Pharmacist-initiated menopause clinic

INITIATIVES around menopause management are firmly in the spotlight this year, with millions of dollars allocated in federal budget spending and the listing of new HRT treatments on the PBS (PD 10 Feb).

Priceline has developed its Anything Menopause program, set to launch in Sep (PD 29 May), and other major pharmacy groups have told Pharmacy Daily they are planning to launch their own menopause programs in the near future.

Helping people right now, however, is Bo Youn Kim (pictured), a clinical pharmacist from Perth, who has established a private menopause consultancy service called EmpowerHer Menopause.

As well as running face-to-face clinics two days a week, she also provides a telehealth consultations, and with links to clinicians associated with menopause and healthy ageing peak body, the Australasian Menopause Society (AMS), now helps women around the country.

Kim spoke to Pharmacy Daily about what inspired the initiative.

“I was working as a hospital pharmacist, and experienced menopause symptoms at the relatively young age of 41,” Kim said.

She described a period of nine months of seeing several doctors, being misdiagnosed, having requests for HRT denied, and being given hormonal contraceptives to manage some symptoms.

Finally, after seeing an AMS-listed doctor, she was prescribed HRT, and said she felt “so much better”.

But it was patients she saw in the course of her work at Fremantle Hospital, women experiencing debilitating menopausal symptoms who she felt could potentially benefit from HRT, that convinced Kim she had to do something.

Doctors are often reluctant to prescribe HRT, especially in a hospital setting, she explained.

And while there are specialist menopause clinics and GPs with a special interest in menopause popping up, services in Perth are booked out for many months ahead and often not taking new patients.

The fee for the first appointment is also quite high – often in the order of $300 to $400.

“It’s a great service for women because they go through everything thoroughly, and treat the patient holistically,” Kim said.

“But I felt that was just too long for women to wait, and too expensive, and thinking about how I could help these people, I decided to set up my own private clinic.

“I could do the consultation, I could assess them and then I could refer the patient to GPs and nurse practitioners who were happy to receive my referral.”

Mindful of the many products attempting to cash in on the menopause market, Kim sticks to an evidence-based approach to menopause symptom management and healthy ageing, in line with the latest AMS information.

Apart from discussing HRT, she explains how to get an adequate protein intake, talks about the importance of exercise, and may also recommend vitamin D and magnesium supplements.

Pharmacists who are interested in learning more about how to help patients manage menopause should join the Australian GP-led initiative Healthy Hormones, which provides professional education around menopause, Kim suggested.

She also pointed to the International Menopause Society, which has resources in multiple languages that pharmacists can print out and provide to patients.

When asked if she would recommend other pharmacists start a menopause clinic, the answer was an unequivocal yes – “the more the merrier”. KB