Penny Lancaster has issued an impassioned plea over menopause and the ongoing HRT studio as she appeared on an interview on The News Desk for TalkTV.
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The Loose Women star has long been an advocate for better education around menopause, and Penny was making an appearance on the show after the government announced plans to ration HRT medication, so that women could only be prescribed for three months at a time. Speaking about the high demand, the star explained: "The demand for HRT is because of the confidence women now have, after a lot of campaigning after the last two or three years, we're not sort of shying away from it."
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She added that women were no longer "embarrassed" about talking about menopause and felt empowered to "demand" the medication from doctors.
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She went on to say that she felt it should just be a "tick box with simple symptoms" in order to get the drug prescribed.
Penny then made an impassioned plea for the medication to be offered for free, saying: "I believe men can get hold of Viagra for free, so their hormones are being looked after.
"And women play a vital role in the workplace, and so many women are having to lose their jobs and walk away from very high profile positions, you know, just where men and women are in that position in their career, where they could be promoted and become CEOs of companies and very talented women of being lost."
© Photo: RexPenny has previously opened up about her experiences
Penny has spoken openly about her experience with the menopause and how it has impacted both her and husband, Sir Rod Stewart.
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"The menopause freaked me out at first," she explained in an interview with HELLO! "I thought: 'This is the end of the road. I'm not going to have any more sex appeal, I'm not going to be as lenient or forgiving.' I've got to say goodbye to the old Penny and say hello to the new one. I felt it was all shutting down around me."
© Photo: InstagramPenny married Rod in 2007
"I spoke to a doctor who put me on anti-depressants, which levelled things out, but although symptoms of the menopause can be mistaken for depression, this wasn't the right treatment for the condition – it was just a form of plaster that covered it up," she continued.
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"It wasn't until I spoke to a specialist that I started taking HRT. She was a woman who'd been through it and knew what she was talking about. She reached out and pulled me to the other side!
"Now that I'm on HRT it's like a fresh start. Not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter," Penny concluded.
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