There is a scandal about HRT – but it’s not the one Panorama thinks it is (Independent, October 2024)

Summary

In this Independent article, author and podcaster Lorraine Candy comments on a recent BBC Panaroma episode which looked into private menopause clinics. She criticises the programme for creating fear around hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and misrepresenting the issues facing women's health services in the UK. She argues that rather than focusing on the practice of one private clinic, the question being asked should be why private clinics need to exist in the first place. The answer, she states, is that GPs are ill-informed about menopause, leading to women being patronised, gaslit and not having their symptoms taken seriously. She also highlights the dangers of GPs wrongly prescribing antidepressants instead of HRT, leaving women taking drugs with serious side-effects that don't appropriately treat the cause of their symptoms.