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Original poster

HRT - nobody gives a fuck about women

194 replies

Missproportionate · 26/04/2022 09:03

Angry face 🤬

Can't get Estrogen Gel for love or money. Having been on it a year I know I can't function without it - as in I have to lie perfectly still and not move for hours on end due to vertigo, flushes dizziness, palpitations... (not posting for advice as I've done lots of posting about that elsewhere and researched myself coz GPs know fuck all)

I have spent many, many hours I won't get back being misdiagnosed, minimised, etc before finally getting a prescription. Now it's totally unavailable and I have to spend hours on the phone getting GPs and pharmacists to re-prescribe whatever estrogen is available within a 20 mile radius, taking time off work, cancelling appointments for myself and all the people in my family I care for (sandwich generation of course 🙄 - = I provide free care for elderly rels as well as DCs)

I've had it and angry. Aibu to think this is a fundamentally mysoginistic problem I have and I feel like this stuff is being witheld by almost deliberate means?

Even when I do get it they won't give me enough as they are too stupid to do the sums. The pharmacist managed to work it out so I only got 2 weeks worth (when GP agreed to 3 months) and now I'm off on another phone spree round the pharmacies!
Congratulations if you've read all that. I felt this board the only one that will sympathise!

I'm also angry at the general schooling of women into health woo because we don't get our health problems properly addressed and the women I know who won't take HRT and suffer this shit because they 'don't want to take hormones' or 'GP said not suitable for me' or 'I will suffer and then take this ineffective herb and pretend it helps'

OP posts:
BitOutOfPractice · 26/04/2022 12:52

Op I 100% agree with you. It’s utter misogyny and if these treatments were necessary for men to be able to function healthily the issue would be sorted.

And to all the people who say “ah at least Boris knows what a woman is!”, do you think his government will actually put its cock on the block ajd earmark money for womens’s clinics?

WarriorNewAgain · 26/04/2022 12:51

Absolutely Missproportionate 👏

Terfydactyl · 26/04/2022 12:51

I've got two months of HRT left and after that if this issue is ongoing I'm stuffed for work. Cant manage without them at all. But doubt my workplace will let me be off sick until whenever supplies make it to my pharmacy.

Really bloody worried about it.
The last time there was a shortage I had to go from gp to chemist, back to gp about 13 times. Frankly that was ridiculous.

I am wondering if nothing is done, just how many angry, tired, frustrated women will be marching. Unless we're all asleep or our limbs ache too much or the flushes prevent us even getting dressed.

WarriorNewAgain · 26/04/2022 12:50

@JustineMumsnet yes I'd be very much interested in this campaign!

I only started hrt in the autumn and I've been juggling double patches or cutting up 1.5 patches to make up the prescription as there's no 50s, the boxes come through in drips and drabs.

(I also can't get my old user name back ... not sure what's going on there?)

Redcrayons · 26/04/2022 12:47

BenCooperisaGod · 26/04/2022 09:12

Listen to the last episode of the 28ish days later podcast. It is the amazing Lesley Regan calling foe the establishment of womens health centres throughout the land. So you can have your smear, your mammogram, your contraceptive needs, your menopausal needs, your gynae needs all addressed in one place at one time by suitably educated and informed clinicians.

The woman's health strategy should be announced soon. We need a mumsnet campaign to make this a reality. @JustineMumsnet are you up for it. I would happily give time to it.

This is a fantastic idea.

I tried every GP in my surgery, male, female, young and old and I only managed to get HRT when I was 50 despite going with many many symptoms for the previous 10 years. Even then the GP gave me the wrong instructions about how to take the progesterone.

Original poster
Missproportionate · 26/04/2022 12:45

sorry to hear that @mudgetastic - I know there's that too - family members feeling same

OP posts:
CupcakesK · 26/04/2022 12:41

Pharmacists are trying to get the law changed to allow them to make amendments to prescriptions for HRT (without needing to go back and forth with GP) so they can give what they do have available. Not a solution, but should help women by not having to spend so much time trying to sort the problem themselves.

Such a frustrating problem, hoping the supply issues ease soon but I’m not hopeful as these issues with HRT have got worse and worse over the past decade or so

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61227712

Gemwoman · 26/04/2022 12:41

Missproportionate · 26/04/2022 12:28

Actually, thinking about this...

Women's Health Centres... Women aren't a minority though: We're over 50% of the population. Is it beyond the wit of humankind to cater for over 50% of the population in actual standard health centres. I mean, I'm getting fed up with GPs (male and female) not knowing the first thing about women's problems... why shouldn't my GP know that at 47 and feeling hot flushes and anxiety, a woman is probably menopausal and not 'just' anxious and in need of antidepressants??? it's actually not a specialism is it??

Not that I don't want the Women's Health Centre, but I think we need to be careful not to be couching this as some kind of niche thing. General Health Centres need changing surely.

I am going to read the link now and its probably all in there :-)

51% = majority

This ^

Ifonlyus · 26/04/2022 12:40

Women's Health Centres would be amazing. I was lucky to be registered with a large GP practice which has educated its medical practitioners well on menopause and has a specific HRT nurse and runs menopause clinics.

But recently I took DD (16) to see a GP about escalating painful menstrual cramps and the GP sounded very uninformed and since then I have been reading up on menstrual and gynae issues and learning how long women wait to get any diagnosis or treatment if they have ongoing issues which start in their teenage years. We have wonderfully complex bodies and we deserve to be treated by clinicians who are experts in their workings.

Gemwoman · 26/04/2022 12:38

This comes hard on the heels of a shortage of the most commonly prescribed (cheapest) tablet form, and a combined patch that manufactures just stopped producing for a while with no obvious alternative.

