Eighteen months. At one point, that was how long patients in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island were willing to wait to see pharmacist Kerri Moskal for her innovative hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) clinic for women. 

Moskal is one of the owners of Cumberland Pharmasave, which opened in 2020 as the coastal community’s only pharmacy at the time. Her expertise for women’s health, particularly in the area of hormone therapy, quickly captured the attention of patients in the community.

Moskal’s interest in hormone therapy started in 2002, when findings from the first trials of the Women’s Health Initiative, a series of clinical studies in the U.S., were released. The published information seemed to suggest unclear risks of cancer associated with HRT. A young pharmacist at the time, Moskal watched as doctors began removing patients from HRT. She saw how patients themselves were fearful, and how even years later, that fear among the general patient population never truly subsided. 

“There has been more than two decades of suffering now,” Moskal said. “I just knew it couldn’t be true. How could hormones with important functions throughout the body suddenly become dangerous? It wasn’t until I started working in a compounding pharmacy and we specialized a bit in hormones, that I had the opportunity to obtain extra training. I attended several hormone symposiums throughout North America, taught by functional medicine OBGYNs and endocrinologists, and I found the information I was looking for.”

In the beginning, I felt very alone and the pushback from the medical community  was quite discouraging, but the women giving me positive feedback just kept me going. Now, there are a growing number of physicians and practitioners that are specializing in hormones too. That's been a huge support.

— Kerri Moskal

That information has been lifesaving for women facing perimenopause and menopause. To educate her patients, Moskal prepared some of her knowledge into a package all her HRT patients receive at the beginning of their sessions: a simple-to-digest document that includes information on the types of hormones women should know about, what they do in the body, how changes in hormone levels can impact a person’s health, their replacement options, along with pros and cons of each, plus contact information for health professionals patients can reach out to. 

Those sessions began in 2016, while Moskal was working at a compounding pharmacy in Comox. The one-on-one sessions would each take about two hours. She would sit with the patient, go through the patient’s medical paperwork, and spend the next hour and a half teaching, before providing personalized recommendations. There was only enough time for about two sessions per month. When she opened her own store in 2020, she soon hired another pharmacist to cover the dispensary while she did consults full-time, two days per week. Even so, waitlists soon became unmanageable as the demand increased. Patients came from up and down Vancouver Island, from Campbell River to Nanaimo. When her waitlist became too long, she stopped taking down names. 

“We started telling many women to call back in 18 months and many were distraught,” Moskal said. “So with the encouragement of a local OBGYN, I changed my format. In the fall of 2024, I started group teaching sessions where I could host up to 12 women all at once to do the teaching portion together.”

The sessions take place at night in the store after hours. After taking one of her sessions, patients can then book a one-on-one phone call for a personal recommendation if they need it, usually a 15-minute phone call. 

One by one, patients who had been on her waitlist were fitted into a group session, and over the course of about a year, Moskal finally crossed the last name off her list. 

Her work has resulted in numerous positive patient testimonials along with accolades from fellow health practitioners. And word has spread. In 2024, she was invited to speak at her first conference, the North Island Menopause Conference, attended by almost 300 women.

“Before that, women were coming to me after feeling invalidated, or told they needed anxiety medication, or that they just needed to exercise or take supplements. They just felt brushed off,” Moskal said. 

“By having someone listen to them, validate that their symptoms are real and explain what their hormones are doing and how we can help, that really helps them move forward. I see a lot of ‘aha’ moments in my work, it’s very rewarding when my patients feel heard and regain their confidence.”

With additional education, Moskal hopes that health guidelines for women will shift over time to include hormone therapy as standard care in perimenopause and menopause. And that one day, health guidelines will change enough that her educational sessions won’t be needed anymore. 

“I have two daughters. I don’t want them to have to fight for help the way that my generation, and my mom’s generation, had to. 

“That’s my dream and hope.”