No HRT to fill prescription

[ChocolateHelps]

So I've just popped to my local chemist to collect my repeat prescription of oestrogen 50 patches and utrogestan tablets.

They don't have any, can't get any and don't know when they will have some.

Apparently I can try ringing other chemists but I'm assuming it's the same for everyone.

WTFA do I do?

Anyone have any inside info on when supplies will be available again? I've got about 2 weeks of patches and 3 weeks of utrogestan

check online with boots but also call around the local chemists I had the same ended up getting patches from one chemist and tablets from another. It’s hit and miss with supplies right now

Ring other chemists, last spring when there was an oestrogel shortage my normal chemist said no chance of getting any anywhere. First other chemist I called had some and has kept me in stock ever since. Apparently there is also a stock checker on Boots’ website.

Same here I have 1 month of 50 patches left . I have paid for full prescription and I am owed patches by chemist and told to phone to see if they have any . I am on 2 patches a week but thinking of reducing to 1 a week to eek them out not sure what else to do its a pretty scary situation.

Messages on here say that supplies are slowly getting back to pharmacies.
Your pharmacy should contact their supplier (wholesaler).

I saw an update on Instagram earlier from Menopausemandate and it was something along the lines of 400,000 packs of Utrogestan now available for distribution and more to follow, so hopefully you can get hold of some of this. I've had to switch to Evorel patches on the past when Estradot not available (but did have to go back to GP to adjust prescription, I think).

That's been happening a lot for lots of meds. I had to ring multiple local chemists from my car and then drive straight over to the first that confirmed they had it in. It was a pain but what else can you do?

Can I ask how much you are paying for prescriptions? I have three items and normally pay £9:35 but my local chemists can't silence the ugestrogen however you spell it so I sent it to an online pharmacy and they are charging this x three so nearly £30.00 I have enough for now and will get the new prepayment deal in April but do you pay each item or just one?

Just keep calling around. If you've been prescribed a particular brand of patch, your GP can make the prescription generic so the pharmacy can give you whatever they have in stock (eg. Right now there are supply issues with Estrodot but there doesn't seem to be any problem with Evorel).
If you're in a city it's probably easier to shop around than if you're somewhere more rural.
It's really stressful and shit. I've been doing the same thing this week.
Good luck!

You pay for each item.

The online pharmacies have a big mark up on their products as they treat it as a private prescription.

The actual retail cost of Utrogestan is around 45p per capsule, so a box of 30 is around £15 as there is also a dispensing fee. (I know this as my prescriptions are private.)

However, pharmacies can charge what they like (when it's not NHS.)

Yes there have been real supply issues and it's a case of phoning round. Total pain in the neck.

I use an online pharmacy, just checked the Estradot status, yesterday they were only allowing 1 box of the 25, 50 and 75 patches, today they will allow you to order 2. Still no supply of the 100s.

And COMPLAIN to your MP!! Ask them why this isn't higher profile and what steps they are taking to improve supply issues.

I've seen various posts that it is now working its way into pharmacies. Besins did say from the 20th and that ties in with the posts.

With prescriptions, you pay per named item, regardless of quantity.

If you’re prescribed 6 boxes of utorgestan or 1 the price will be 1 prescription charge. It’s why people like to have prescriptions that last longer periods. The new pre payment for HRT will help a lot of people whose GPs will only prescribe for a month at a time, in terms of cost, if not convenience.

Local boots have just told me I will have to wait longer as they have a quota system.
Have Utrogestan to last til Thursday.
Had slight public meltdown...😟

Remember you can always take your prescription elsewhere if your usual one doesn’t have stock. If it’s sent electronically from the surgery, you can ask it to be released from the spine and printed out and you can go somewhere else. I know that’s often inconvenient but at least you can try several and one might have stock.

Yeah it's been a nightmare. Make sure your prescriptions are separated so a prescription each for estrogen and progesterone. Often my pharmacy had one but not the other but if you have both on the same prescription it's a hassle.

There is a specialist nurse in my practice who very kindly rang around all the pharmacies in the area to find utrogestan for me when I had this issue last time. Could you check and see if the gp practice can help?

Try other chemists. My local chemist couldn’t get my adhd meds for over a week got them from Morrisons pharmacy

🙄 I've been having this issue every time.
I live in a remote village with an on site pharmacy in the medical practice.

GP will not issue a generic prescription, so pharmacy always ends up telling me they haven't got the specific patches for me.

So, what I do now is get a list from them of what oestrogen patches they do have, then going next door and getting the on call GP to issue and send over a specific prescription.

This has only been with patches, no supply issues with Utrogestan.

I used to get upset, but this has happened so often now.

I usually have 50mg patches but they only had 25mg available. I will be mostly covered in plastic 😂

Why do we put up with this? Agree about contacting MP. Mine, although Tory, has been quite good with helping constituents.

I had the same but my DH was so kind to me and went on a mission whilst I was at work last week and tried all of the local chemists and evenutally found one who had tonnes of utro. So, I have six months' worth. The option afforded to me in Sainsbury's was to get the doc to change the brand on the prescription as it's more or less the same stuff just different manufacturers.

The option afforded to me in Sainsbury's was to get the doc to change the brand on the prescription as it's more or less the same stuff just different manufacturers.

They can't have meant Utrogestan, as there is no alternative .
There are options for some patches and gel.

Well I have calmed down... taken advice offered on here and collected prescription.. have just done 60 mile round trip and got one months supply.. the 'new' chemist will phone when they have more in.... now home... absolutely drained... thought I was finally getting my life back but it all feels so precarious at this moment...
Thank you for your help.

I am in Scotland where we don't pay prescription charges. HRT supply issues have been no different to the rest of the UK.

Ladies we need to harness this menopausal rage and keep asking the questions. The government appointed a HRT tsar to resolve supply issues and quietly dropped that a few months later. Keep asking the questions of your elected representatives. It may be that it is a Europe-wide issue but we don't seem to be getting any answers.

Have just tweeted the Labour and Conservative health representatives in Scotland to ask what they are doing about it.

Thanks @WhereAreMyAirpods just emailed my MP.

I agree that the shortages are a problem.

Having said that, there has been a specific issue with Utrogestan (I don't know what) and it's not happened before in (my) 9 years of using it.
Lots of women have swapped to it from other types, like patches and tablets, as well as more women using hrt.

There have been issues with gel in the past and I think that was due in part to a shortage of something to do with the packaging (sometimes it's been something like a manufacturing machine breaks down, which makes the pump mechanism.)

Estradot has always had issues - no idea why.

There has been an uptake of 35% in HRT usage over the last year. It's not an overnight process to upscale manufacturing that fast.

My opinion (just that!) is some manufactures have been caught on the hop with the increase in demand, because for years only around 10% of UK women have used HRT. Even if it's now 15% that's almost a 50% increase in what pharma companies have to produce.

Agree, @JinglingSpringbells And also more Scandinavian women using it. Rates of use in Mediterranean countries lower, which is why people can get it in Portugal/Spain/Greece.

I totally understand the worry though.