A dedicated menopause clinic has opened at the National Maternity Hospital

The clinic is the first of its kind in Ireland.

A clinic dedicated to menopause care at the National Maternity Hospital is being hailed as the first of its kind after it officially opened at the end of last year. The clinic was established following a recommendation from the Women’s Health Taskforce, established by the Department of Health in 2019 to improve the standard of women’s healthcare. Additionally, as RTÉ reports, a further three dedicated menopause clinics are expected to be opened throughout the country this year. However, the clinic is currently only taking patients from the National Maternity Hospital's catchment area, and only patients who have other medical issues. During RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr Deirdre Lundy, who is the clinic's lead and a specialist in women's health, spoke about the dedicated centre, and the kind of issues it deals with. She said: "We're only taking people from our catchment area, and only people who unfortunately have other medical problems, comorbidities we call them, that make it less straightforward for their GP or their practice nurse to give them advice. "These would be people who've had certain types of cancer, heart disease, blood clots, immunological problems, like HIV, where there might be hurdles to the normal hormone prescriptions that GPs would typically offer women in the perimenopause and menopause." Dr Lundy added that the majority of women who go through menopause "struggle sometimes to get answers". For instance, just last year, research carried out by Lloyd's Pharmacy found that three quarters of Irish women don't feel prepared for menopause, while 50% don't seek treatment for their menopause symptoms. Additionally, 55% of women say that they don't receive information about the menopause before they start to experience symptoms. For information on the clinic, head to the National Maternity Hospital's website right here. Feature image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie Facebook image of Holles St sign: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie