Nicola Bulley menopause

Police investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley have been criticised for revealing personal details about the missing mum.

[Conservative MP Alicia Kearns said on Twitter](https://twitter.com/aliciakearns/status/1625934789856436225) that she was "deeply uncomfortable with the police releasing Nicola Bulley's so-called 'vulnerabilities' on menopause and alcohol" and was struggling to "ascertain how this will assist police in their search and investigations". [Labour's Stella Creasy tweeted](https://twitter.com/stellacreasy/status/1625919564797050885) that the level of detail was "deeply troubling" and the force needed to be "much clearer as to why any of this helps find Nicola Bulley". It said it had been "clear from speaking to Paul and the family that Nicola had in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause and that these struggles had resurfaced over recent months". [told the press conference on Wednesday](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64646582) that Ms Bulley had been categorised as high-risk as soon as she was reported missing "following the information that was provided to the police by her partner and based on a number of specific vulnerabilities that we were made aware of". [Silkie Carlo, a director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said](https://twitter.com/silkiecarlo/status/1625954345161302016) the "ramifications of this invasion of medical privacy could be really serious", while [former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal said](https://twitter.com/nazirafzal/status/1625986277320413184) the statement should not have been issued, as it did nothing to help find Ms Bulley, and added that the release would "give fuel to the victim blamers, armchair sleuths and conspiracy theorists". [a press conference on Wednesday](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64646582), in which the officer leading the investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance revealed she had "a number of specific vulnerabilities", the force said she had "suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause [which had] resurfaced over recent months". The force later issued an update, stating that it "just wanted to expand on that a little". She said Lancashire's chief constable or police and crime commissioner should "give the public some reassurance that the force is managing this whole issue in the right way". "People are asking rightly how does the reproductive status of a woman who has gone missing relate to the bid to find her and would that same information be put in the public domain if she were a man." [told Sky News](https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1626133064156954626) the release of such details was "very unusual", adding: "I do have a lot of questions and concerns about that. ["ongoing struggles with the menopause"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64656669). On Wednesday, Lancashire Police said the 45-year-old had suffered with "some significant issues with alcohol" and