Some male MPs trying to raise awareness of the UK's acute shortage of hormone replacement therapy HRT products have been described as "volcanic and very uncomfortable."
Wes Streeting, Stephen Kinnock and Nick Thomas-Symonds were among the politicians who tried out a device fitted with heated pads that mimics one of the most common and unpleasant symptoms.
The former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith said he was feeling this on his back, a few seconds after putting the vest on. Imagine making a speech in the House of Commons and getting a hot flush. If men had this, we d be complaining a lot. If you pass out, we have got water, said Carolyn Harris MP, co-chair of the menopause taskforce, who sponsored the event at Portcullis House in Westminster on Tuesday to drum up support for measures to help the HRT products shortage. I don't need the vest to be hot and bothered. A surge in demand for HRT drugs in recent months has resulted in widespread shortages of products, forcing some women to shop for HRT products in carparks or online at hugely inflated prices.
The shadow health secretary said after trying on the vest: It's deeply unpleasant and an enveloping heat. Kinnock, shadow minister for immigration, described it as a very intense kind of heat and an internal feeling, not like being warmed by the sun, but almost volcanic inside The vest was developed by Over the Bloody Moon, a group that provides advice on menopause to companies and individuals, and funded by London-based Theramex, one of the biggest makers of HRT products in the UK.
One in 10 women leave their jobs due to electric pads that recreate the sudden creep of heat that many women will experience.
The menopause is an economic issue, as it forces some women out of the workforce and leaves others less productive, according to MPs who tried it on, including Tory Tim Loughton and SNP s Allan Dorans. Duncan Smith said that it should be an economic slam dunk to make sure women get the help and support they need.
Harris and other campaigners want to make sure all women who need them have access to the right HRT products.
Harris wrote to health secretary Sajid Javid last week to reiterate the importance of this, as the British Menopause Society and the British Menopause Society have been calling for a national formulary of approved HRT drugs that would make it easier for doctors and pharmacists to prescribe them.
The government allowed pharmacists to prescribe other HRT drugs to women when the ones they were prescribed by their GP were not available, but Harris said this appeared to have had little effect. More than 300 women had contacted them on social media saying they were still struggling to get the products they needed.
Streeting said that women are having to go private. It is outrageous for something so common like the menopause. Lesley Salem, founder of Over the Bloody Moon, said that hot flushes are one of the three symptoms that affect the lives of menopausal women disrupting sleep, increasing levels of anxiety and often affecting women's performance at work.