Hormone Creams Endanger Innocent Bystanders

Writing in her Well column, Tara Parker-Pope reports on a strange phenomenon: veterinarians around the country have noticed that spayed pets are displaying symptoms of hormonal activity, such as swollen genitals. But if the source of the hormones is not their own deactivated sexual equipment, what could it be? The answer, the vets concluded, was hormonal creams from the hands of the pet owners who used the creams to counter some of the unpleasant symptoms of menopause. Wait, it gets worse. Parker-Pope reports that last summer the FDA issued a warning after eight children exposed to the estrogen spray Evamist showed signs of premature puberty like nipple swelling and enlarged breasts. She also tells us that last year, doctors wrote 440,000 prescriptions for brand-name topical estrogen products alone, nearly triple the 2006 figure, and those numbers don't include the estimated one million women using compounded hormone creams, which are custom-mixed by pharmacists and have been widely promoted as an alternative to commercial menopause drugs. What to do to protect the hormonally innocent? After applying creams, people should thoroughly wash their hands before handling food, children or pets.

Read more in the New York Times.