HRT lozenges linked to cancer
The use of a hand-made Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) lozenge has been discovered as the cause of endometrial cancer in three women by John Eden, associate professor of reproductive endocrinology at the University of NSW.
Professor Eden said that alternative HRT therapies had become increasingly popular in recent years but the lozenges – described as a “bio-identical” HRT – were not subject to the same scrutiny as prescription HRT.
“These products are made up by compounding chemists who hand-make a lozenge that has five to seven different hormones in it. It is portrayed as safer and marketed as totally natural,” Professor Eden said.
Writing in The Medical Journal of Australia he said that a 71-year-old woman, a 59-year-old and a 54-year-old had developed endometrial cancer after using the lozenges.
The ACCC investigated the Menopause Institute of Australia over the lozenges and the claim that they were safer than pharmaceutical HRT, and the Institute issued a public corrective notice last November retracting the claim.
