Irish Examiner View: Influential women highlighting important issues

Davina McCall's Channel 4 programme on menopause last year sparked an increase in demand for hormone replacement therapy in Britain. Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

There’s a reason that charities and corporations try hard to win what has become known as “influencers” to their cause. It’s because they can have a huge impact.

In some cases, it’s of limited importance — creating demand for a little-known herb or spice used in the latest creation by a celebrity chef, for example — while in others, it’s profound.

Demand for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) among British women increased by 30% in the month after the broadcast of Channel 4’s Davina McCall: Sex, Myths, and the Menopause in May last year. In the second half of 2021 orders rose by 130% causing months of supply problems and reports of women struggling to work or sleep because of prescription shortages. 

The number of prescriptions for HRT in England now stands at 500,000 per month with HRT gels or patches that are applied to the skin prescribed more frequently than tablets.

A second McCall documentary is scheduled for early May and suppliers expect this to lead to further increases in demand. Further than two in 10 women with the menopause currently use HRT.