MrsParry

I recently had a chat with Australia’s @shellyhorton1 about the importance of mental health and menopause. 98% of women who attend our menopause clinic experience psychological symptoms of the menopause - symptoms of low mood, anxiety, panic attacks and intrusive thoughts - so it’s about time this was taken more seriously.

Only around 14% of menopausal women in the UK currently are prescribed HRT, which would be fine if only 14% of women wanted to take HRT but we know this isn’t the case. I constantly hear from so many women who aren’t being given a choice and are unable to have their HRT prescribed for them both in the UK and other countries. This is not right when we know HRT is safe and beneficial for the majority of menopausal women and the guidelines are clear it is a first line treatment to manage menopausal symptoms for most women. In areas of deprivation this number is much lower - in some areas only 2% of menopausal women are prescribed HRT and these women are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants, statins and blood pressure lowering treatments. Also they are more likely to have chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, clinical depression and osteoporosis - taking HRT can reduce the incidence of these diseases as well as improving symptoms. A lot of the work I do is about giving women the confidence to be better advocates for themselves and I hope by keeping this conversation going we can help more women access the care and treatment they want and deserve.

When people say menopause is just a natural part of being a woman and that we just need to “get on with it”, I have a problem with that because why should women suffer with any symptoms when there are evidence-based treatments available that not only relieve these symptoms but also improve future health?

Do we think more people would be able to access treatment if men experienced the menopause?