More women are seeking treatment for symptoms of menopause and perimenopause, driving a shortage of estrogen patches, one of the most commonly used forms of hormone therapy.

As Stephanie Syre reports, manufacturers are struggling to keep up with demand, leaving many women to manage a range of difficult symptoms with little relief in sight.

Jeff, while there are multiple reasons for the shortage, rising demand is at least partly to blame.

The popularity of estrogen patches has been surging for several years.

And awareness has grown since last year when the Food and Drug Administration lifted a 20-year-old black box warning on estrogen

that overstated the risks of hormone therapy. We spoke to women across the country who are

impacted by the shortage. Here's some of what they told us. Hi, my name is Nicole Stark,

and I've been on a HRT patch since April of 2025. I had originally talked with my doctor, like I said, back in April.

She thought it was a good idea for me then to try something out as a very low dose.

The very first time I put that prescription through, no issue, totally fine.

She had put me through for a three-month trial kind of and I checked back in with her.

It was at that second, I guess, refill or the first refill at that point, that I kind of knew

that something was going to be up.

My name is Trevia Mance and I have only been using the patch for six months.

Because the patch is new for me, missing was a problem.

And I actually ended up missing two doses.

My name is Michelle Pearls.

I've been on the patch for less than one year.

When I started getting these particular patches, which are twice weekly patches,

there were delays in being able to get

the medication, and I was not able to get three boxes at a time, which is what we're supposed

to be getting pursuant to our insurance policy through Aetna. Sometimes I was able to get one

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