The Facts

Have you ever heard of Heavy Menstrual Bleeding?

• According to NICE as many as 20-30% of women suffer from Menorrhagia. Heavy Menstrual Bleeding (HMB) affects one in three women (NICE, Clinical Knowledge Summaries: Menorrhagia. August 2015).

• Conditions associated with HMB include endometriosis, fibroids, polycystic ovary syndrome, polyps and others.

• Four in five women with HMB say it impacts their professional and personal lives.

• Approximately 20% of women with HMB have missed work in the previous six months due to their condition.

• Around three in ten women with HMB suffer for three or more years before seeking medical advice.

• £66.31 is the average cost of an effective treatment per patient annually in a GP surgery, secondary care costs of approximately £835, and £2,106 is the cost of an average hospital admission for HMB.

• Up to 60% of women with HMB could be treated by their GP as they have no underlying cause.

• Accordingly to Plan International UK, 10% of girls in the UK have been unable to afford menstrual products and 14% have had to ask to borrow menstrual products from a friend due to affordability issues.

• The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recently published an updated Quality Standard for HMB which sets out the priority areas for quality improvement for Commissioners, Service providers, Health practitioners and Regulators. Read more here.