A GP who became the celebrity face of the menopause movement has accused her membership body of a witch-hunt after private messages showed officials described her as an irritant.
Dr Louise Newson, who has campaigned for the use of hormones to tackle debilitating symptoms of menopause, was described as the “menopause messiah” and the “Joan of Arc” of women’s health by leading figures at the British Menopause Society (BMS).
Leading figures in the BMS, a charity that provides guidance to medics, sent dozens of emails about the activities of Newson and her private clinic. They complained for several years about what they perceived as self-promotion by Newson.
They also expressed concerns that she was misleading women over the benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and questioned her prescription of high dosages.
The emails, obtained after Newson made a legal request, escalate a dispute between her and the BMS.
Newson is credited with raising awareness, alongside celebrities including Davina McCall and Mariella Frostrup. She has become controversial because she stands by prescribing high dosages of HRT. She says the BMS emails show she has been the target of a “vendetta and witch-hunt”.
Mariella Frostrup
PIERS ALLARDYCE/SHUTTERSTOCK
The charity, which has nearly 7,000 members, insists it removed her from its specialist register and stripped her of membership because of the risk of harm to patients.
Newson, 55, opened her first health clinic in 2018 promising women “unbiased, evidence-based information” to support their health. Newson Health quickly became known as being more proactive in prescribing HRT.
HRT has become increasingly popular since 2015, when official guidance advised that the risks of cancer were smaller than previously thought. But many experts rail against her approach.
They say that while low dosages are beneficial, there is an “evidence gap” because higher doses have never been studied in clinical trials. In 2023 the BMS was one of six bodies that said oestrogen “should not be regularly prescribed in doses higher than the upper limit” due to safety risks.
Newson disputes this approach, saying she prescribes higher doses to women who cannot absorb oestrogen. She points to peer-reviewed observational studies that show no increased risk to women using body identical, as opposed to synthetic, hormones. Guidelines allow doctors to prescribe higher amounts where it is beneficial.
Newson’s data request, led by her legal team at Mills & Reeve, shows BMS officials have been critical of her views since they first gained traction.
In 2018 Patrick Shervington, a BMS trustee, wrote: “I may be partisan … but the style and inferences in her website make Louis [sic] appear to be a sort of latter-day saint — doing for menopause what Joan of Arc did for the French getting rid of the English nearly 600 years ago.”
Sara Moger, the charity’s chief executive, described her as a “meeja [media] doctor [who] ‘discovered menopause’ two years ago”. Others said that Newson was a threat and irritation. In 2022, Newson was described as the “menopause messiah” promoting an “evangelical message”.
The data request also detailed how the BMS had fielded concerns from GPs whose private patients were requesting higher dosages of hormones.
Newson’s removal from the BMS register was disclosed in a BBC Panorama documentary last year, which spoke to more than a dozen of her patients who said they had experienced complications. The programme, which spoke to two BMS trustees and one of the charity’s doctor members, raised concerns about prescribing hormones above recommended levels.
Newson has passed her required annual appraisal. A complaint to the GMC was quickly dismissed. An inspection by the Care Quality Commission has been delayed — the process was resumed after an inspector was linked to the BMS.
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The dispute has resulted in a series of legal challenges. Newson is judicially reviewing the BMS decision to remove her membership, which the charity is resisting.
It denies the move was motivated by animus or bias and argues there was a “fundamental divergence in approach” that harmed its ability to pursue its objectives of advancing education in post-reproductive health matters.
In legal papers the BMS says Newson was removed from the specialist register in the interests of patient safety. It says the data request messages are taken out of context and “record the growing concern and accompanying frustration” about Newson’s approach.
The BMS said in a statement: “The BMS is a charity, and its objects include advancing education about the menopause, facilitating the study of the menopause, promoting high standards of training for those working in the field, and relieving women suffering from gynaecological disorders.
“Pursuant to its articles, the charity can admit as members ‘healthcare professionals and other individuals interested in furthering the objects of the charity’. The trustees do, however, have the power to expel a member ‘on the ground that his or her continued membership is harmful to or is likely to become harmful to the interests of the charity’.”