WHEN THE FORMER health minister Stephen Donnelly announced last October that women who have been prescribed Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) would no longer have to pay for the medicine, it was widely welcomed. 

Under the new measure, the HRT products would be free – but unlike the free contraception scheme, women would still have to pay for their GP visit and for the pharmacist’s

The scheme was due to be rolled out from January. However, it has yet to be implemented, with women continuing to pay for their medicines two months later.

When the January deadline passed, the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) said there had been a lack of communication from the Department about how the scheme would be implemented. 

While Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has since met with the IPU about how to implement the scheme, pharmacists have told The Journal that there is still no fixed date for when the scheme will come into effect. 

They also said there is no IT system in place to reimbursement pharmacists for the cost of the medicines, and they have yet to receive a list of medications that would be included under the scheme.

We want to hear from you

With this in mind, we want to hear from women who have been affected by the delay in the scheme for our Your Stories series, which collects and publishes readers’ own stories. 

• How has the delay affected you?
• Have you ever struggled to pay for the cost of your medicine?
• Have you been affected by the supply issues affecting HRT products?
• Are there any other problems surrounding HRT products that you’d like to share with us? 

Give us a shout at The Journal by emailing answers@thejournal.ie and telling us about your experience in a paragraph or two (around 200-250 words). We will reflect your stories in a forthcoming article.

Please tell us your name, age and county, or let us know if you would like your name to not be published.