MORE THAN A PRESCRIPTION
How One Pharmacy Is Supporting Women Through Menopause
Menopause and perimenopause are experienced by half the population, yet many women continue to face delays in accessing support, uncertainty about treatment options and a lack of reliable information. As awareness of the menopause grows across Scotland, there is increasing recognition that women need timely, accessible and person-centred support throughout their journey.
Community pharmacies could be well placed to play an integral part in that support. With highly trained pharmacy teams available on the high street and no appointment usually required, pharmacies can offer advice on symptom management, medicines optimisation, healthy lifestyle measures as well as signposting to other healthcare services when needed.
One pharmacy in Easterhouse, Glasgow is doing just that. PeakHealth Pharmacy has recently set up a private women’s health clinic focused on the menopause and perimenopause. Pharmacist Harvie Baker-Flanagan said they had decided to set up the service for a couple of reasons.
"With a pharmacy you can just walk in and be seen without an appointment and even when we do have to put in place an appointments system you can still be seen by the pharmacy quickly.”
Supporting with Symptoms
“One of our ACTs is really interested in that area of health because of her own experiences. She has done a lot of research and CPD modules on it and thought it was an area we could focus on in the pharmacy. But what really set us off on this path was the fact we had a couple of patients visit us within the space of a week who were really struggling with their symptoms,” he said.
“Our ACT spent quite a bit of time with them, talking things through and trying to explain things from what she had learned as well as her own lived experience. She was in the consulting room with one of the women for over an hour as she was really struggling with her mental health.”
Those interactions prompted the clinic to launch the private women’s health service for menopause and perimenopause which has now been running for a few months.
“It is currently more advice we provide as opposed to services and while we have only been doing it for a few months there has already been quite a lot of interest in it. We are hoping that will continue to grow. We are promoting the service on screens in store and through our social media channels and Google ads because, as with a lot of other services, patients are still not fully aware of just how much community pharmacy offers,” said Harvie.
Perfectly Placed
In addition to advice and guidance, the pharmacy has also created a supplements pack designed to support women going through the menopause and they do a lot of signposting and referring from the clinic to GPs.
“Pharmacies are so well placed to offer these kinds of services. There are all kinds of conditions where the service could be initiated in pharmacy and where we can follow up with the GP if needed,” explained Harvie.
“We are much more accessible and we know patients are really struggling to access appointments with GPs. With a pharmacy you can just walk in and be seen without an appointment and even when we do have to put in place an appointments system you can still be seen by the pharmacy quickly.”
He said that while community pharmacies could already offer the contraception service and period delay service as part of Pharmacy First, he believed they could also be better utilised to support women who were at the other end of the reproductive cycle.
Looking to the Future
“I think longer term I would like to see the service we are delivering here move from a private service to a commissioned service. There is definitely demand for it and that is something we can support with. We could be more involved in prescribing treatments for vaginal atrophy for example. Or we could be used to carry out reviews where we monitor the patient on their menopause medication, checking their blood pressure and whether they are having any issues and reporting back to the GP as appropriate,” said Harvie.
Harvie said while most pharmacies have seen an increase in prescriptions for HRT over the last few years, he was not aware of many other Scottish pharmacies currently offering the service they provided.
“We certainly identified a gap that we could fill in our local area,” he said.
By working collaboratively with GPs and the wider NHS, Scottish Pharmacy has the potential to improve access to menopause care, empower women to make informed decisions about their health and help ensure that no woman feels she has to navigate menopause or perimenopause alone.
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