All women aged 45 and over should be offered a free NHS menopause health check, MPs have said.

The cross-party All-Party Parliamentary Group on Menopause (APPG) said far more needs to be done to help women and offer advice, including making HRT prescriptions free on the NHS and improving training for medics on symptoms.

Its new report said: “The NHS must implement a health check for all women at the age of 45, offered in a similar way to cervical cancer smears when all women are invited to make an appointment.

“This is crucial to ensure women are engaged with the health system ahead of or in the early stages of perimenopause, help diagnose menopause at an earlier stage and ensure women are better prepared, and have the right information and treatment they need to manage the menopause transition.”

Men and women are already offered a free NHS health check once they hit 40 but that specifically looks for early signs of stroke, heart disease, diabetes or dementia.

In its new study, the APPG said one of its central concerns is that women face a postcode lottery on whether they can access the right treatment from their GP.

The APPG’s year-long inquiry heard from a woman who suspected she was perimenopausal aged 39 was turned away by her GP and told to “wait and see”.

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Some 18 months later she said she was “almost at the verge of collapsing, struggling to keep my usually happy marriage on track and not functioning well physically or mentally”.

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HRT to be sold over-the-counter without prescription for first time

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