Dr Kerryn Phelps, Health Editor, with Tracey Grimshaw, Channel Nine, 'Today'

To discuss the study among other things is Today's Health Editor, Dr Kerryn Phelps. Good morning, Kerryn.

PHELPS: Good morning, Tracey.

GRIMSHAW: I want to get on to the study in a moment, but let's talk medical indemnity if you could just put your AMA hat on for a minute.

Can you understand the Federal Government not wanting to prop up UMP any further?

PHELPS: It's a very difficult situation. There was a medical indemnity summit which was called by the Prime Minister and held in Canberra yesterday. And we talked about a whole range of long-term plans to solve this crisis and it is a crisis. But what's going to happen by June 30th is that the whole medical indemnity situation, particularly in NSW and Queensland, is going to hit a brick wall unless something is done urgently.

And the Federal Government does need to come up with an action plan between now and then because we will lose services.

GRIMSHAW: How much should the Government be expected to do. If some of these reports are right, and there's one in the Australian Financial Review this morning that suggests that UMP may need $350 million to keep operating. How much of that should the Government be doing?

PHELPS: Well the point is, who can pay for that? The medical profession can't absorb that sort of cost. It has to be passed on to patients. Patients will have to pay more in terms of increased fees if they can get those services. But we are losing services like neuro-surgery, obstetrics, orthopaedics. These are essential services, particularly in rural areas.

So it is becoming an issue of national importance. It is an issue of national importance and it's becoming a potential catastrophe unless we find a solution within weeks. We don't have a lot of time up our sleeves.

The long-term solutions, we'll get the situation under control with time, but I guess the problem and the concern that we have is that we don't have a lot of time up our sleeves and we want to see what the crisis plan is.

GRIMSHAW: Okay, on a completely different tack. Let's talk about this study into women's hormones and the link between hormones and emotions which I would have thought we all accepted existed.

PHELPS: Well, we know that it exists but there hasn't ever been a study that's actually quantified or put numbers on what the hormones are that change in a whole range of health issues for women. Now this is an exciting project. It's being conducted by the Jean Hailes Foundation in Victoria. And they're going to be looking at thousands of women from the age of 18 to 75 looking at their hormones, looking at how those hormone levels relate to their mood, depression and their libido over time and with, depending on their hormone levels.

Now, a lot of women have been looking to things like testosterone, DHEA which are hormone treatments, saying, 'well there must be this androgen deficiency'. But it's never actually been established that there is an androgen deficiency in women and how it relates.

So they're going to be looking at how, for example, hormones change if someone has had a hysterectomy, if they've been on the pill, if they've had a pregnancy. These are the sorts of issues that will be looked at.

GRIMSHAW: So what's that going to mean for treatment?

PHELPS: Well, what it will mean is that, rather than guesswork as to whether a woman needs testosterone for their HRT or doesn't or whether they should be taking DHEA when they're ageing and feeling perhaps weak and depressed, that we can actually put some science behind that treatment.

And the second thing is that, if women are currently being treated for what is thought to be depression, and in fact it is an androgen deficiency syndrome that they won't have to take antidepressants, that they'll be more specifically treated with a hormone treatment. So they're looking at a whole range of women's health parameters - things like cardiovascular risk factors and other issues. And I think we get a better understanding of how all sorts of hormones impact on women's health.

GRIMSHAW: All right, Normison.

PHELPS: What's happening with Normison, Euhypnos, these are brand names for a drug called Temazapam . And people who are looking for the capsule form of the Normison or Temaze or whichever one that they are accustomed to getting won't be able to get this capsule form any more after the 1st May. It will only be available in tablet form, except on a special authority under certain circumstances.

GRIMSHAW: Why?

PHELPS: There are a number of reasons. And the main one is that people who are drug addicted have been taking the contents of these capsules and injecting them. And it damages their peripheral veins. It causes nasty abscesses, gangrene. People have lost limbs because of injecting it. There have been ram raids on pharmacies, attacks on doctors' surgeries, trying to get hold of prescriptions and capsule forms of this drug. So it's going to be strictly limited after the 1st May.

GRIMSHAW: Seems to make sense. Thanks, Kerryn.

Ends