- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^26) National
Health
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Page 61
Menopause
How breaking a TV
taboo helped bring
surge of awareness
Rachel Hall
F
ive years ago, Lorraine
Kelly wanted to
interview a famous
woman about their
experience of the
menopause on her
daytime TV show. Everyone she
approached refused, so she decided
to invite a doctor in to interview her
about her personal story.
Kelly told viewers how she
had felt “fl at and joyless” despite
leading a life she was happy with. It
had taken a revelatory consultation
with her interviewer, the TV medic
Hilary Jones , to learn that she had
not been suff ering from depression,
but had menopausal symptoms.
“I thought, nobody else will
talk about it so I’ll do it. It was a
breakthrough moment, and that’s
what I think daytime telly does
very well – we’re not afraid to
tackle anything. I had someone
talking about how to do a poo test
for bowel cancer on the show this
morning,” she said.
Since Kelly’s interview, attitudes
towards the menopause have
shifted dramatically. Celebrities
including Gwyneth Paltrow , Oprah
Winfrey and Gillian Anderson have
spoken out, while a game-changing
documentary produced by Davina
McCall in 2020 resulted in what
some doctors have called a “Davina
eff ect” among patients whose
struggles suddenly made sense.
In particular, women have
extolled the virtues of hormone
replacement therapy (HRT) for
managing symptoms ranging from
hot fl ushes and night sweats to
anxiety and depression. This has
led to huge growth in awareness
of how debilitating menopausal
symptoms can be, resultingin unprecedented demand for
treatment that culminated in HRT
shortages this week.
Kelly said she had been proud to
break a longstanding taboo. “ I was
able to use my own particular
problems to help other people –
that’s a huge privilege .”
She has discussed the HRT
shortage on the show this week.
“This is a scandal. If this was a
problem aff ecting men it wouldn’t
be happening.”
Doctors have been glad to
see awareness of menopausal
symptoms raised by celebrities
and on social media, but some
worry that the emphasis on
personal experience is resulting in a
perception that HRT is a panacea.
Paula Briggs, the chair of the
British Menopause Society (BMS),
said the scale of the celebrity
involvement was “the most bizarre
thing I’ve ever seen” in medicine.
While she said much
was helpful, there was also
“evangelistic” misinformation
shared on social media based
on “a selective interpretation of
clinical research papers”. This
include d recommending higher
doses of HRT, saying it was safe
for women with a history of breast
cancer in their family, or claiming
it protect ed against dementia.
“Unless you’ve done medical
training , it’s very easy to take a
superfi cial approach.”
Some women felt pressured
into taking HRT when it was not
right for them, with lifestyle
changes such as a healthier diet or
more exercise sometimes a better
starting point , she added.
Heather Currie, a former BMS
chair and an NHS gynaecologist ,
said the high-profi le public
discourse had helped extinguish
misconceptions around HRT that
arose from publicity exaggerating
its risks in the late 1990s.
But, she added, some dangerous
messages ha d gained traction,
for example recommending HRT
for the rest of your life, while
certain symptoms , such as bladder
problems, were sidelined.
Individual experiences were
also sometimes unhelpfully
extrapolated into universal advice.
“Women are aff ected completely
diff erently, there is a huge range in
symptoms ,” she said.
Currie said the goal should be
for women to feel they c ould trust
their doctors, which ha d n ot always
been the case due to a previous
lack of training. “The key thing is
accurate information for women
and consistent advice .”▲ Lorraine Kelly opened up to viewers
about her menopaus al symptoms