HRT Tsar

[jennakong]

So Madeleine McTern, the 'HRT Tsar', announced by Sajid Javid with great fanfare in the spring, has lasted all of three months in the post!

She's going to work as part of the Covid vaccination taskforce.

I'm not saying that Covid isn't important, but doesn't this say it all about our govt's priorities when it comes to women's health?

Or has the HRT crisis been fixed and we've got no more shortages for the foreseeable future, they've stopped giving away oestrogen to men, and waiting lists for meno clinics have been drastically reduced?

Maybe Boris can take over?

Is the actual role being made redundant, or is she going to have a successor?

Maybe she feels that the changes she made have had enough impact? I've not seen as many posts for a while complaining about shortages. (For reference, there have been issues with supply of gel over many years often because of a problem with the manufacturing including simple stuff like the plastic components for packaging.)

Perhaps limiting each prescription to 3 months and Besins doubling their UK supply is helping?

I don't know. Just offering a few ideas.

Doesn't say anything about a successor. The supply issues seem to have improved but menopause provision is so hit and miss - women struggle to get testosterone for instance, there are so few NHS clinics most with colossal waits, and so many women are forced to go private, and still too many unsympathetic, unhelpful GPs trying to fob women off with ADs, from what I see on here.

There are still supply issues with some HRT patches at my local Boots
However, no such supply issues getting what I need privately......

So, from an NHS perspective, it hasn't improved much around here...

That's highly annoying.

I wished I'd taken greater notice of an interview on wh a few weeks ago - a woman who'd done research for/ with the government and was proposing hubs for everything relating to female health. Pill, smear, hrt all in one place to close the gender health care gap and also save money. Presumably also highly trained experienced staff. Some of the best chats I've recently had are with the middle aged nurses taking my bloods for various things / smears who are also looking into/ starting hrt.

Feels a long way off and I've no idea if will happen

The menopause support network fb group still seem to have people posting about patchy supply issues.

I've been switched to everol from estradot (but I think it may last longer?) and no issues there. But estradot is unobtainable.,

@WarriorN did you mean that Evorel is unobtainable where you are? That's what I'm on. Oh ffs.

This is what always happens - during the patches shortage of 2020/21, many women were switched to Oestrogel plus progesterone, many probably stayed on it, and then there was a huge nationwide dip in the availability of the gel. So I'd imagine that during the Oestrogel shortage earlier this year, there has been a higher demand for patches, and they are now running low in places?

I really don't know why the govt can't get its act together on HRT, they need to be recruiting more 'tsars' to look into this, not moving them when they've barely settled in the post!

Sorry no, everol easy to get, estradot is very hard to come by

At least it has been this month.

A few months ago I couldn't get either. Had to wait 6 weeks for ovestin

I don't know the whole story- does anyone? But what is known is that Besins who make the gel have increased their production by 100% compared to the pre-shortage amount. It's not simply about manufacturing more, it's the whole supply chain involved like the boxes, leaflets, plastic containers who come from other manufacturers. It will take time to manage the new demand perhaps needing to recruit more staff to oversee quality control at the end point, etc.

The other issue that I think the Tsar was working on, was getting Besins to agree to supplying the UK with more, instead of supplying it to other countries in Europe where there is no shortage and where it may be surplus to what they need.

In some ways, the work of Dr Newson has made women a victim of her success, as the demand has shot up far more than ever before. Even if no more women used HRT, in the past many were perfectly happy and well on tablet form, rather than gel/ patch.

What I understand now is that gel etc is getting to pharmacies and far more than before, but it's going out as soon as it arrives because of more women using it.

The stockpiles that there were at warehouses are depleted, so Besins is trying hard to outrun the demand and get supplies into warehouses so there is always more ready for delivery.