The crisis in hormone replacement therapy in the UK is "ridiculous" and has to be fixed immediately, TV presenter Davina McCall has said.
McCall - who has campaigned to raise awareness of the menopause - said not getting HRT could be life-threatening.
"Why is it taking this long to sort this out?" she said.
The government's Kwasi Kwarteng - who was listening to McCall - said it was "really good" that women were talking openly about the menopause and HRT.
Earlier this week, the government announced it was rationing supplies so women would only be able to get three months' worth of certain HRT products at a time. It has also appointed a new HRT tsar to help solve the crisis.
Speaking to the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, McCall recalled her own experience of the menopause, saying she felt like she was "a mush" when it hit and that she lost her ability to be organised, practical and good at multi-tasking.
"When somebody asked me if I was OK because I'd messed up on a TV programme, I said yes. And then when she shut the door and went away, I just burst into tears," she said.
"Because I thought, 'I'm not ok, I think I've got a brain tumour, or I've got Alzheimer's or something - help me'."
