The availability of estrogen drugs is increasing: "Gladly breaking the trend"

The medicine contains the female sex hormone estrogen and is mainly used when hormone production decreases during and after menopause. The lack of the medicine has been recurring and affected thousands of women in Sweden.

- It is not the women who should have to hunt for these medicines, but now we have rearranged the work of the authorities so that they become much more active in getting these medicines into Sweden, says Jakob Forssmed.

On Wednesday, the Minister of Social Affairs, together with the Medical Products Agency and the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency, presented the results of the authorities' government mission to strengthen access to estrogen drugs.

According to the Swedish Medicines Agency, the number of sold packages of the medicine that is taken through the skin has increased significantly compared to September last year, and the authority assesses that the efforts have contributed to the development.

There has been a shortage for a long time and is partly related to the fact that global demand has increased faster than manufacturers have been able to meet.

Forssmed cannot give an indication of when the situation may be completely resolved.

- It is difficult to say an exact date. What we can state today is that we have a very gratifying trend break in this regard. We see that the availability of all forms of estrogen drugs that are taken through the skin (patch, gel or spray) is increasing.

According to Forssmed, the fact that Sweden is governed by a transitional government does not mean that the work is being slowed down. The authorities have already changed their way of working after the assignments last spring.