Royal College of Psychiatrists says impact on mental health often overlooked and calls for improvements in care
Nearly three-quarters of UK women do not know menopause can trigger a new mental illness, polling shows.
This lack of understanding is so acute that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has launched its first targeted “position statement” to raise awareness about menopause and mental health.
Continue reading...Expert says self-testing kits are clinically useless and can be a distraction from evidence-based treatment
Expensive, over-the-counter hormone tests for menopause are clinically useless and risk undermining women’s healthcare, senior doctors have warned.
The testing kits, offered by private clinics and available to buy for self-testing, claim to offer tailored insights through measuring hormone levels. But they have been described by experts as misleading and medically unnecessary.
Continue reading...Research notes lack of interventions for perimenopausal women despite finding that hot flushes and night sweats can be as severe as for those of menopause
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Almost 40% of women going through perimenopause experience moderate to severe hot flushes and night sweats but have no treatment options, new research has found.
The study, published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, explored differences in symptom prevalence by menopausal stage among women aged 40-69 years.
Continue reading...Surgical menopause occurs on average 19 months earlier, while natural menopause happens five months earlier, new global research shows
Women with endometriosis face a higher risk of premature and early menopause and are seven times more likely to experience surgical menopause, a study has found.
Surgical menopause occurs when a woman has both ovaries removed before reaching natural menopause, and may be done to treat endometriosis if other treatments fail.
Continue reading...Study finds too few women are told chemotherapy can cause early menopause – or given the drug that can lessen that risk
When Patsy Mullen was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had no idea that chemotherapy treatment could lead to early onset menopause.
It was Mullen’s oncologist who mentioned the possibility, and offered the then 47-year-old the drug Goserelin, which reduces the risk by up to 70% compared with women receiving chemotherapy alone.
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Continue reading...Federal health minister also calls for prosecution of shopkeepers caught illegally selling vapes
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, says he is “astounded” that medical students can spend as little as one hour learning about menopause and has signalled that the government is likely to take action after a damning parliamentary inquiry.
On Sunday Butler told the ABC’s Insiders that several inquiries had told a “shameful story” about women’s treatment in Australia’s health system, saying there was more to do after Labor’s “modest investments” in women’s health.
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Continue reading...Companies are selling compounded MHT as more ‘natural’ – but there are links with endometrial cancer, the Australian Menopause Society warns
Prof Susan Davis was shocked to see her name on the website of an Australian telehealth menopause clinic offering a product she believes “is frankly reprehensible” and “misleading women”.
Davis, the director of Monash University’s Women’s Health Research Program, was concerned that the unauthorised use of her name and accompanying quotes suggested she backed the custom-made menopause hormone therapy (MHT) being sold.
Continue reading...Companies are using training and accreditation services but there is a lack of evidence about which interventions really work, submissions say
Companies are accrediting workplaces as “menopause friendly” without using any strong evidence in their processes, according to leading women’s health organisations and doctors who say women must have input into any changes aimed at helping them.
A Senate inquiry has been established by the Greens senator Larissa Waters to investigate the health and economic impacts of menopause on Australian women, including its effects on workforce participation and productivity.
Continue reading...Women with symptoms are being penalised, National Education Union’s annual conference told
The UK’s biggest teaching union is to lobby for menopause training to be made mandatory for all school leaders, saying women with symptoms are being penalised for sickness absence and disciplined on competency grounds.
Older staff were at greatest risk of “capability procedures”, delegates at the National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference in Bournemouth were told, while others were being forced out of their jobs, affecting not only their income but their pensions.
Continue reading...Medical researchers in US, UK and Australia point to healthier menopause perspectives in lower-income countries
Many companies have a commercial interest in portraying menopause as a “medical problem,” leaving women inundated with misinformation and pushed towards ineffective treatments, a series of papers published in international medical journal, the Lancet, has found.
The findings have prompted leading doctors and researchers – including those from the US, UK and Australia – to jointly call for a societal shift that challenges inaccurate assumptions.
Continue reading...Nice guidelines for GPs ‘placing CBT on a par with HRT’ are criticised as ‘patronising’ and ‘scaremongering’
New official guidance on treating menopause will harm women’s health, experts, MPs and campaigners have warned.
Last month, new draft guidelines to GPs from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said that women experiencing hot flushes, night sweats, depression and sleep problems could be offered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) “alongside or as an alternative to” hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to help reduce their menopause symptoms.
