Home menopause test kits mislead women, say experts

RISING numbers of women are buying misleading home menopause tests because they are struggling to see a GP, experts have warned.

Doctors said women were wasting time and money buying kits which are not accurate enough to tell if women were truly approaching the menopause.

Dr Annice Mukherjee, from the Society for Endocrinology, said: “Women are… being targeted with advertising – clickbait, and are being utterly misled.”

She said that anyone with troubling symptoms that could mean they were menopausal or approaching menopause should contact their GP. But she said difficulties accessing GP services since the pandemic had compounded the problem.

The British Menopause Society, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Society for Endocrinology issued a joint statement warning of a “plethora” of misinformation. They said the heightened awareness of menopause was a positive step – but accused commercial firms of targeting women for tests which were unreliable and unnecessary.