Women flock to private clinics to secure menopause medication amid the HRT crisis in the NHS

As women desperately try to take HRT, private menopause clinics are seeing ten times more patients than they did 18 months ago.

Experts said many women felt rejected by NHS primary care doctors, who said they were “too young” to go through menopause or be misdiagnosed with depression.

Many people research HRT online and choose to be treated in private clinics because of delays in obtaining prescriptions and waiting times of around one year for an appointment with an NHS specialist.

The private practice sees 4,000 patients per month, an increase of 300 in just one and a half years.

General practitioners are under increasing pressure due to a nationwide shortage of HRT, particularly Estrogel, which is used by around 30,000 women in the UK to help manage the debilitating symptoms of menopause.

GPs are under increasing pressure, particularly due to the nationwide shortage of Estrogel (pictured) and HRT, which is used by around 30,000 women in the UK to help manage the debilitating symptoms of menopause.

Delivery issues are an “insult”

Freelance publisher Kerri Sharp (pictured) had to pay £42 online for a month’s supply of Oestrogel after finding no Oestrogel at 12 pharmacies in London.

Freelance publisher Kerri Sharp had to pay £42 online for a month’s supply of Oestrogel after finding no Oestrogel in 12 London pharmacies.

Ms. Sharp, 61, who normally gets her prescription for free because she’s over 60, said several pharmacists have said they’ve seen as many as 50 women who were given HRT but didn’t get it.

He tried at least five online pharmacies before finding one that splits estrogen gel into one packet per order.

Ms Sharp, from Forest Hill, South East London, said: “These are seriously debilitating issues that can affect your daily life.

“This is an insult and needs to be resolved”.

The British Menopause Society has advised doctors to consider alternative remedies, including Sandrena gel and Lenzetto spray.

The Daily Mail published a hormone replacement therapy manifesto on Saturday calling for changes, including the requirement to provide medical students with information about menopause and to provide women with information about menopause during NHS health checkups.

If women cannot take medication, they should ask their family doctor for a new prescription.

Jane Pangbourne of the HRT Truth Collective said: “GPs are under pressure because they don’t understand menopause and HRT, so they are not educated.

‘I don’t blame general practitioners at all. In many cases, they have been left to dry out because they have received false or no information about HRT, so there is extra pressure on these poor women to find a solution.

“NHS waiting lists are obviously too long for anything specialized. Waiting lists for a menopause specialist sometimes exceed a year, so women pay to go to a private specialist, and even then the waiting list can be up to six months.

A survey of 464 women from a private online menopause center found that 30% would consider going to a private specialist because they felt they did not have access to the care they needed on the NHS.

Dr. Menopause specialist Louise Newson said the 8,000-person waiting list was “unprecedented for a private clinic.”

“We have clearly reached the crisis point,” he added. The doctor said he was “shocked” to have so many women come to his clinic for something “that needs to be properly managed on the NHS”.

Dr. Alice Scott said she had to close the waiting list for her family doctor’s private clinic and was unable to make appointments for new patients due to “unprecedented demand”.

Dr. Shirin Lakhani, a women’s health expert, said, “I’ve seen a huge increase in demand from patients who come to me for their menopausal symptoms.

“Women are sometimes told that they are too young to enter menopause or have no obvious symptoms, although perimenopause can begin in women in their thirties, although it is more common between the ages of 40 and 45.

“While many women now find the confidence to come forward to talk to their doctor about their health, they find that their symptoms have been neglected or diminished.

“Many have been told that this is a normal part of life and that they should continue to do so until symptoms improve or antidepressants are prescribed to treat menopause-related symptoms rather than treating the cause.”

US researchers say menopause should be treated with “protective” hormone replacement therapy before it “reshapes the brain.”

One study found that it shrinks gray matter, which is an important part of the central nervous system.