Catherine was one of several women invited because she shared her personal health story for the report, which assesses the state of women’s health inequalities across the country and informs where investment should be directed.
In 2012, Catherine was prescribed HRT, a synthetic progesterone, after experiencing heavy bleeding due to the perimenopause. She took the drug for five years.
She explained: “I got a prescription, no questions asked. It was like a miracle drug at the time, I thought it was amazing.”
After a call to 111 when her prescription ran out and her GP surgery was closed, Catherine was told that the prescription was not suitable for her due to high risk factors, including a family history of breast cancer.
“I felt really naïve and stupid for taking it and stopped immediately.
“About a month later I started to feel very unwell. It started with aches in the back of my neck and eventually, over the next six weeks, these aches just went all over my body and I lost my appetite and my sense of smell. I was so unwell I ended up in A&E.”
After repeated blood tests and visits to the doctor, Catherine was told she was healthy. But still feeling physically unwell with no answers as to why, her mental health declined to the point that she was admitted into psychiatric care.
“I had convinced myself I was dying,” she explained.
“I was just in incredible distress. At no point did anybody tell me that this was related to coming off the progesterone medication.
“When I was going through my psychiatric treatment, it was a very isolating experience. Nobody told me it was related to women’s health.
“It was only be sharing my story on social media that I found other women had gone through the same.”
Catherine attributes her health difficulties to the painful withdrawal symptoms from the hormone treatment combined with the distress of being consistently dismissed by the medical professionals.
“I think I started to recover when my system rebalanced itself and I was eventually given a scan which reassured me I was okay,” she explained.
When the NHS Confederation heard about her story on Linkedin, they invited her to be a part of this report, which looks at the economic impact of the shortcomings in the health system as it pertains to women’s health.
For example, unemployment due to menopause symptoms has a direct economic impact of approximately £1.5 billion per annum with approximately 60,000 women in the UK not being in employment due to menopause symptoms.
“With the report, you just hope that it is going to affect some change,” Catherine explained.
“What happened to me was in 2017 and you hope now there’s more awareness around the menopause.
“At the time for me, it definitely felt that it was an area that didn’t receive much investment and clinicians under-appreciated women’s health and in particularly, how their hormonal health affects their mental health.
“Women’s health inequalities needs to be at the forefront of people’s minds because too often we go to the doctors and are dismissed.”
On what it meant to play a part in the report, Catherine added:
“I was really grateful for the opportunity to be part of the research and the evening itself.
It was so inspiring to meet other women with their own stories as well as the researchers, policymakers and NHS leaders. It left me with hope that change is on the way.”
To read the full report, go to https://www.nhsconfed.org/publications/womens-health-economics