Why are HRT patches unavailable from my local chemist?

 

Hormone Replacement Treatment (HRT) Medicines Online

What HRT Patches and what is it used for?
Hormone Replacement Treatment (HRT) that contains the female hormone estrogen. HRT patches are used in postmenopausal women when at least 12 months have passed since their last natural period. At the end of the blog, we’ll explain how you can purchase HRT Treatment medicines online in the UK.

HRT Patches are used to:
Relief of symptoms that appear in menopause. During menopause, the amount of estrogen produced by a woman's body decreases. This can cause symptoms such as hot flashes in the face, neck, and chest (hot flashes). HRT patches relieve these symptoms after menopause. HRT patches will only be prescribed if your symptoms seriously interfere with your daily life.

Osteoporosis prevention: After menopause, some women may develop brittle bones (osteoporosis). Consult with your doctor about all available treatment options. If you are at high risk of fractures due to osteoporosis and other medicines are not suitable for you, you can use HRT patches to prevent osteoporosis after menopause.

Side effects include:
Very common side effects that may affect more than 1 in 10 people:

Headache, skin reactions at the patch site (including irritation, burning, rash, dryness, bleeding, bruising, inflammation, swelling, skin pigmentation, hives, and blisters), tension and pain in the breasts, menstrual pain, menstrual disturbances.

Common that may affect up to 1 in 10 people:
Depression, nervousness, mood swings, insomnia, nausea, poor digestion, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, bloating, acne, rash, dry skin, itching, breast enlargement, heavy menstrual periods, discharge of a white or yellowish viscous fluid vaginal bleeding, irregular bleeding, severe uterine contractions, inflammation of the vagina, abnormal growth of the uterus (endometrial hyperplasia), pain (eg pain in the back, arms, legs, wrists, ankles), weakness, fluid retention (oedema) in the extremities (arms and legs), weight changes.

Uncommon that may affect up to 1 in 100 people:
Migraine, dizziness, increased blood pressure, vomiting, discolouration of the skin, impaired liver function.

HRT patches are one of the types of medicines that are most-often out of stock in pharmacies, according to a C+D survey last September – This survey showed that 84% of pharmacy staff had struggled to allocate stock in the last 6 months, leading to the aforementioned shortage.

Since then, the controversy surrounding the HRT patch shortages has only grown larger and has been exacerbated. On February 6, the country implored the government to look into the “unacceptable” ongoing shortages of HRT patches and other types of contraceptive medicines, Leading the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) and British Menopause Society (BMS) to say in a letter that the current situation was in “utter chaos”.

However, you may ask yourself what is the reason for the HRT patch shortages?
Unfortunately, the answer isn’t that simple because the cause does vary product by product. As is the case with other general medicine shortages, there isn’t an official public source showing what items are out of stock nor the reasons why? Thusly, There cannot be a single accepted reason on why the allocation of HRT patch stock is simply so bad. However, due to the nature of how some companies share their information, we do know the reason why some companies are suffering shortages, albeit, these are vague reasons. For example, Pfizer (a company known for its recent breakthrough with covid-19 vaccine) explain that the reason behind the shortages of HRT products in the United Kingdom is “wide-ranging and multifaceted”, it also added that it is “working to minimise the impact” of shortages.

Evorel patches.
At the end of last year, the Evorel range of oestrogen-only HRT patches did suffer from mildly significant shortages. The reason behind this was "an unusual increase in demand", also adding that there was a "lack of availability of alternative HRT products not produced by Janssen". This was confirmed by manufacturer Janssen.

In addition, around the same time, Theramex acquired the Evorel range of medicines from Janssen, this, resulting in the supply chain restarting. Theramex later added that at this point “a number of products were unavailable,” for which it “suffered the consequences”. However, when the HRT patches are back in stock and that is suspected to be soon. You can purchase Evorel Patches Online in the UK, this also extends to Non-Evorel HRT patches like Estraderm MX Patches, which you can buy online in the UK.