Prescription charges for HRT could be SCRAPPED in bid to drive ‘menopause revolution’

Prescription charges for hormone replacement therapy could be scrapped under a proposed law.

Labour MP Carolyn Harris will present her Menopause (Support and Services) Bill to the Commons this afternoon in a bid to drive a ‘menopause revolution’.

HRT is a lifeline for many women suffering symptoms of the menopause, but a prescription can cost £9.35 per item. Mrs Harris’s private member’s Bill would make it free for women in England, as it is in Scotland and Wales.

Prescription charges for hormone replacement therapy could be scrapped under a proposed law 

The Bill also covers menopause rights, entitlements and education, which will be explored further by a new all-party parliamentary group.

Mrs Harris said last night: ‘For far too long, generation after generation of women have been let down, ignored or simply thrown on the scrapheap as a result of the menopause.

‘Despite affecting more than half of the world’s population, menopause remains one of the last great taboos – badly funded and rarely discussed in public. It is also poorly understood: in the workplace, in society at large and far too often, even in the doctor’s surgery.

‘It is clear that we need both a step change in attitudes, and a change in the law.’

Labour MP Carolyn Harris will present her Menopause (Support and Services) Bill to the Commons this afternoon in a bid to drive a ‘menopause revolution’

Menopause campaigner Elizabeth Carr-Ellis said it was ‘brilliant to see some action’ on the issue.

‘For too long the needs of menopausal women have been ignored, overlooked or downplayed, leaving women suffering in silence and ignorance,’ she said.

‘It took me almost four years of going back and forth to the GP to get help and even then, it was my husband who finally realised all my symptoms were menopause.

‘It has taken another three years to get my HRT right through lack of understanding from my GPs.

‘Many women I know have given up with the NHS and paid privately, some into the thousands of pounds, for help – money they can barely afford at times. That is why I am so happy to see Carolyn’s Bill enter into Parliament so everyone will understand what menopause is and the impact it can have.’

In the UK, the average age for a woman to reach the menopause is 51, but around one in 100 experience it before turning 40.