Should HRT prescription charges be scrapped?
MPs are due to vote on scrapping prescription charges for hormone replacement therapy in England.
Penny Lancaster, the TV presenter and model, who is married to Sir Rod Stewart, is campaigning for the abolition of prescription charges for hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a treatment to relieve symptoms of the menopause.
MPs are due to vote on a private members’ Bill on Friday that, if passed, would make HRT free for those going through the menopause in England.
Lancaster, who turned 50 in March, has previously spoken of how she was prescribed antidepressants when she experienced brain fog and mood swings while going through the change.
“If there was a 50-year-old man looking to get promoted and he had a health issue, they would find something to help him”
On #BBCBreakfast presenter Penny Lancaster says menopause support must improved as it can be ’soul destroying’.https://t.co/cazrLTWtyx pic.twitter.com/rY7ovN0VxY
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) October 29, 2021
Appearing on BBC Breakfast alongside journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, Lancaster called for the issue to be dealt with promptly.
She said: “Women felt like there is a taboo subject, that they are embarrassed to talk about it, that they feel they are on the edge of being extinct almost.
“If there was a 50-year-old man in a company, at the top of his game, being promoted, and he had a health issue – physically and mentally like women suffer with menopause – they would find something to help him.
“And this is hundreds of women, it’s not just a few women suffer from this.
“It really needs to be dealt with because physically and mentally it can be soul destroying.”
Frostrup, 58, recently published the book Cracking The Menopause with Alice Smellie in a bid to address the issue.
She said: “We shouldn’t have period poverty in this country where young girls can’t afford to get sanitary towels and we definitely, definitely shouldn’t have the lottery that we currently have when it comes to support for the menopause.
“Whether you go the HRT route or you don’t, HRT should be free for any women who need it – and every single doctor in the land should be trained properly in menopause practice.”
Do you agree that HRT should be free from prescription charges or do you think that there are equally as important medicines that should also be free?
