics across the UK, but there are ‘not enough’ to cope with demand and GPs are having to wait months for additional training.
The group is calling for health professionals and women to be taught to recognise menopause symptoms, an end to HRT scaremongering, correct prescriptions and affordable and accessible HRT.
Last night Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was joined by members of the group as he signed a pledge to make the Commons ‘menopause friendly’. He said he wants to ‘break the taboo’ by getting ‘everyone in our parliamentary village talking’ about it.
Last month, the Daily Mail’s HRT campaign secured a major victory after pharmacists were given the go-ahead to prescribe alternatives to out-of-stock treatment.
Other manifesto demands include immediately introducing the oncea-year payment for HRT medication and bringing forward mandatory requirements for medical students to be taught about the menopause.