Janice Turner on the Menopause Industry

Newson charges for the consultation though? So as a business it’s fine, it’s got loads of awareness and increased demand from women

I’m not sure about Davinia targeting her though, would it have been the other way round? Asking various celebrities to be ambassadors for the charity

Yep - one of the things they do is advise you how to get HRT on the NHS. If they're just in it for the money, it looks like a pretty crap business plan. And Newson don't sell the drugs anyway - that's done by an independent pharmacy.
I had one appointment with Newson Health while waiting for my NHS menopause clinic appointment. The NHS clinic made exactly the same recommendations as the Newson pharmacist. Newson advised me to get my Mirena IUD replaced on the NHS rather than coming to them. When I called Newson to say I'd had good treatment on the NHS & wouldn't need any further appointments, the response was "That's fantastic!".

Hmm… ‘Fobbed off with antidepressants’ ?

My GP talked me through the pros and cons of HRT - asked me to try Prozac for the anxiety first. I did and it’s been brilliant for me.
I don’t feel fobbed off at all.

Ideally Davina should have centered nhs consultants and not a private dr, who is using marketing which does raise suspicion, except that that private dr has been trying to make sure the nhs gives the same as she provides via free training.

The guidelines are all NICE approved.

What's been the issue is the public health messaging, partly affected by erroneous and incorrect conclusions from a poor study done in the past and the usual mix of sexism in medicine along with sexism in society that women just lump it.

You're entitled to your opinion about the campaign and marketing. It shouldn't be like that. I've not understood the messaging to be like that; I did get the message that not everyone experiences symptoms early on, but I'm not sure where from.

Basically if you're experiencing symptoms and no risk factors trial it.

I've used the menopause matters forum much more though for information which has been going for years. The BMA is also really useful for information. I've also referred to the menopause support network fb group - the woman who runs it had a medical menopause and wasn't given hrt at all, leaving her suicidal.

There's been horrific under treatment of this in women experiencing bad meno symptoms for years.

In that forum there are people going through meno without hrt.

The key issue was that not enough did know about hrt and the current forms being safer.

When I've started looking at the data and research for myself, more is positive than negative.

@Hagiography thanks I previously took menopace, saw no difference. I'm currently taking one containing ashwagana but again I can see no real difference and they are £20 a pop. That's the trouble with taking OTC supplements, it's all about hit and miss. I did think about going to see Andrea Newsomes lot but it's so £££ and I thought they'd just end up prescribing HRT anyway.

Body identical hrt is all plant derived from yams and soya, and standardised - you must also take progesterone to protect the lining of the womb from extra oestrogen. I didn't want to touch soy as it can affect thyroid levels as does oral oestrogen of any sort as it goes through the liver (eg contraception or hrt.)

I don't understand why people are so suspicious tbh.

For me it's like taking thyroxine (and a few do need t3 which nhs do give if it's identified as a need) v natural dessicated thyroid from pigs which isn't regulated.

Newson has cashed in from the medical industry's neglect of womens health for sure, but she did initially seek out nhs funding and there was none. So she was forced to go private, I'm uncomfortable with all that but it's clear the nhs have failed women when most medical degrees don't even cover menopause.

The menopause industry is enormous and mostly expensive supplements.

Women are clearly struggling or there's be no need for either.

I devoured all the supplement advice form lara briden (taurine does help) but it eventually didn't work enough.

@Hagiography thanks do you know what's in the Vogel tablets?

A bit old but this study is interesting. It compares the use of alternatives to HRT in Italy. Italian study

It seems that alternatives are pretty popular and I would imagine pretty lucrative.

I didn’t know about that one. This was the one I was thinking of

www.themenopausecharity.org

it looks like a charity, promotes articles re the success of HRT and was founded by Newson

I’ve been listening to Empire of Pain which is excellent but also talked about seemingly independent bodies funded by the fee makers -the pharma company

I should add some of my questioning comes from the market being built - previously untapped demand has increased a lot

There’s an organisation called the Menopause Charity which was founded by Newson who has clinics, seemingly impartial but definitely helping build customers

We do have some broad preventative measures that lower risk - eg folic acid for all pregnant women

vitamin D was free for all babies last time I had dc

cancer checks eg cervical

checks up with healthy eating advice, exercise and lower alcohol - not that everyone follows it

if we can do something now to lower costs later they do happen sometimes. I do wonder where HRT sits in all this. It is a big market with good fees atm for people tapping onto it.

Medicine is like this a lot. It's very much focused on interventions like pills and surgery.

That being said, when doctors give me advice about things like food, 99% of the time they are giving an opinion about something to try, not really medical knowledge as such. In some ways I prefer if they keep their opinions seperate, I've had too many doctors confuse their opinions with authoritative medical advice.

This is a really interesting discussion, thank you. I am currently debating with myself whether to go ahead with HT - progesterone and oestrogen patches, or mirena coil plus oestrogen patches. Have had horrible peri symptoms - the cognitive symptoms are the worst. But in my youth, I hated oral contraception and I'm quite concerned that taking HT is going to be like that. Also concerned about the various risks involved. I don't know really what to do.

There have been scientific studies on isoflavones. Pros and cons. I used to take it before HRT and I think it's good.