The clinical lead of the Complex Menopause Clinic at the National Maternity Hospital has said the Government's free HRT scheme for women should have focused on cutting consultancy costs.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, Dr Deirdre Lundy said HRT "was never that expensive" to buy in pharmacies.
"I'm very happy that we have something to offer patients and consumers, but I have to say at the time I said 'one of the cheapest things you can buy in the pharmacy is HRT’.
"It was never that expensive. So, if real input wanted to be made in cutting costs for patients, it should have been at a consultation level.
"HRT products are actually quite reasonable for the most part," she said.
Hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, is a treatment that involves taking hormones to address menopausal symptoms, and which can help to manage related health conditions.
Pharmacies started providing free HRT for women from 1 June last year after an agreement with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill the previous month.
Dr Lundy said that the scheme should have been modelled on the free contraception scheme for women aged 17-35.
"That's an amazing scheme. It's comprehensive. You get two consultations a year, you get to talk about choices, you can go off to the pharmacy, try this or try that.
"And that's really the way the menopause care ideally should have been rolled out," she said.
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Dr Lundy also said that while the average GP visit lasts between 10-15 minutes, menopause consultations are rarely shorter than 30 minutes.
"I've been doing this for over 35 years. I can't get out of a first menopause consultation in less than 30 minutes.
"So you are taking up two, three and maybe more visits when you have a proper, thorough menopause talk," Dr Lundy said.
"All the fact finding takes three quarters of the time and it eats into the time we have for information provision and talking about, ‘do you want to use products? Do you want to try this? Do you want to try that?’
"Getting a little preliminary work done is a genius idea. But again, who has time for that? Because you've got your nurses running around doing all the vaccines and the chronic disease management," she said.
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The Department of Health has said that menopause has consistently been highlighted as a key priority area by the Women's Health Taskforce and is a key action in Women’s Health Action Plans.
"The Programme for Government commits to transforming women’s health which includes ensuring that the planned rollout of free Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) medicines is available at no cost for the drug/product. This arrangement came into effect on 1 June 2025.
"A number of measures have been implemented in recent years to improve the experience of menopause for women in Ireland, including the Free HRT Arrangement.
"This measure is intended to support the management of the symptoms of menopause and it relates to the provision of treatment for the symptoms of a specific medical condition/life stage."
The Department of Health also said that where a woman has been prescribed a HRT product by her healthcare provider for the purpose of alleviating the symptoms associated with all stages of menopause, the cost of the HRT medications, and the dispensing fees are met by the State.
"The allocation secured by the Minister for Health for this measure allowed the State to cover the cost of HRT medications and pharmacist professional dispensing fees. The cost of GP consultation fees are not included in the Free HRT Arrangement.
"Women with medical cards and GP visit cards continue to receive their GP care for free with this eligibility, including any menopause-related appointments. As private practitioners GPs are free to set charges for their services," the statement added.
