Newson Health and the menopause industry

It might, what counts as awful is subjective though. There are also contraindications, risks, and side effects to consider. And improvement isn't always due to the drug, it can be the placebo effect.

There is a reason it's not OTC medication, you are recommending inappropriate prescribing practices.

Why? Noone is forcing women to take HRT. If you go to the GP with awful menopause symptoms then HRT will almost certainly help. If it doesn't help then you can just stop taking it. Its not addictive!

That's a very strange argument.

I'm not sure why HRT would ever NOT be in the best interest of a patient. If it works, it's life changing. If it doesn't then just stop taking it. Noone is forcing anyone to do anything.

Well, look - people get caught up like that about medical stuff all the time. Why couldn't it happen with HRT?

It seems just the sort of thing pharmaceutical companies love to push, because almost half the population could be given the drugs they are selling. It's potentially a huge market.

That doesn't mean there aren't legitimate uses, or women aren't really affected, but it's also the kind of scenario where we should be especially wary of markets being manipulated when it isn't in the best interests of patients.

That is very interesting @Angrymum22 . BOTH my daughters have been referred for urgent laporoscopies with suspected endometriosis. No one in our extended family as far as we know has had period problems and i did wonder about modern diets.

It doesn’t help. I had endometriosis premenopause and during the 1980s many foods would trigger the pain. Once they banned hormones in livestock feed I had far less problems. I also avoid tinned foods ( the tins are lined with oestrogen mimicking resin/plastics.
It has also been blamed for falling sperm count/health.

@Angrymum22 Another area that needs massive improvement is providing women with the information needed to assess their own highly individual breast cancer risk profile. There are several good online risk assessment tools but should probably be utilized under the guidance of a HCP.

Breast density is an important risk factor and impacts the accuracy of mammography screening, yet this information isn't routinely made available to women in the UK. That really needs to change.

It is complex and as I mention above it appears to be age specific. Being a fat 40+ yr old appears to be less of a risk than being a fat 20 yr old.
I speak as a fat 60yr old who has had bc. Although my risk is due to a benign endocrine tumour I was diagnosed with at 21. Forty years on research has provide a firm link between the condition and bc so at least I can blame it on something.

Or oestrogen getting into the eco system in the last few decades.

The overwhelming risk is prolonged exposure to oestrogen. So early onset puberty combined with late menopause significantly increases your risk. Alcohol another significant factor.
Recent study regarding weight suggests that the age that you are overweight is significant. So gaining weight post 40 is much less of a risk than being overweight in your 20s and 30s. This is more worrying since obesity in young women is much more prevalent than 20-30 yrs ago. Are we looking at an explosion of bc in the next few decades?

I went to Newson in desperation. I was having constant cystitis. Imagine that burning feeling when you have a uti. Now have it daily for 6 months - 180 days. Then tell me you wouldn’t feel a little bit down! I also had periods every 2-3 weeks which were so heavy I had to wear period pants, super plus tp and a pad. Of course I didn’t feel anxious in work at all!
I was going to the gym 4-5 days a week, had lost weight, eating healthy. But oh the pain. Back and forth to the GP - well I never actually ‘saw’ a dr - they just left a prescription for me for antibiotics. Each time I would tell them about my periods, ask if it was menopause. After my 7th course, I asked for help. Got ignored. Wrote a letter of complaint to the practice. Saw a GP who did the first internal - told me bluntly I had vaginal atrophy, and I could be put on a waiting list for the menopause clinic.
I went private to a urologist gynaecologist who told me to stop taking the NHS prescribed antibiotics as they were not for UTI’s, he had never seen them prescribed for UTI’s, the ones I was given were for chest infections. Would be doing f all for my v! I had a scan, was diagnosed with ademyosis, and told I had 4.5cm fibroids. So those had to come out, and a mirena coil put in to help with the periods.
At Newson I had a lovely GP who spoke to me for at least 45 minutes. We went over everything, she asked for the letters from the gynae and decided we would try vagifem and patches. The awful hot flushes I’d been having (which I would have / could have born if it were not for the daily pain) stopped. I felt so much better.
The bleeding has stopped, the flushes have stopped, the pain has stopped.
The NHS on here needs to remember that they make mistakes every day. And people like me are left to suffer. But you know, I’m sure going to the gym helped!

@GrandmaMazur true but I think on a thread about HRT it isn't clear to describe tamoxifen as 'a form of oestrogen' when it is anything but.

It’s a selective oestrogen receptor modulator so although it blocks some oestrogen receptors (such as those pesky breast ones) it acts differently on others such as the ones in the womb, hence an increased risk of endometrial cancer, and in bones - so is actually thought to help prevent osteoporosis.

Tamoxifen isn't an oral oestrogen. It blocks oestrogen receptors so stops you responding to oestrogen.

I’m also on tamoxifen. How are you finding it?
I would love to take HRT as it’s the only thing I found to stop my Achilles tendinitis but alas.

Thank you for the link to the study. Quite complicated trying to unpick the statistics! It’s interesting how many women were actually being prescribed HRT tablets I think.

Thank you for that - actually, this is where I think Louise Newson is good at talking about the evidence (I think that’s the charity she set up)

I'm on a type of oral oestrogen in tamoxifen. Blood clots are an increased risk.

Yes, I don't make the recipe, just make a hot chocolate and scoff some nuts

https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.k4810#:~:text=Numbers%20needed%20to%20harm%20and%20excess%20risk%20of%20VTE&text=For%20overall%20oral%20HRT%20use,to%2010%3B%20table%204).

So transdermal of course ‘safer’ but know its not that much different IF you are a normal bmi/non smoker/no clot History/unexplained miscarriage. As I said before good specialists know their stuff

I’d be interested to know where that figure comes from as the research is so patchy that I don’t know how anyone can quote that categorically. The previous big studies into HRT when women were taking it in tablet form seem pretty chaotic in the way they were organised - all sorts of ages of starting HRT, often many years post-menopause, with many women having comorbidities or high BMI. I’m not sure how it’s possible to work out a figure for the risk in this way.