WOMEN in the North-East get little advice or treatment for symptoms relating to hormonal changes, according to new research - resulting in a third of women saying they are struggling to cope due to their symptoms.

Half (50 per cent) of women with symptoms said they feel depressed, while a third (33 per cent) said they suffer from anxiety.

Despite this, nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of women in the North-East said there is a general lack of support or advice for those going through the menopause.

Seventy-two per cent of female workers suffering symptoms said they feel unsupported at work, even though almost a quarter (24 per cent) say their symptoms have a detrimental effect on their work. One in ten (10 per cent) women said they have even considered quitting their job.

Nuffield Health questioned more than 3,000 women in the UK - including 174 in the North-East - aged between 40 and 65.

Dr Julie Ayres, a Nuffield menopause expert, said: “The menopause is not something that just happens to women in their 50s, it can affect those in their late 30s through to late 60s. These women can suffer in silence for years when they could have been benefitting from personalised advice or support to help them understand what is going on.”

More than a quarter (28 per cent) of those who visited a GP said the possibility of the symptoms being menopause related failed to come up.

Despite recent evidence that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can significantly improve quality of life for many women, as well as protecting younger women from long term diseases including osteoporosis, 41 per cent of women who visited a GP were not made aware of hormone replacement therapy.