LATEST UPDATES ON HRT SUPPLY FROM BMS

[JinglingHellsBells]

Picked this up on social media

thebms.org.uk/2019/09/british-menopause-society-further-update-on-hrt-supply-shortages-23rd-september-2019/

[KatyMac]

Thanks @JinglingHellsBells
That's pretty depressing

[Superjaggy]

That's really helpful, thanks for posting.

[Djangor3725]

Thanks for posting. I've been taking zumenon 1mg & run out next week. Have regularly struggled to get this immediately from a pharmacy & it now seems widely unavailable as are several other 1mg alternatives. Also got a problem at my surgery as my appointment (made 3weeks ago) for the menopause nurse tomorrow was cancelled & so far haven't managed to get through on the phone for another. Managed to get zumenon 2mg from an online pharmacy - but nervous as to whether this is unwise & I should go cold turkey for a few weeks

[JinglingHellsBells]

The idea as the BMS says is to go a la carte from the menu of available estrogen and progestins and not expect to get both hormones in one patch or tablet.

[Djangor3725]

Thanks Jingling. Thought I could take a 2mg tablet every other day but perhaps I should have tried a new brand - Progynova - which has 1mg tablets available. It is expensive buying these pills online but delivery is wonderfully quick & I guess I can ask the online doctor's advice.

[SarfE4sticated]

I use the Equorel (sp?) patches and they are going to be out of stock until mid 2020! The lovely pharmacist at Boots Tottenham Court Road is on a mission to either find me some, or speak to my GP about a replacement. Sadly as the effects of my last patch is wearing off, my ability to sort this out is disappearing! I need oestrogen and progesterone as annoyingly still have periods 😡
Has anyone found a replacement that works for them?

[KatyMac]

Between my GP and my pharmacy I have anaged to get enough Evoral to last til 30th December - god help the world on the 1st January!

DD is going to Paris does anyone know the rules about HRT in France?

[thesandwich]

Thanks jingling

[LapsedPacifist]

I am gutted by this. My Evorel Conti patches ran out 2 months ago, I managed to obtain a further 2 month's supply from an online pharmacy but they don't seem to be the same, am experiencing mildish hot flushes and mood swings. My GP has prescribed oral Kliovance as an alternative, but I'm very loathe to start taking them. The whole point of my using the patches was because I understood after extensive research that they are a safer delivery system than oral HRT.

I used to joke that my patches were my Human Replacement Therapy! After several years of utterly debilitating symptoms and trying every 'alternative' option and lifestyle change in he book, I got my life (and libido) back when I started using them. I could barely function at work previously and my flushes made me so faint and nauseous I'd have to pull over and stop the car when I was driving.

Does anyone out there have experience of switching from patches to oral HRT? Any advice gratefully welcomed.

[rosie39forever]

The independent pharmacy currently have evorel conti and sequi as well as femseven 25, 50 and 100 but they do runout quickly.

[JinglingHellsBells]

@LapsedPacifist Not sure why your dr has given you pills (other than being dim) because the logic is to swap one transdermal to another. So that's Estrogel or Sandrena (gel). You would use Norethisterone, Utrogestan or the correct dose of the mini pill as the progestin. (These options are on the BMS link but a GP has to join the dots.)

[JinglingHellsBells]

@LapsedPacifist Or of course you could use the patch Estradot (estrogen only) plus the above types of progestogen. Honestly these GPs need to go on an HRT course urgently.

[Djangor3725]

It has dawned on me that I was being stupid. I have bought 2 mg pills when I wanted 1 mg pills. I get a sharp knife & cut the pills into near enough half. Have also managed to get an appointment at the end of this month with the menopause nurse at my surgery so I can get some advice from her. Feeling more relaxed now ,although I struggle to understand why there is so little info on the reason for the general shortage & why it has gone on so long- so far all I have seen is problems with the supply chain in China in 2018 re the glue for patches & this has lead to a huge increase in demand in the UK for pills. Are patches used more in the UK than in other countries then?

[MyVisionsComeFromSoup]

my GP moved me from Evorel patches to Estraderm as she reckoned the Estradot don't stick very well. The Estraderm are bigger patches, but don't leave that horrible black sticky stuff round the edges that the Evorel did. Plus Utogestran for the progesterone part.

I did have to tell her specifically what I wanted though, which I took from the availability lists at the time.

[bengalcat]

@LapsedPacifist lol at human replacement therapy - brilliant and accurate

[IndieTara]

@LapsedPacifist my GP changed me to Kliovance tablets 3 months ago as I couldn't get my usual Evorel Conti anywhere.
Kliovance has been awful. 2?minths in and I've bled constantly for the last 4 weeks, stomach cramps, headache, can't sleep and brain fog.

[SarfE4sticated]

Well my normal Evorel Sequi are out of stock I have been proscribed Elleste duet 2mg which I love. The tablets are really easy to take - they are set out like birth control pills- I used to forget to change the patches sometimes. The oestrogen tablets have made me feel sharp, energised and really positive. Haven’t started the progesterone part yet, but they can’t make me feel worse than I did with no HRT. Doc called me to discuss and said they the tablets should be fine for me as have no underlying health issues, but I’ll do a bit more research into this before I decide what to take long term.