The thing that worries me about centres for women's issues is that it separates it further from women's general health and deskills general practice so that it appears there is no connection which will have further effects.

mudgetastic · 26/04/2022 12:36

There are other medications in short supply and these are getting no attention at all and actually it's getting quite scary

I have avoided any hospital stays since I got my latest medication about 7 years ago

I really don't want to be emergency admitted again

It's not just HRT . It's a much bigger problem

Original poster
Missproportionate · 26/04/2022 12:33

And here's the link to the podcast @BenCooperisaGod posted

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bvjdbx]

OP posts:
Original poster
Missproportionate · 26/04/2022 12:28

Actually, thinking about this...

Women's Health Centres... Women aren't a minority though: We're over 50% of the population. Is it beyond the wit of humankind to cater for over 50% of the population in actual standard health centres. I mean, I'm getting fed up with GPs (male and female) not knowing the first thing about women's problems... why shouldn't my GP know that at 47 and feeling hot flushes and anxiety, a woman is probably menopausal and not 'just' anxious and in need of antidepressants??? it's actually not a specialism is it??

Not that I don't want the Women's Health Centre, but I think we need to be careful not to be couching this as some kind of niche thing. General Health Centres need changing surely.

I am going to read the link now and its probably all in there :-)

51% = majority

OP posts:
KittyKlaws · 26/04/2022 12:25

JustineMumsnet · 26/04/2022 12:04

Funnily enough we were just discussing this last night and I said the very same thing at the event I was at - ie that women’s health provision across all ages is woefully inadequate From contraception to to pregnancy to post natal support to menopause. Would definitely be up for putting some pressure about this. Let me gather thoughts around the ask and how we can best agitate. Thanks for all the input. Keep it coming!

Show quote history

This makes me very happy to see.

KittyKlaws · 26/04/2022 12:23

BenCooperisaGod · 26/04/2022 09:12

Listen to the last episode of the 28ish days later podcast. It is the amazing Lesley Regan calling foe the establishment of womens health centres throughout the land. So you can have your smear, your mammogram, your contraceptive needs, your menopausal needs, your gynae needs all addressed in one place at one time by suitably educated and informed clinicians.

The woman's health strategy should be announced soon. We need a mumsnet campaign to make this a reality. @JustineMumsnet are you up for it. I would happily give time to it.

Yes, this is what we need. I can really get behind a campaign like this. Reading about all these women suffering because of the shortage of HRT is making me so angry about the way women are dismissed as second class people or prop humans for males.

ThreeB · 26/04/2022 12:22

Womens Health Centres would be amazing and definitely an issue Mumsnet could champion.

My current bugbear is the fact I haven't been able to access my contraceptive of choice since the start of COVID. You can guarantee men wouldn't put up with this shit so why should we.

We need a new political party run by women to centre women in policy making. Men have been the default since time began, it's time for a change!

BenCooperisaGod · 26/04/2022 12:17

Womens health centres could be set up to be cost neutral, particularly if the health benefits are taken into account.

Imagine how much more productive the female workforce wpuld be if our period and menopause symptoms were properly understood and controlled.

Oblomov22 · 26/04/2022 12:15

Yes please Justine.

Oblomov22 · 26/04/2022 12:13

Like the sound of womens health centres. Realistically though that's never gonna happen is it? NHS is failing and there are cuts everywhere, so whose going to authorise this huge expense?

I have been failed repeatedly re HRT. Years begging, quibbling over dosages, referrals to clinic, then GP's overriding clinics suggestions. and then even last week unhelpful / dismissive GP questioning the new bone scan I've had done that shows osteopenia which is pre osteoporosis.

Makes my blood boil.

Original poster
Missproportionate · 26/04/2022 12:12

double yes please @JustineMumsnet

I started my phone marathon this morning with the local pharmacy and they had one bottle of estrogel. I went down immediately to get it. I am now doubleplus angry because the GP prescription that I was told was for 3 months' supply is for one bottle (approx 26 days worth)

OP posts:
SpindleInTheWind · 26/04/2022 12:05

Yes please to that, @JustineMumsnet

SpindleInTheWind · 26/04/2022 12:04

I am absolutely stuffed.

My ovaries were surgically removed and I need oestrogen. Is there any available to buy privately does anyone know? The last online place I used during the last shortage seems to be offline. I'm going to desperate in approx 2 weeks. I've got half a box of expired patches left.

GP doesn't give a fuck; pharmacies can't get any.

And yes damn right it's a feminist issue.

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 26/04/2022 12:04

BenCooperisaGod · 26/04/2022 09:12

Listen to the last episode of the 28ish days later podcast. It is the amazing Lesley Regan calling foe the establishment of womens health centres throughout the land. So you can have your smear, your mammogram, your contraceptive needs, your menopausal needs, your gynae needs all addressed in one place at one time by suitably educated and informed clinicians.

The woman's health strategy should be announced soon. We need a mumsnet campaign to make this a reality. @JustineMumsnet are you up for it. I would happily give time to it.

Funnily enough we were just discussing this last night and I said the very same thing at the event I was at - ie that women’s health provision across all ages is woefully inadequate From contraception to to pregnancy to post natal support to menopause. Would definitely be up for putting some pressure about this. Let me gather thoughts around the ask and how we can best agitate. Thanks for all the input. Keep it coming!

DahliaDreamer · 26/04/2022 11:40

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61227712

The RPS wants pharmacists in England to be able to alter GP prescriptions and make medicine swaps when appropriate

IcakethereforeIam · 26/04/2022 10:39

Some of these posts bear repeating😁or....
I've heard that MN is an echo chamber but....

I'll get my coat

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