Doctor Menopause Guru: UK edition

A BBC Panorama documentary takes on high-dose estrogen prescribing

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When I use the term Doctor Menopause Guru, it's a cheeky reference to those few doctors who have soared in popularity and profile after entering the menopause conversation.

It's fun, but it's also serious. 

Because DMGs talk about hormone therapy a lot. And hormone therapy is a powerful intervention that comes with risks and side effects, even if it’s becoming increasingly unfashionable to talk about them.

DMGs have captured the conversation with charm, hard work, social media savvy and lots and lots of PR. They have a legion of adoring, unquestioning fans, including most of the media and more and more, big bro podcast hosts, too.

Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the UK. Britain’s menopause doctor, the OG DMG Dr Louise Newson, runs a chain of private menopause clinics through her company Newson Health (£295 for a consult). There is a charity (one goal is to rebrand menopause as a female hormone deficiency syndrome), an app, documentary series, and regular television and radio appearances. Several bestselling books too, including the most recent, The Definitive Guide to Perimenopause and Menopause. Dr Newson is the go-to expert in Britain for menopause and hormone therapy. She also has in her orbit a circle of celebrities who were in her care, including perhaps the most prominent, presenter and menopause activist Davina McCall.

Image courtesy of IG and Dr Katie Harper; from British Menopause Society Guidelines on Management of unscheduled bleeding on hormone replacement therapy (HRT)

An entire ecosystem seems to have sprung up around Dr Newson. Some of the people I have become friendly with through social media are in it – and have also become successful in their own ventures.

Undoubtedly Dr Newson has helped thousands of women, and worked tirelessly to advance this conversation and make lasting change. She might have done more than anyone in the world to progress the issue. 

But as a BBC Panorama documentary presented by the investigative journalist Kirsty Wark that screened last night revealed, her clinics have also been the target of allegations of high-dose hormone therapy prescribing.

In the programme we learned: