McManus to consult doctor about continuing treatment

LABOUR Party deputy leader Liz McManus will be among the thousands of women consulting her GP about her HRT treatment.

Like a lot of women taking HRT, she has concerns after a study found it doubles the risk of breast cancer and will be taking her doctor's advice on whether she should continue with her treatment.

The 56-year-old Wicklow TD, who is married to a GP and is party spokesperson on health, is one of around 65,000 women who has benefited from taking HRT to relieve symptoms of the menopause.

Ms McManus has been taking HRT for five years and visits her local GP every six months to have her treatment assessed.

Ms McManus, who has a propensity towards osteoporosis, takes HRT through a special skin patch and it has worked extremely well for her.

“I was getting hot flushes that affected me noticeably. I was just not functioning properly and feeling quite down,” she said.

Her menopausal symptoms were considered serious enough to be treated with HRT and she proved to be the ideal candidate.

“HRT is wonderful for me and no doubt it is for other people as well, but, at the same time, everything carries a risk and you have to be sensible about it.”

Ms McManus also knows women who were not suitable HRT candidates because of the side effects.

“At the end of the day, it is up to women themselves to decide whether the treatment is suitable for them. I am a great believer in choice and doctors are informing themselves all the time about the side effects of medications and treatments.”

Ms McManus also has her breasts screened regularly. She is angry that the national breast screening programme, BreastCheck, is still not available countrywide.

BreastCheck is Ireland’s national breast screening programme.

It is aimed at the early detection and treatment of breast cancer and Ms McManus, who was recently screened under the programme, was very impressed with it.

“It is mostly older women like me who are on HRT and they are a group that should be protected. The fact that we don’t have breast cancer screening in large tracts of the country is a real scandal.”

Last March, Health Minister Micheál Martin announced the full expansion of the programme nationwide.

This will include the establishment of permanent screening facilities in Cork and Galway to cover the southern and western areas respectively.

It is expected that screening activities in the west and the south will commence from mid-2005.