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Insulin / silly MP

D

Draco16

Well-Known Member
Messages
182
Type of diabetes
Type 1
“For a menopausal woman this HRT is as important as insulin is to a diabetic.” - Carolyn Harris MP

Reading about the current shortage of HRT for menopausal women in the UK, I was surprised to learn that before HRT was discovered that all women died within weeks of entering the menopause...

Or maybe another example of most of our MPs - from all sides - not having a clue about important topics that they should have some knowledge of before expressing grotesque misinformation...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-carolyn-harris-penny-lancaster-b2064630.html
 
I saw this and was annoyed by the ignorance too. The consequences of not have HRT and a type 1 not having insulin are NOT comparable. Not every menopausal woman uses HRT either, the same as not every diabetic uses insulin (me and most type 2 for example)
 
Wasn't the context where HRT is prescribed to those women who are hit so hard by menopause they are at risk of becoming suicidal? In which case HRT literally is life saving?

I haven't heard the program, or read a transcript of it so I'm not sure, but it's very easy to pull quotes out of context, and a short quote is all your link provides.
 

No. Though even if it were, only a fraction of women would become suicidal if HRT was removed, and then only a tiny tiny fraction of people who are suicidal commit suicide. Versus 100% of insulin dependent diabetics who would be 100% dead.

She's said it several times, I heard her on BBC Radio 4 Today programme on 25th April. It's on BBC Sounds, at about the 51m 30s mark. It's even more horrifc when you hear her say her moronic thoughts aloud...

(The conversation before this is on general menoposause awareness).
"I have been quoted as saying that losing this hormone is not unlike losing your insulin prescription and people get offended by that, but its the truth, its the truth. For a menopausal women this HRT is as important as insulin is to a diabetic".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0016pj1
 
Thank you for the link!
I won't listen to it today, as it's 3 hours long and it's close to midnight here, but hopefully I'll find the time tomorrow.

If it's not a pulled out of context quote, I fully agree with you.
 
My GP was horrified when I said I had gone through menopause but couldn't give her the exact date.
'I never noticed, it only dawned on me after some time must have passed' I told her, to her total incredulity.
'Surely it is in your diary?'
No - but I have been asked for the date several times since and the same astonishment that I never noticed nor really cared.
I am sure that some women feel awful and benefit greatly from HRT, but it is certainly not like that for everyone.
 
Yes, for me the menopause happened while I was busy getting on with life. Looking back I did have symptoms like some of the women on TV but would never have dreamt of going to my GP for help or taking HRT to combat them. My own brain fog improved with a low catb diet, it's a pity GPs don't advise more natural methods of coping with symptoms. I guess I was at an advantage as my GP frequently refused to help with my recurrent chest infections, so it didn't enter my head that he would bother to help with symptoms like itchy legs!

I agree with you totally @Draco16 , I too was shocked to hear the comparison.
 
Not in the article I read (always possible there was more said than reported I guess). https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1600888/hrt-shortage-uk-sajid-javid-healthcare-latest

I’m not suggesting it isn’t very important to those women struggling badly with symptoms. Just that it’s hardly comparable to insulin in type 1 which is 100% essential to life for all of you. To my mind it whilst supportive of women health rights (which is certainly needed) it was pretty ignorant of diabetes, implied women can’t survive menopause without these drugs and a badly chosen comparison.
 
I am an insulin junkie and a 51 year old woman so I find this pretty irritating too. There seems to be a concerted campaign fronted by Davina McColl and a prominent female doctor to re badge the menopause as Oestrogen Deficiency Syndrome.
This has been effective because many women have requested HRT and are now agitated that their supplies are in peril but no they won't be going into comas and dying. Therefore the women commenting on this in the media should be a lot more careful with their analogies whilst being sympathetic to the unpleasant and even debilitating symptoms suffered by peri and menopausal women.
 
NicoleC1971 said:
There seems to be a concerted campaign fronted by Davina McColl and a prominent female doctor to re badge the menopause as Oestrogen Deficiency Syndrome.
.
Click to expand...

I agree. I prefer the label Natural Aging. It happens and it's perfectly possible to get through it without unnatural intervention.

I agree that for some the effects are debilitating, but I was shocked that HRT was prescribed in many mild cases.

There are natural ways to increase Oestrogen through diet, those most of the foods wouldn't be compatible with a low carb diet.
 
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I was lucky to never have to go down the HRT route as regards terrible problems. However, with everything I’ve since read and heard I would take it now anyway. It helps with joint problems going forwards amongst many other issues. I regret not taking it.
Having said that any person without insulin will die quite quickly. Although some women may be Ill or even commit suicide without access to HRT. I doubt there will be a wave of deaths.
 
Thanks all. What I find particularly egregious is that given she is in a privileged position and has a platform:
1. she never researched first was it a good comparision
2. after saying it on previous occasions she chooses to just dismiss those diabetics who tried to help her understand as the 'offended'.
3. and even at this point she can't be bothered to spend 5 minutes researching it herself if she doesn't believe them. And then retract her previous assertion and apologise.

Instead she now absolutely insists she is telling the truth and continues to repeat it!
£84,144 per annum for this fool.

Aside from insulting all diabetics, I hope no especially vulnerable insulin users (mental health struggles, diabulmics, newly diagnosed, etc) hear her nonsense and believe that they can forego insulin as its not really essential.

(PS - i'm not diminishing the requirement for HRT amongst those who need / want it, just her anology is extremely crass and her abuse of position/platform is appalling).
 
It's half a lifetime ago now but I certainly don't remember suffering any menopausal symptoms, apart from a slight tendency to get short term memory blocks - mainly over names.
 
I went through the menopause 5 times and had a bad time with all of them ( 3 were medical menopauses caused by treatment for endometriosis) - I only got HRT a couple of weeks after a hysterectomy as the others were intentional pauses to my cycle.
But as bad as losing insulin for insulin dependent diabetics? Never.
 
I wrote an irate email saying I didn't realise there was a 100% death rate for women who didn't receive HRT. This is the answer I got back
"
Thank you for your email regarding recent media activity on the current HRT shortages.
I note your concerns with the comparison made to insulin for diabetics and would like to assure you that my intention was never to cause offence or upset.
The point I was trying to make was that in the same way that diabetics require insulin to replace a hormone that their body does not naturally produce, women need HRT to replace the hormones that they become deficient in during the menopause.
My intention was not to compare the necessity of the two, nor the outcomes for those who do not take the medication.

Please accept my sincere apologies for any upset caused.
"
A bit generic, so I think this is probably a standard reply formulated by someone with a better grasp of the facts.
 

I think you’ll find that it’s the husbands of the menopausal women who are dying due to the lack of HRT…..



(Well, if my peri menopausal rage levels are anything to go by…)

But yes, agree, totally daft statement to make. Flippin politicians.
 
Carolyn Harris MP - Welsh Labour, former barmaid & dinner lady, known to make homophonic remarks, once involved in an assault case in which she was the assailant, invited a convicted criminal to speak at a parliamentary event who was eventually convicted of theft of donations to a cancer charity, sacked as PPS to Keir Starmer …… IQ of a flip-flop …. nuff said !
 

It certainly does sound like she has some dodgy things about her, but *please* don’t use the fact that she was a former barmaid and dinner lady against her. We need more MPs who have the backgrounds of normal working people. Being a dinner lady is nothing to be ashamed of.
 
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