The HRT crisis

Millions of women’s health is at risk following an alarming shortage of menopause treatment

- MARIELLA FROSTRUP

For many, the menopause is something anticipated with trepidation. Women who’ve gone through it forewarn about the endless list of symptoms: hot flushes, anxiety, night sweats, memory problems, reduced concentration, low mood, fatigue, joint pains, headaches, reduced libido. But science also armed us with a solution in the form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

HRT has been available since the 60s, and while there was some controversy surrounding the higher risk of breast cancer and blood clots among users, the NHS says more recent evidence shows the risks of HRT are small and usually outweighed by the benefits, and it has allowed millions of women to plough on through the menopause with some semblance of normality.

Until now. Supply problems are thought to have started in China back in 2018, forcing manufacturers to cease production of a specific brand of patches, leading to heightened demand for alternatives, which also became scarce.

Now, desperate women in the UK are suffering the physical and mental consequences of the sudden unavailability, scrambling to find alternatives and resorting to looking overseas. With private online chemists cashing in by hiking up prices of their stock, and doctors calling on the government to find a solution, we investigate the shortage is having on the government to find a solution, we investigate the affect the shortage is having on women.