Continue reading...Maria Rooney’s action against Leicester city council is first tribunal case to consider the symptoms as a disability
A former children’s social worker has told an employment tribunal that she felt “colluded against” by the council she worked for due to suffering symptoms of menopause.
Maria Rooney initiated legal action against Leicester city council in the first tribunal case to consider the symptoms as a disability. She has alleged she was constructively dismissed after discrimination over suffering menopause symptoms.
Continue reading...Minister for women and equalities dismisses suggestion government should pilot menopause leave for women
PMQs is about to start.
Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s chief whip, has said that he thinks the Stormont brake – the mechanism at the heart of Rishi Sunak’s deal to revise the Northern Ireland protocol – will turn out to be “fairly ineffective”.
Let’s not underestimate the fact that when the EU introduces new laws in the future, it will have an impact on Northern Ireland. And the point of the brake was meant to be to give a means for unionists to oppose that. I think it will have to be used on lots of occasions, though I suspect to be fairly ineffective.
As long as it takes us to get, first of all, the analysis, and secondly, the answers from the government, before we make that decision, that’s the time we’ll take.
But the one thing I’ll say to you is that we will not have a knee-jerk reaction to this deal. It means too much to us. And we have got to give it real consideration.
Continue reading...Menopausal women could be offered paid time off as part of efforts to support wellbeing of women
Menopausal women could be offered paid time off and working environments with temperature-controlled areas under Labour plans to support the wellbeing of women in the workplace.
About one in 10 women aged 45-55 left their jobs last year due to their symptoms and ultimately the lack of workplace support, according to research supported by the Fawcett Society.
Continue reading...New national guidance includes measures to support and retain staff and ‘break the stigma’ of menopause
Menopausal women working in NHS England will be able to work flexibly should they need to under new guidance.
Launching the first-ever national NHS guidance on menopause, the NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, has called on other employers to follow suit to help “break the stigma”.
Continue reading...Seeing natural event as hormone deficiency requiring treatment could increase women’s anxiety, say medics
Doctors have hit back at critics saying they are failing menopausal women, and said that treating menopause as a hormone deficiency that requires medical treatment could fuel negative expectations and make matters worse.
Writing in the British Medical Journal they said there was an urgent need for a more realistic and balanced narrative which actively challenges the idea that menopause is synonymous with an inevitable decline in women’s health and wellbeing, and called for continued efforts to improve awareness about the symptoms and how to deal with them.
Continue reading...Sir Lindsay Hoyle unveils plans to ‘break the taboo’, and agrees to sign the Menopause Workplace Pledge
The House of Commons is to become a “menopause-friendly” employer, with Sir Lindsay Hoyle unveiling plans to “break the taboo” and offer practical adjustments for those affected.
The Commons Speaker will sign the Wellbeing of Women charity’s Menopause Workplace Pledge, which will commit the House of Commons Service to supporting employees going through the menopause.
Continue reading...Prescribing rules relaxed to tackle ongoing shortage after some women have travelled across the country to access medicines
Pharmacists will be allowed to offer alternative hormone replacement therapy products if the original prescription is out of stock, under new rules aimed at tackling the ongoing shortage.
The relaxing of normal prescribing rules, announced by the government’s HRT supply taskforce, comes amid shortages of HRT products that have left some women travelling across the country to access medicines.
Continue reading...Davina McCall documentary highlights benefits and postcode lottery of previously rejected utrogestan
A sought-after hormone replacement therapy is being reassessed for use in Scotland after TV presenter and menopause campaigner Davina McCall revealed a postcode lottery in its prescription across the UK.
Amid an ongoing supply crisis of HRT products, McCall spoke to specialists about the benefits of utrogestan, a “body identical” micronised progesterone, which is derived from plants, in her Channel 4 documentary Sex, Mind and Menopause, broadcast on Monday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Women forced to turn to black market or share drugs as concerns rise over mental and physical impact
The hormone replacement therapy (HRT) supply crisis must be resolved quickly because “so many women” are experiencing distress and some are risking serious side effects by using medication prescribed to others, the UK’s most senior GP has warned.
There have been acute shortages of some HRT products, which are used by about 1 million women in the UK to treat symptoms of the menopause. Some women have turned to the black market or are meeting up with other women in carparks to buy, swap or share medicines.
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