Women are driving for hours to find a chemist
FEARS OVER HRT SHORTAGE SCANDAL
“I PERSONALLY can’t comprehend being without HRT. It fills me with terror.”
For mum-of-one Joanne Harding, to think about life before hormone replacement therapy is almost too painful.
Crippling anxiety, insomnia, jointpain and brain fog led her into a downward spiral she feared she’d never recover from.
The Labour councillor from Urmston genuinely believed she was suffering from early on-set dementia when she started experiencing symptoms of the menopause several years ago.
Her doctor recommended she try a medication known as hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which replenishes hormones that are at a lower level when you approach the menopause.
And after years of trialling different products, Joanne, now 55, finally feels like the woman she was before, and has been able to resume her busy life as a mum and politician.
But for thousands of women like Joanne, the security that comes with HRT has now been replaced with confusion and anxiety, as several forms of the medication are currently in ‘ridiculously’ short supply.
The shortage, which has been branded ‘scandalous’ and a step backwards for women’s health equality, has reportedly left some women feeling suicidal. Others have been driven to sharing their prescriptions with friends and family, driving hours to trade medication in car parks and buying it illegally from abroad.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has now been forced to implement Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) which means women prescribed some of the types of HRT in short supply will be limited to a three-month supply. It comes as he announced the appointment of Vaccine Taskforce director general Madelaine McTernan – in a bid to alleviate the shortages.
Fiona McKay, an entrepreneur from Sale, went into surgical menopause seven years ago after a total abdominal hysterectomy and suffered with 160 hot flashes a day, brain fog and anxiety. She now takes oestrogen patches, which she says she ‘couldn’t function’ without them. Fiona, 50, launched her business, the Menopause Maze, during lockdown – and it aims to help working women cope with the symptoms of the menopause.
“I haven’t experienced any shortages yet, thank God – I can’t even think about it. But I am inundated with comments and experiences from women sharing their horror stories with me all over the UK,” she said.
“Women are literally driving for hours trying to find a chemist.
“They are driving for hours to give their last pack or pump to their sisters or friends. It’s just horrific.
“One woman messaged me on Facebook saying she was on the last pump of
Oestrogel and doesn’t know what she is going to do – and she is a headteacher.” Joanne recalls a total feeling of disengagement before she was prescribed the life-changing medication.
“The main thing for me was just that I had no interest in life. I was very demotivated and completely disengaged,” she said. “I’ve always been a confident person but my confidence was at an all time low. I just didn’t want to be around other people – I was quite miserable really. I am incredibly concerned about the shortages because you don’t just take a tablet and it becomes a magic bullet. I had to take three different types of HRT and it’s taken me several years to get the dose right. The terror I feel about going back to those symptoms – that is enough to trigger my anxiety. I don’t want to go back to the way I was living then.”
For women like Fiona who have had a surgical menopause, taking hormone replacement therapy is essential.
“If you’d had a kidney removed you’d need medication to stay alive and to live normally. I’ve had my major oestrogen producing organs removed so I need that treatment,” she said.
“I have had to deal with the challenges of the menopause seven or eight years ahead of my peer group which has been challenging as well.”
Dr Siobhan Brennan has felt the strain of HRT shortages on both a professional level as a GP in Marple, and on a personal level, as someone who also went into surgical menopause several years early.
The 52-year-old says she is increasingly concerned that women who haven’t been able to get their normal HRT prescriptions are turning to drastic measures, such as swapping medication and purchasing it from unregulated websites.
“With the oestrogen gels and sprays, which are often the safest for some patients, the availability is so variable and so low. There are ridiculous shortages of both the gel and the spray at the moment which is causing extreme difficulty,” she said. “Patients are prescribed HRT on a regular basis and when there is no supply of what they would use normally it’s a logistical nightmare. The worry always is if some women can’t get their HRT they will look online and try to source it from providers who might not have their best interest at heart – it’s a real worry.”
The doctor says she’s never seen shortages as ‘extreme’ as they are currently. Ministers have blamed an uptake in the demand for HRT in the last few years, coupled with Covid-related global supply problems for the shortages. But Labour MP Carolyn Harris, who co-chairs the UK menopause taskforce, said the Department of Health has to take responsibility.
The Health Secretary has now set up a HRT Supply Taskforce with the aim of applying lessons learned during the Covid vaccination programme to identify ways to support the HRT supply chain for both long and short term demand. Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) will limit the dispensing of Oestrogel, Ovestin cream and Premique Low Dose to three months’ supply per person to ‘even out’ the distribution.
“I want to reassure women I have listened to their concerns and will not hesitate to take decisive action to ensure they can access the HRT they need,” he said. “We will leave no stone unturned in our national mission to boost supply of HRT – and this next step will ensure women across the UK will be able to reliably access this vital medication and maintain this lifeline for millions who need it.”