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It's wonderful that awareness surrounding menopause & premenstrual disorders, including PMDD, has increased in recent years, but so demoralising how hard it is to make progress in terms of providing access to adequate care for all. I'm pondering on this having spent two months 1/
..applying for a local position to deliver LARC and menopause services - completing online learning, sitting through slide after slide on information governance, etc, etc - only to be told there is now no longer a position as this was a pilot they're not sure they'll renew 2/
...This makes zero sense. The waiting list for LARC in East Anglia is crazily long - women are suffering as a result and more and more pressure is being piled on GPs, who are already buckling under the weight of a failing system. Services for menopause, PMDs and LARC should 3/
...NOT be seen as niche! How long do we have to keep saying this? How can we not, collectively, see that investing in these services benefits ALL? I had a hospital position, in a gynae clinic, for one year before it was decommissioned due to "no need". Both the consultant and 4/
I rallied against this but to no avail. I have met with commissioners at two other hospitals in the East, and been met with enthusiasm and even a tentative job offer to run an NHS service, but *nothing* has ever come of it as it's always vetoed at the last hurdle. Why? 5/
There are posts after posts on social media about how doctors need to be better trained in menopause, PMDD etc and - yes - there's an issue here. However, there are now SO many of us who have undertaken training in our own time & at our own expense who desperately want to help 6/
...but we are constantly prevented from doing so. The main reason there are now so many private menopause clinics in the UK is because there is a HUGE unmet need. I, like @mymenopausedr and countless others, are qualified to run an NHS menopause service but no one will let us 7/
That's the long and short of it, and it's exhausting, frustrating and, frankly, upsetting on so many levels. I get emails from women asking if their GP can refer them to me via the NHS and I have to explain this is sadly not possible and I cannot change this. In such cases... 8/
...the patient will go back to their GP, taking up another appointment & yet more admin time. It's a lose-lose situation for all. The patients aren't getting the help they need, and GPs are overburdened & wrongly demonised, yet again. I take my hat off to all my GP colleagues 9/
...It is an impossible job - especially at this current time. GPs are trained as generalists, not specialists, but the access to specialist services on the NHS is woefully inadequate despite the fact there are now *several hundred* of us trained to provide these. It's madness 10/
I know I'm ranting into the ether, but this needs to be said (at least, I need to get it off my chest!). The narrative around better menopause training for GPs is needed & well intentioned but overlooks the major issue, which is system failure. GPs are NOT the bad guys here 11/
...most are doing their utmost to uphold a crumbling system, and they're drowning. GP education and access to services will not and *cannot* improve until female hormonal health is taken seriously by the system as a whole. That's the bottom line 12/12
