Oestrogel shortage - what to do??

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My pharmacist can’t get any and I’ve been waiting for a new prescription to be filled. They appear to have not saved any for the repeat order and had a lot of walk ins. I don’t know how it works but they seem to bring up the repeats when I arrive rather than as they are sent (as in they are her ready to collect for me or the kids).
What can I try / suggest - I’m on progesterone and the gel??

I took my second prescription and rang round independent pharmacies last week, and on the third go managed to find one (my closest!) who had Sandrena in stock. When I took it there, the pharmacist told me that because of acute shortages and so much demand, she would have to ration me for now, and gave me 2/3 of my Sandrena (eg 2 boxes of 0.5 sachets) (and all of my Utrogestan) and told me to ring back after the bank holiday to see if they could supply the last box.

I did this and thought I'd let you know how it went. The person I spoke to on the phone initially (not the pharmacist) told me they did have Sandrena in - but only in boxes of 1 mg sachets. She explained that she couldn't supply me with this because my prescription specified 0.5 mg sachets (even though the notes on it specified that I should start 0.5mg and work my way up to 1.5 or 2mg daily). She also said that if she gave me a box of 28 1mg sachets in place of my missing box of 0.5 mg sachets, I'd end up with more estrogen than I was allowed on my prescription. I suggested (knowing she'd say no) that I swap an unopened, sealed box of 0.5 mg sachets for the box of 1mg sachets but of course they can't do that either. She said that unless they got some more 0.5 mg sachets in soon, I'd have to return to the GP for yet another prescription for the 1mg box (and pay another £10)! I explained this was really annoying because I'd already paid my two prescriptions and shouldn't have to pay another just to get the one prescription filled, and also that I'd already dialed my daily dose back down to 2 0.5 mg sachets because of anticipated shortages, and this was less than ideal.
She asked me to ring back when the pharmacist was in.

I did, and eventually, after a bit of questioning, the pharmacist told me she'd open a box of 1mg sachets and split it, because 'I seemed to know what I was doing and could work out doseages etc' and that's what happened. She said it was illegal, and that she didn't like to do it, but she liked a lot less that women were constantly going without HRT because of shortages and it sucked. So I think I'll continue to use this pharmacy as my first port of call.

Can't wait to do this all again in about 3.5 weeks!

I get oestrogen tablets. They work fine with my mirena.

I cried on the way home from the pharmacy today - prescription not filled, and no suggestions about what I'm suppose to do instead.

My pharmacist told me to write to my MP!

@Badlifeday I have a spare gel pump that you are welcome to have if this helps. I'm now on patches and (fingers crossed) seem to be getting these ok for the moment.

I don't know how to DM, but if you do and this helps, please let me know. I'll send it first class to you first thing tomorrow.

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/24/sajid-javid-appoint-hrt-tsar-acute-shortages-menopause

In the news today. If they put as much effort as they did into the vaccine rollout it should be fixed in no time ....

So kind @Namaste6 I have DM'd you.

I have asked on my local fb page for experiences of women locally and have had a few replies. All sadly as depressing as our comments have been.
I really wanted to see if there is anything we can do locally to stop the to and fro for alternative prescriptions and stop the hunt. The gel is arriving at some but not all pharmacies but in a very haphazard way. We really need a system that shows supply somehow and also stops any hoarding. No idea how that could happen.
I spent about 7 hours in total to and fro. Most people and I am including the health practitioners time just don't have this kind of time in the day.

Just a word of caution to those of you very kindly offering your surplus stock to others.

HRT is a prescription only medication & not all types are suitable for all women. I'm sure that everyone on this thread is genuinely trying to get hold of something they are legitimately prescribed. However on an anonymous forum it is possible that you could end up sending somebody something that their GP has declined to prescribe for good reason.

Just a thought.

If they put as much effort as they did into the vaccine rollout it should be fixed in no time ....

Oh, if only this could happen!

Have you checked with the prescriptions clerk at your surgery? I called them when my normal pharmacy didn't have it, the clerk knew exactly which pharmacy did have jt and sent my prescription there

Equally, @Spaghag a poster could be sent something dangerous to use in the post!
With a National shortage of oestrogel chances are someone saying they can't get it is someone who actually normally takes it. But no guarantees of course.
I suppose we have to decide who we trust and who we don't.

Yes, that's what I mean. A kind poster could inadvertently send somebody something that is risky for them.

Although, yes, as I say the chances are people are only trying to get their valid prescriptions filled. But you never know.

You're missing my point. The kind poster offering to send spare oestrogel might actually be a serial killer sending rat poison in a bottle.
People are feeling at crisis point, but yes of course everyone should continue to risk assess situations for themselves.

Oh I see. Yes, I totally misunderstood your point.

It absolutely could work both ways. Probably not but not impossible.

Hopefully the shortage will be temporary and things can get back to normal 🤞

I have a recently prescribed unopened Oestrogel pump pack (Exp: 02/2025) available to anyone living in the Bristol area - I just want someone to have it given the shortage, and I can't list it anywhere as it's prescription only in the UK. Just happy for the prescription charge to be covered. Reply to this thread and I'll monitor it.

If this is any help to anyone, the Boots prescription finder service does work for locating those rare supplies of oestrogel. You have to play around with random postcodes because the search radius is quite small. Today it was showing oestrogel in stock at a tiny Boots store 15 miles from my house. Sure enough, turned up and they had it. I live in a big city and there are probably 100 Boots stores that are closer but they were all out of stock. But now I know what to do and am prepared to travel further if needed (and will probably have to as the GP will only do a month prescription at a time).

That's so useful; thank you

Thank you so much for the person who posted about the boots prescription checker. Absolute game changer. Normal pharmacy couldn’t source any gel and I had a few days left. Checked the boots site, obscure store I wouldn’t have thought of visiting showed as having stock, prescription filled. Thanks again!

Thank you so much to the person posting on Boots prescription checker. I’ve had days of waiting, calls between me and GP, me and pharmacy, GP and pharmacy thanks to this shortage, but at least yesterday have been able to source prescription of a short supply at a distant pharmacy via checker info. My GP had never heard of the checker. Livid that so many women are in this boat though, it’s very stressful not knowing if or when medication will be in stock. Such a waste of NHS and pharmacy admin time too.

So glad the Boots prescription checker is helping people. Now if only Lloyds could offer the same!

A note of caution re the online stock checker at Boots - I've visited one today that had stock showing but none when I got there.
Fortunately (thanks to kind mumsnetter) I won't run out for a couple of weeks, but if you are making a long journey worth phoning them first.

My local Boots has given me on owing slip for 2 months supply of my sandrena gel 1mg. They had oestrogel in stock last week so my practice pharmacist prescribed some of that but only one bottle which would last 2 weeks! So this week I was trailing round again. I live rurally so not many pharmacies and all miles apart - the two nearest had nothing at all so the practice pharmacist suggested 0.5mg sandrena sachets which she knew a nearby village pharmacy had some of. This time she did prescribe two months worth but then instead of leaving a paper copy at the desk for me to collect, the receptionist sent it electronically to Boots again, who now have four months worth of my sandrena owing. Back on the phone to the practice pharmacist (based at a different branch of my practice) who managed to get a paper copy done for me, but village pharmacy could only give me 2 weeks worth of my 2 month prescription, so now they also owe me 6 weeks of sandrena. What a mess. The village pharmacy told me to call next week, Boots said they’d text if they do get anything in stock… luckily I have a prepayment certificate or this would be getting pretty pricey.

Just to say I had no difficulty picking up my prescription from my local chemist today. Has the shortage ended or did I just get lucky?