Drug shortages leave Chicago women scrambling for menopause treatments

CHICAGO - For many women, finding the right medication is half the battle when it comes to fighting menopause.

More often these days, once their doctor figures out which one is best for them, they then can’t find it at their pharmacy.

In a Fox 32 special report, Sylvia Perez takes a look at what to do when your medicine is in short supply.

"So then, I just start calling pharmacies individually, to see who has it in stock because they can see who has it in stock," said one Chicago woman, who wished to remain anonymous.

"At one point, they told me Carol Stream. I’m like ‘fine.’ I don’t own a car. I was going to rent a car and go. And I called them, and they’re like, ‘yeah, we just sold out. We don’t have anymore.’"

The woman was anxious to refill a hormone patch her doctor recently prescribed her to treat peri-menopause symptoms. Symptoms she had struggled with for years and finally found some relief from.

"It was like night and day after I got it. The brain fog was gone. I felt like myself again and no more hot flashes and I could sleep better too," she said.

She had been taking the hormone patch for only a few months when suddenly, her pharmacy told her in mid-August that it wouldn’t be available until October. It was on backorder, and she only had one week left of medication.

"The pharmacist would tell me just have your doctor prescribe something else in the meantime to tide you over until this comes in stock," the woman said.

Dr. Mary Farhi, a gynecologist and certified menopause practitioner at Rush University Medical Center, said you can’t easily switch up this type of medication.

"If someone has found something that works for them, we want to try and stick with that," Farhi said. "Just like with birth control pills, some people tolerate certain pills and some patients don’t."

It’s important to keep in mind a doctor's first drug of choice for a patient tops the list for more than one reason.

"It’s usually more effective. Has a better side effect profile, so it’s more tolerable for patients, or it’s more cost-effective," said Michael Ganio, senior director of pharmacy practice and quality with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

"So it may be cheaper for a patient when we’re short of a drug and have to move to a second line of treatment, we’re sacrificing something in one of those categories," Ganio added.

ASHP has been tracking drug shortages in the U.S. since 2001 and reported they were at a record high last year with over 300 shortages.

"We continue to see drug shortages increase or remain the same. We’ve seen some decline, but it seems like every time we make up some ground on shortages, the next quarter hits, and we have more shortages than before," Ganio said.

Ganio said there are currently 300 individual drug shortages. Among those, the top five categories are: central nervous system drugs, antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, basic fluids and electrolytes, and hormonal agents, which include menopause drugs.

"A lot of time we don’t get a reason for shortages and with some of these hormonal drugs the manufacturers don’t have to provide a reason to us or the FDA about why there is a shortage," Ganio said.

"The FDA released a report in 2019 and found that the problem behind a lot of these shortages is investment in quality at the manufacturer level," he said. 
Ganio added drug shortages have become status quo as clinicians have found a way to live with them and that not much will change until lawmakers take action.

"I literally had to call 11 pharmacies until I found a Mariano’s which was all the way at the edge of the city and I took an hour-long bus ride to get there to pick it up," the unidentified woman said.

And then she had to take a $30 Uber ride to get back home after picking up medicine that was fully covered by her insurance.

"If this were a men’s medication, like Viagra, I’m assuming that there would never be this issue of them running out of stock," the woman said.

"You should be able to get it at your local pharmacy or mail order supply. I had the time and the resources to do this. What about women who don’t have the time and the resources due to their circumstances? How are they going to be? Are they going to be without their medication?"

You should always check with your pharmacist and your insurance company before switching medications.