Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for her assessment of the adequacy of the availability of oestrogen and testosterone implants.

We are continuing to work closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to ensure safe access to these products. We have reached out to specialist importers who can source unlicensed medicines in order to find alternative sources of both oestrogen and testosterone hormone replacement therapy (HRT) implants, which are not licenced in the United Kingdom. We are aware of a specialist importer who is able to source unlicensed testosterone implants. The decision to prescribe an unlicensed imported medicine sits with the prescriber.

We are also engaging with companies globally to source supplies of HRT implants for UK patients. The MHRA is working closely with current importers of the product and encouraging applications to supply products through the licenced medicines route.