by The clinic’s email response included a price list and made it clear that she would have to pay for any follow-up appointments.
Rachel responded that she had had several consultations at Newson Health, her symptoms had gotten worse and she had been struggling. As a courtesy, she says, they gave her a free ten-minute phone call with a pharmacist.
Ultimately, she says she went to her GP, who eventually referred her to a team of NHS specialists who diagnosed her with endometrial hyperplasia – a change in the lining of the womb, which can lead to cancer.
Prof. Janice Rymer, consultant gynecologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust – and chair of the BMS – believes Rachel’s uterine changes were due to her treatment by Newson Health.
“I have never prescribed that dose of estrogen to anyone, and that dose of progesterone would not have been enough to counteract the effect of estrogen on the lining of her uterus.”
One of the former Newson Health doctors Panorama spoke to said she felt the solution to the reported problems “has always been to prescribe HRT or increase the dose of oestrogen”.
Another told us they believed Dr. Newson had changed the face of menopause care “for the better” – but they wished she would “pause and think, accept help and work together for the overall better health of women in the future”.
Newson Health told us it “strongly refutes” the “characterizations” of the former doctors we spoke to. It says it has a “responsible audit practice” to ensure “patient safety and consistent levels of care”.
It also said it “would not comment on individual cases” but uses a “shared decision-making framework” as provided by NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – and “adheres to the GMC guidance on decision-making and consent”.
Rachel, who continues to suffer from debilitating symptoms of menopause, is slowly reducing her dose of estrogen in the hope that this will reduce the thickening of her uterus and in turn reduce the risk of cancer.
If that doesn’t work, she has been told she may need a hysterectomy.
“I’m scared,” she says. “Although I want to get it over and done with, you know, a hysterectomy is not an easy operation.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Anderson
