Published 17 October 2024.
Publication
Hormone Replacement Therapy - England April 2015 to June 2024 statistical summary narrative (HTML)
Summary
This publication aims to describe the prescribing of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medications in a primary care setting in England that are dispensed in the community. This does not include data on medicines used in secondary care, prisons, or issued by a private prescriber. This release is limited to all drugs that appear on the HRT Prescription Prepayment Certificate (HRT PPC) drug list.
This publication is an official statistic in development which has been released to support the work being undertaken by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England, and HRT suppliers.
It is intended to provide a national view of HRT prescribing for the use of policy makers, the general public and other users, and to be available to answer any high-level questions in this area.
This release includes metrics on the volume and cost of HRT prescribing, and the number of patients receiving prescribing for these drugs. Various demographic breakdowns, including by a measure of deprivation, and a geographical breakdown by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are also included.
Key findings
In England in 2023/24 there were 13 million HRT items prescribed. This was a 22% increase since 2022/23. The estimated number of identified patients increased by 12%, from 2.3 million in 2022/23 to 2.6 million in 2023/24.
Utrogestan 100mg tablets was the British National Formulary (BNF) presentation with both the highest number of items prescribed and identified patients in 2023/24. Utrogestan 100mg tablets prescribing increased by 42% in 2023/24 to 1.3 million items, up from 940,000 in 2022/23.
The least deprived areas in England had more than twice as many identified patients receiving HRT prescribing compared to the most deprived areas.
The HRT PPC was introduced in April 2023. The proportion of HRT items for which an HRT PPC was used was 14.5% in 2023/24. This proportion has increased to 21% in June 2024.
Resource list
Financial year summary tables (Excel: 340KB)Monthly summary tables (Excel: 2.8MB)Appendix A – HRT drug list (Excel: 24KB)
Pre-release access list (HTML)
Background
You can find more information on what the data in this publication covers, and what methodology has been used, in the HRT background information and methodology note.
Background information and methodology note (HTML)
Management information
This exemption category data has been released to complement the Hormone Replacement Therapy statistics. It is management information and is not an official statistic.
Exemption category management information (Excel: 256KB)
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Contact us
If you have any questions, comments, or would like more information you can email statistics@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.
Responsible statistician: Grace Libby