HRT prescribing in England: the numbers

HRT use in England is at a record high. In 2024/25 the NHS prescribed 14.7 million HRT items to an estimated 2.8 million patients, an 11% rise in items in a single year. The HRT Prescription Prepayment Certificate, which caps the cost of HRT prescriptions, was used on 21% of items, up nearly 7 percentage points. The most striking gap is by deprivation: the least deprived areas had more than twice as many patients on HRT as the most deprived, even though menopause affects women everywhere equally. This is prescribing data, not medical advice.

The deprivation gap

The headline numbers show HRT use rising fast, but they are not evenly spread. NHS Business Services Authority data shows that women in the least deprived areas of England are more than twice as likely to be receiving HRT as women in the most deprived areas. Menopause does not discriminate by income, so a gap that wide points to differences in access, awareness and the cost of prescriptions rather than need. The growing use of the HRT Prepayment Certificate, which caps a year of HRT prescription charges, is one of the levers aimed at narrowing it.

How this is measured

All figures are from the NHS Business Services Authority's Hormone Replacement Therapy, England statistical report for 2024/25, which counts HRT items dispensed in the community and estimates the number of identified patients. An item is a single prescription line, so one patient can account for several items a year. Deprivation is measured using the Index of Multiple Deprivation. This page reports the published statistics; it is general information about prescribing trends and is not medical advice. If you have questions about HRT for yourself, speak to your GP or pharmacist. Last reviewed June 2026.