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Postcode lottery of menopause care revealed

In October 2022, we revealed a postcode lottery in terms of the amount of money NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) spend per woman aged 45-60 on common hormone replacement therapy (HRT) treatments.

Analysis of NHS prescription data shows some local health boards spent three times the amount per woman on Hormonal Replacement Therapy (HRT) than others.

Experts said the treatment options offered by some local health boards were "very limited".

The government said women's health was at the top of its agenda.

Methodology

  • The BBC's Shared Data Unit analysed how much Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) spent on common HRT treatments between April 2021 and June 2022.

  • We also analysed British Menopauyse Society data on NHS and private menopause clinic locations in the UK. We scraped this data with permission from the BMS's 'find a specialist' tool.

What we found

  • Analysis showed the highest rate of spending was West Suffolk where £14.10 was spent per woman aged 45 to 60. That compared to £5.56 spent in Leicester City.

  • And further analysis of British Menopause Society data showed 59% of Clinical Commissioning Group areas (CCGs) in England had no NHS clinics, including all of Devon and Cornwall and large areas in the North. The data also showed almost a third of existing NHS clinics were either in London or Surrey.

Get the data

We produced this story pack and this dataset with analysis of NHS Enland prescription data and data on menopause clinic loacations throughout the UK.

We also produced this website allowing our regional news partners to easily access information for their local area.

Partner usage

The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to the wider news industry as part of the BBC Local News Partnership. Stories written by partners based on this research included:

BBC usage

Nations and Regions TV packages:

  • BBC West Midlands
  • BBC North East
  • BBC East Midlands
  • BBC South Today (Oxford)
  • BBC South Today (Southampton)

Local radio two-ways:

  • BBC Cornwall
  • BBC Cumbria
  • BBC Devon
  • BBC Lancashire
  • BBC Newcastle
  • BBC Oxford
  • BBC Shropshire
  • BBC Surrey

About

Our investigation uncovered a postcode lottery in HRT provision across the country

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