If you’re having a hard time getting your estrogen patch prescription filled, you’re not alone. In some parts of the country, supply of estrogen patches—one of the most popular types of hormone therapy used to treat symptoms of menopause or perimenopause—hasn’t been able to keep up with demand. “This is front and center,” says Alyssa Dweck, M.D., a certified menopause practitioner and gynecologist in New York City. “I am literally spending a good portion of my day trying to find pharmacies that still have patches.”
Demand for estrogen and hormone therapy has climbed following the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) removal late last year of a “black box” warning over the potential for some serious side effects. The warning was removed because newer research places the risk of hormone therapy in a different perspective, where benefits outweigh the risks for many people.
This may be particularly true when it comes to estrogen patches, which are absorbed differently than oral estrogen and may carry less risk of blood clots because they aren’t processed in the liver, according to Kelli Burroughs, M.D., certified menopause practitioner and OB/GYN in Houston. To read the full story.