“Volcanic” and “very uncomfortable” are just some of the reactions from male MPs trying on a vest that simulates hot flashes during menopause as part of an event that raises awareness of the acute shortage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products in the UK.
Wes Steating, Stephen Kinnock and Nick Thomas-Simonds were among the politicians who tested the device, which is equipped with heated pads that mimic one of the most common and unpleasant symptoms.
“I can feel it on my back now,” said former Conservative leader Ian Duncan Smith, seconds after donning his vest. “Imagine giving a speech in the House of Commons and suddenly you get hot flashes. If [men] if we had that, we would complain a lot. “
“If you faint, we have water,” joked MP Carolyn Harris, co-chair of the working group on menopause, which sponsored the event at Portcullis House in Westminster on Tuesday to gather support for measures to alleviate shortages of HRT products. “Welcome to my world. I don’t need the vest to be hot and bother me.”
The sharp increase in demand for HRT drugs in recent months, partly fueled by television documentaries highlighting the safety of treatment, has led to widespread food shortages, leaving some women unable to sleep or work effectively and forcing them to exchange HRT products. . in parking lots or buy them online at inflated prices.
String, the shadow health minister, said after trying on the vest: “It’s very uncomfortable and enveloping. I don’t know how you’re going to get on with life. I can’t wait to download this. “
Kinock, the shadow minister for immigration, described it as “a very intense kind of warmth and inner feeling, not like warming from the sun, but almost volcanic inside.”
Labor MP Wes Street said: “It’s deeply unpleasant and enveloping. I don’t know how you’re going to get on with life. I can’t wait to download this. ” Photo: Sarah Lee / The Guardian
The vest was developed by Over the Bloody Moon, a group that provides menopause advice to companies and individuals, and is funded by London-based Theramex, one of the largest manufacturers of HRT products in the UK.
Its electric pads recreate the sudden creep of heat that many women will experience, contributing to leaving work one in 10.
MEPs who tried it, including Tori Tim Lawton and Alan Dorance of the SNP, said menopause was also an economic problem, forcing some women to leave the workforce and leaving others less productive. Duncan Smith said “this should be an economic downturn” to ensure that women get the help and support they need.
Harris and other activists want to ensure that all women who need them have access to the right HRT products.
Theramex and the British Menopause Society are calling for a national form or list of approved HRT drugs that would make it easier for doctors and pharmacists to prescribe them, and Harris wrote to Health Secretary Sajid Javid last week to reiterate the importance.
The government allowed pharmacists to prescribe other HRT drugs to women when those prescribed by their GP were not available, but Harris said it seemed to have had little effect. About 300 women contacted her on social media, saying they were still struggling to get the products they needed.
Stiting said: “Women should go alone. For something as common as menopause, it’s outrageous. ”
Leslie Salem, founder of Over the Bloody Moon, said: “Hot flashes are one of the three leading symptoms that affect the lives of menopausal women – they disrupt sleep, increase anxiety levels and often affect women’s work.
“For those who have not experienced the feeling, it is easy to underestimate its intensity and not to appreciate exactly what effect it has on everyday life.”
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