MISSING OUT ON TREATMENT

❖ If you had a similar experience to Karen, it may be because, until recently, GPS were positively discouraged from prescribing HRT. But some women are still missing out on the treatment they need despite updated guidelines from The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that women suffering hot flushes, night sweats and low mood should be offered HRT. A survey of 350 women by specialist private healthcare provider Nuada Medical found that 51% of the women going through the menopause were prescribed nothing or inappropriately treated with antidepressants. ‘It is a scandal of massive proportions that these guidelines are not being implemented,’ says consultant gynaecologist Dr Anne Henderson, a menopause expert from Nuada. Equally scandalous is the dearth of specialist menopause clinics (one for every 350,000 women in the UK), which means that many women don’t get the expert help they need.

It’s not just that specialist help isn’t widely available – many women aren’t asking for it. Although we’ve started to be more open about menopause, thanks partly to a series of high-profile women going public about their own hormone horrors, the M word remains a bit of a taboo. ‘We talk about sex and incontinence more readily than menopause,’ says Dr Henderson. Menopause remains the butt of bad jokes, and its impact on work life is barely acknowledged. A survey by the British Menopause Society found that half of women going through the menopause were too embarrassed to talk to their doctor and a third felt that it was something they just had to put up with.