This is the Guardian. It's something half the population will go through at some point in their lives, the menopause.

Right, it's recording now.

This is Sarah from Brighton. Like many, at first she didn't have an easy time.

Just extreme tiredness, huge brain fog, really just feeling underwater all the time and not coping.

Eventually, she found a treatment to help hormone replacement therapy also known as HRT.

Oh my gosh I'm a different person I'm I'm back to how I was and I find it it's amazing because I've got so much energy and I'm myself again.

But lots of people in the UK are now struggling to get hold of the medication they need, including Sarah.

I went to my local chemist pharmacy and they said we can give you the tablets but we've got no

Easter gel so we can't help you with that.

So I said okay when will you get some in stock and she said oh I don't know I've got a

waiting list of lots of ladies there's a national shortage.

The menopause without the HRT was such a dramatic effect

on my mental health as well as physical, that it's a huge concern for myself and everyone else that's on the HRT, if we can't

get it.

It's going to have a massive impact on many, many people mentally as well as physically. And I think that's just an awful thing and it can't be

allowed to happen it's an outrage. So what's causing this shortage of HRT and

what's being done to fix it.

From the Guardian, I'm you've been writing about the

shortages of particular common forms of HRT like Easter gel, a hormonal gel that you put on your skin.

So where is this happening and is it a problem across the whole of the UK?

It seems to be that certain parts of the UK affected more than others,

but it certainly seems to be a problem that many, many women are facing.

...