Many women have been frustrated by the lack of treatment for their perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms offered by their medical providers. They turned to the supplement and compounding pharmacy industry due to fears about risks of prescription hormones, beliefs that compounded hormones are safer, and because they were desperate for any help they could get for their symptoms.
- Prescriptions from compounding pharmacies are not studied or regulated by the FDA. You could be getting more or less of drug than prescribed.
- Compounding pharmacies are not required to label their products with any warnings about risks or adverse effects.
- Studies are lacking about the effectiveness or safety of compounded hormones despite claims that their products are natural or safer.
- Compounded medications are not covered by insurance and can be more expensive than FDA-approved medications.
- Compounded prescriptions often contain weaker hormones that are less effective.
- For example, I see many women using the weaker estriol vaginal creams instead of the estradiol vaginal creams or products I prescribe. They are frequently spending $70 per month and not getting relief of their vaginal dryness.
- Our conventional FDA-approved estrogens for treatment of hot flashes and other symptoms come in very low formulations too if a woman wants to start low and increase dose as needed.
- Compounded prescriptions may also contain additional hormones that have no consistently proven benefit like DHEA or pregnenolone.
- Compounded progesterone creams and troches do not have enough data to show that they protect your uterus from the effects of estrogen, so you could be at increased risk of uterine cancer. Prescription oral progesterone and the Mirena progestin intrauterine device within the first 5 years do provide adequate protection.
Other Considerations:
- Most gynecologists and menopause specialists prescribe FDA-approved estradiol and progesterone that ARE “body identical” meaning they chemically resemble what a woman’s body makes before menopause.
- Very few doctors prescribe conjugated equine estrogens anymore (estrogens from pregnant mares).
- You can find a North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner at www.menopause.org
This post is for informational purposes only and not medical advice.
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