Hormonal replacement therapy prescribing in menopausal women in the UK: A descriptive study

BACKGROUND: Recent studies on the prescribing of hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) medicines to treat symptoms of menopause are lacking. AIM: To describe the prescribing of HRT in a cohort of UK menopausal women. DESIGN & SETTING: Population-based drug utilization study using IQVIA Medical Research Database. METHOD: Primary care data of women with recorded menopause and/or 50 years and older between January 2010 and November 2021 were extracted from the database. The incidence rate (IR) of women who received their first prescription for HRT was calculated annually using person-years at risk (PYAR) as the denominator. IRs of HRT were estimated by type and route of administration. Relative changes in annual IR were expressed as percentages and the average percentage change was assessed using linear regression. Annual prescribing prevalence per 100 women was calculated using mid-year menopausal population estimates. RESULTS: The IR of prescribing of HRT increased from 5.01 in 2010-18.16 per 1000 PYAR in 2021, a relative increase of 13.64% (95% CI 6.97-20.30) per year. IR of fixed combinations of HRT increased from 3.33 to 12.23 per 1000 PYAR in 2010 and 2021, respectively. Transdermal formulations of HRT increased from 1.48 to 14.55 per 1000 PYAR in 2010 and 2021, respectively. The overall proportion of women in receipt of a prescription for HRT changed from 7.89% in 2010 to 6.8% in 2020. CONCLUSION: Our study shows steady increase in the number of women receiving their first prescription for HRT during the study period which suggests regained acceptance of HRT medicines