Protect Women's Access to Estradiol Patches: End the Patch Supply Crisis

Women should not have to hunt from pharmacy to pharmacy for their prescribed hormone therapy.
Across the United States, women are struggling to fill prescriptions for transdermal estradiol patches, an important form of FDA-approved menopausal hormone therapy.  Patients and healthcare providers are calling multiple pharmacies, driving long distances, changing manufacturers, changing doses, switching delivery methods—or going without their prescribed estrogen altogether.

This is The Patch Problem.

For women who rely on estradiol patches to manage symptoms of menopause and maintain their health and quality of life, this is more than an inconvenience. It is a disruption in medical care.

When a prescribed patch suddenly becomes unavailable, patients and their healthcare providers are left trying to find alternatives. Switching from one patch strength or formulation to another or from a patch to a gel, spray, cream or oral estrogen, is not always a simple one-to-one substitution.  This can be a monthly occurrence.   They are also going outside of their own pharmacy benefits and paying out of pocket to maintain their care.  

Women deserve better than having their healthcare dictated by what happens to be on a pharmacy shelf that week.

The Shortage Is Being Documented — But We Need Federal Recognition
This is not simply anecdotal.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) currently lists the Estradiol Transdermal System as an active drug shortage, with multiple manufacturers, strengths and products affected.

ASHP reports that some estradiol patches are on back order with no estimated release date, some are being allocated to contracted customers, and others are experiencing intermittent back orders. One manufacturer has specifically cited increased demand as the reason for its shortage.

Yet the shortage has not been similarly reflected on the FDA Drug Shortages database.

That disconnect matters.

When women across the country are unable to obtain prescribed estradiol patches, pharmacies are reporting availability problems, manufacturers have products on back order, and a major national drug-shortage authority recognizes an active shortage, women deserve federal attention and a coordinated response.

We are asking the FDA to investigate the discrepancy, determine the scope of the supply problem, communicate transparently with patients and healthcare professionals, and take appropriate steps to help ensure reliable access to transdermal estradiol.

A shortage does not become less real simply because women are the ones experiencing it.

What We Are Asking For
We are calling on the FDA, estradiol patch manufacturers, pharmaceutical distributors and other stakeholders responsible for the U.S. medication supply chain to take immediate action to:

• Investigate and address ongoing supply disruptions affecting FDA-approved transdermal estradiol patches.
• Provide greater transparency regarding shortages, backorders, manufacturing interruptions and anticipated restoration dates.
• Protect continuity of care by improving communication with pharmacies, prescribers and patients when specific strengths or manufacturers become unavailable.
• Develop a more resilient supply of transdermal estradiol so women are not repeatedly forced to change treatment because their prescribed medication cannot be obtained.
• Recognize reliable access to menopause treatment as a women's healthcare issue that deserves urgency and accountability.

Why This Matters
Millions of women experience symptoms associated with the menopause transition, including hot flashes, night sweats, disrupted sleep and genitourinary symptoms. For appropriate patients, menopausal hormone therapy is an established treatment option.  Yet women who have finally worked with a healthcare professional to find an effective treatment are now encountering another obstacle:

They can't reliably get the medication they were prescribed.

No woman should have to become a detective just to fill an estradiol prescription.

No clinician should have to repeatedly redesign a patient's treatment plan because a medication disappears from local pharmacy inventory.

And no patient should have to wonder whether the treatment she has been prescribed will be available next month.

Why I Started The Patch Problem

I started The Patch Problem after hearing the same story again and again: women who had finally found a menopause treatment that worked for them suddenly couldn't get their estradiol patches. As a women's health provider, I was watching patients call pharmacy after pharmacy while healthcare providers scrambled to find safe, appropriate alternatives.

This isn't one woman's problem or one pharmacy's problem. It's happening across communities, and women deserve answers, transparency and reliable access to the medications they have been prescribed.

That's why I'm asking women, healthcare professionals and advocates everywhere to add their names and help us make The Patch Problem impossible to ignore.

This Is Bigger Than a Patch
The Patch Problem is about access.
It is about continuity of care.
It is about transparency.
And it is about taking women's health seriously.

If you have struggled to find your estradiol patch—or if you are a healthcare professional, pharmacist, family member or advocate who believes women deserve reliable access to menopause care—please sign this petition.

Then share it with another woman.

Because women shouldn't have to fight this hard to fill a prescription.

Sign. Share. Speak up.

The Patch Problem
Because access to menopause care shouldn't depend on what's left on the pharmacy shelf.

 

This campaign is intended for education and advocacy and does not provide individual medical advice. Patients should consult their healthcare professional before changing or discontinuing prescribed hormone therapy.