Davina McCall is thrilled that her documentary about the menopause has sparked a huge upsurge in women contacting healthcare professionals for help.
Doctors across the country have been “inundated” with requests about HRT in the wake of the Channel 4 film which exploded the myths about the menopause.
And private healthcare company Bupa, which offers a personalised plan for women suffering symptoms related to the menopause, has seen a threefold increase for its service, which costs £250.
“The response to the film has been overwhelming,” Davina told The Mirror.
“The stats speak for themselves - the urgent need for more understanding on menopause is there and now we must support and help our healthcare professionals get the education they will need to deal with the tsunami in demand that there is going to be... because we have been misinformed for too long. This is the start of a really important conversation for us all to have.”
Doctors have welcomed the push to give women the information they need. Jim Weems, a GP from Manchester with a practice of over 9000 patients, said: “We have been inundated with requests regarding HRT in the days following Davina’s programme, mainly from patients wanting more information about HRT or to get help with disabling symptoms.
"While no treatment is without risk, a fully informed , shared decision making process between patient and doctor is always the best way to proceed in cases like this. I will prescribe HRT and also any alternatives to treat symptoms depending on the risk profile of the patient. Anything to raise awareness about this subject is useful as treatment can be transformative for some patients. It can make a real difference.”
Davina's programme, which aired earlier this month, revealed many women had been put off Hormone Replacement Therapy because of a link to breast cancer made 20 years ago, in a study which has now been widely discredited for using women who were post-menopausal, sometimes by 20 years.
The presenter, 53, told how she had thought she was losing her mind nine years ago and had no idea that what she was experiencing were classic symptoms of peri-menopause, which happens in the years leading up to menopause, when a woman's periods stop.
Sharing her own experience, Davina told how discovering HRT and wearing a patch had turned her life around and allowed her to continue working, something she had feared she'd have to give up.
The #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign’s petition to parliament is now close to its target of 150,000 signatures thanks to the boost provided by the documentary.The campaign is calling for compulsory GP education and workplace policies.
They also did a survey which came out the day after the programme which showed that 41% of university medical courses did not have compulsory menopause training.
More than half of the 10,000 GP practices in the UK have now signed up for The Menopause Charity’s offer of the Confidence in the Menopause course for doctors.
