Kate Rodger is one of New Zealand’s top entertainment journalists and film critics, who recently started a film-focused Substack. We asked her to write about Pharmac’s decision to change its funding for menopause HRT patches, after she posted about it on Instagram.
OPINION: Way to enrage the already RAGED. When shocked Auckland pharmacist Sam called me on Tuesday, she was not happy. The only brand of estrogen patches that work for me, and thousands of other peri and menopausal New Zealand women, would not be available from late next year. Pharmac had announced it would no longer be funding the brand Estradot, instead opting for the brand Mylan.
This, from a Pharmac email advisory sent to Sam and other pharmacists across the country: “Estradiol TDP Mylan will be the only funded brand of oestradiol patches from 1 December 2025”.
For context, Estradot is as close to the gold standard as we can get on the hormone-fuelled menopausal battlefield. The patches stick to the skin as they should, they don’t irritate it and they evenly and efficiently disperse sanity-saving doses of estrogen to desperate women.
Mylan? Mylan is the Teflon of patches; nothing sticks and they stick to nothing, especially not to women’s abdomens. During the Great Patch Shortage of 2023/24, along with a horde of other hormonal wāhine, I was forced to resort to Mylan patches. And they were as useless as a chocolate teapot in a sauna.
I’ve personally spoken with dozens of women online and face-to-face who have been let down by this patch, and I know there are thousands more across the country. Not only does it not stick to the skin but, for many of us, it can also leave an irritating and itchy rash.
melaniehomer: Agree with the falling off! Sweat a little bit or swim and they are gone!!
moggie39: OMG why? That one just falls off and then cue the spotting 😵💫
bundlejoy.cosysweet: Funding the only patch which has a poor distribution method… So the oestrogen levels fluctuate wildly… Causing horrific symptoms. Unbelievable.
contentmentnz: It’s akin to funding just one type of anti-biotic. Doesn’t agree with everyone - we need a range. Just another women’s heath fck up.
doctor.k._: We need to revolt ! Ludicrous!
I am so here for that: “We need to revolt”- ha ha! We ride at dawn ;)
For argument’s sake: let's say, for those women across the motu who are lucky enough to be able to afford it, they can simply stick to their Estradot guns and opt to pay up to $40 a month at least for an Estradot prescription.
When I put that to Sam, oh-the-horror-the-horror really hit home. By committing to Mylan as the only Pharmac funded option for women, Sam told me there’s no guarantee the company who manufactures Estradot – Novartis Pharmaceuticals – would even bother to ship to New Zealand. It would be a purely commercial decision and if the volume isn’t worth their while, why would they bother?
So, what are our options? The shite Mylan brand, or maybe consider switching to the gel? The gel is now funded and I hear good things? The downside is it’s a daily application and a messy one. But at least it sticks, and seems to dish out a good dose of the good stuff.
Sam and many other pharmacists across Aotearoa have been at the coal-face of the patch panic, bearing witness to worried women at their wit’s end, let down by a systemic indifference to our pain, our health and our wellbeing.
FFS, is this honestly the best we can do for our menopausal women? Is this what we’ve been campaigning and fighting for these past few years? Instead, it’s just another big kick in the flaps in the fight for the funding of women’s healthcare.
-
Editor's note: Jenna Lynch reports that a petition has been launched asking the government to reverse this decision. In a statement to Stuff, Pharmac did not answer questions about how much money the brand switch would save.
David Seymour, the minister responsible for Pharmac, told Lynch he plans to raise the decision to switch estrogen patch suppliers with the drug buying agency at his next meeting. “I expect Pharmac to have a renewed focus on talking to and partnering with patients that was in my expectation letter. I’m aware of some of the commentary particularly online that the new patches can be itchy or fall off and I intend to raise that with Pharmac at my next meeting with them,” he told Stuff.
