Women left 'feeling suicidal' amid supply shortage of drug used to treat symptoms of the menopause

Women has reportedly been left feeling suicidal due to a shortage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) which is used to treat debilitating symptoms of the menopause.

It comes as many women have admitted sharing their prescriptions, trading it in car parks and buying it from abroad, as the lack of available medication is said to have left them feeling 'desperate.'

The Health Secretary has now announced he intends to appoint a hormone replacement therapy tsar, as he told the Mail on Sunday he was "determined" to make sure supplies were meeting the high demand.

READ MORE:Mum forced into early menopause by cervical cancer treatment

Recent figures suggest the number of HRT prescriptions in the UK has more doubled in the last five years but stocks are running low, with one manufacturer of a commonly-used hormone replacement gel reporting supply problems.

"I will be urgently convening a meeting with suppliers to look at ways we can work together to improve supply in the short and long term," said Sajid Javid. "It's also clear to me that we need to apply some of the lessons from the vaccine taskforce to this challenge, so we will soon be recruiting for an HRT supply chairperson."

Ministers have blamed increased demand and Covid-related global supply problems for the shortages. But Labour MP Carolyn Harris, who co-chairs the UK menopause taskforce, said the Department of Health had to take responsibility.

She told the BBC that "women take their own lives out of the anger and the frustration and the insecurity and anxiety" they suffer from being without the medication.

"I welcome the Secretary of State’s intervention on this. There are a lot of women relying on him to improve the current situation. We should never have been in