More about Estrogen Face Cream and the Risks of Compounded Hormones
Menopause Potpourri
There was a lot of interest in my previous post on the lack of data supporting the effectiveness of estrogen face cream for anti-aging purposes and a lack of safety data. I’ve got some follow-up thoughts as well an answer to a question about putting one of the other government-approved topical menopause hormone therapies (MHT), such as EstroGel or Divigel, on the face instead of the arm or thigh as recommended. Finally, I thought I’d review some issues with compounded estrogen products because they are still heavily promoted for MHT and the many telehealth medical practices that heavily advertise estrogen face cream are pushing a compounded product. If you are using compounded estrogen as part of your MHT or for your face, what I am about to tell you should raise some alarm bells about the quality of your product.
I’m Not the Only One Who Recommends Against Estrogen Face Cream
After my post explaining the lack of solid safety or efficacy, I was sent a link to a video from Dr. Natalia Spierings, a dermatologist, who posted a video discussing some of the data in detail. She reached the same conclusions I did. There is no data to say they work for anti-aging, nor are they safe for this purpose. You can find her video here.
She also pointed out that one of the studies using Premarin on the face resulted in deeper wrinkles at week 12 versus placebo, which she hypothesized was because estrogen resulted in thicker skin, and thicker skin makes deeper wrinkles. This is apparently one reason why men have deeper wrinkles on their foreheads (I learned something!).
Estrogen face cream is grossly understudied, and I caution everyone that many people promoting it have financial ties to the companies that sell these products. Would you get advice about blood pressure medication from a doctor who profits from the sale of that blood pressure medication? Probably not, because you would rightfully think it was biased.
But seriously, when you see a doctor promoting estrogen face cream, Google their name and the company so you can see their affiliations. And then think, if they were heavily promoting an antidepressant or a medication for high blood pressure and they had affiliations with Big Pharma, how would I feel? Likely worried about their bias and highly skeptical of their advice. Remember, getting featured in Alloy’s newsletter is no different than being featured by Merck or in any Big Pharma newsletter. The point is to make the sale, not education.
Some Doctors on Instagram Say It’s Okay to Put EstroGel on Your Face…What’s Up With That?
Yeah…I've seen people encouraging women to apply their FDA-approved estrogen gels to their faces, and all I can say is that doctors or any other health care provider who makes this recommendations must have no understanding of how hormones are formulated and studied or are posting garbage takes for attention. You can decide which is worse.
Transdermal hormone absorption varies by the formulation of the product, the site of application, and the surface area. For example, a study looking at an estrogen gel