Some Good News About Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) – A blog by Together People Inclusion Manager, Mandy Chainey
For many people the menopause and perimenopause can have a massive impact on their mental wellbeing. There are a whole list of symptoms which are often talked about and expected such as hot flushes, night sweats and mood swings but there are other less common symptoms like joint pain and in particular brain fog.
Brain fog for me was a scary one. I really thought something more sinister was happening and this really did impact my mental health. It was such a relief when I found out that brain fog is something so many of us experience alongside many other things because of the menopause.
And, once we realise that a lot of what we are experiencing are symptoms of the menopause, we tend to turn to our GP for advice and support. On the back of those GP visits many people are offered HRT, although it’s important to add not everyone would be able to take it. For me, it was a revelation, a miracle because almost overnight many of my symptoms went or were reduced quite significantly.
But with HRT there comes a cost. The majority of us under the age of 60 have to pay for our prescriptions and with a prescription now costing £9.65, for some people that is a cost too high.
But at last, there is some good news. The HRT PPC, the prepayment certificate, is a welcome response to calls from campaigners to make HRT more widely available by taking away the financial barriers that many people face. For an annual fee of £19.30, woman will no longer need to pay for individual HRT prescriptions.
Personally, I believe HRT and all sanitary products should be free of charge but at least this is a step in the right direction.
