The British Menopause Society (BMS) is no longer producing a regular update on the availability of HRT products.
Information regarding supply and stock availability of various HRT products was provided directly by the manufacturers of those products. The BMS was unable to comment on the availability of products at wholesale supplier level and availability from wholesale suppliers sometimes differed from the information provided by the manufacturers. In order for women to obtain completely accurate and up-to-date information about the availability of their HRT, it was recognised that it would be better for them to contact the manufacturer directly.
The BMS will continue to publish information about known HRT supply issues in the News sections of both the BMS and Women’s Health Concern websites:
If a product is unavailable, prescribers should consider using equivalent preparations to those that their patients are currently using. Where an exact match is not available, prescribers can access the guidance published on the BMS website to review equivalent doses:
Different brands of the same medication may vary in appearance or excipients, although they provide equivalent amounts of hormones when used in similar doses.
If all combined HRT preparation options have been explored, prescribing estrogen and progestogen separately may be considered to offer a suitable alternative. However, prescribing estrogen and progestogen separately can risk the omission of progestogen intake and, for some combinations and doses of estrogen, it is difficult to provide adequate balance.
A wealth of further information to support evidence-based, best practice prescribing remains available in the PPMC Resources Toolkit on the BMS website.