Some Prescribed Drugs Aren’t FDA Approved
Most everyone assumes if a doctor prescribes a drug or it's available through a pharmacy, then it's been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That statement however, is not true. Hormone replacement therapy is a common treatment for women going through menopause. In the past couple of years studies have found the drugs can have dangerous side effects. One study released last week found women taking the drugs had twice the risk of breast cancer. Even though it's been prescribed to thousands of women, the drug Estratest has never been approved by the FDA. Debbie Burke started experience the signs of menopause so her doctor prescribed her Estratest. It is a widely prescribed combination of synthetic estrogen and testosterone to treat the symptoms of menopause. “The testosterone in it caused my face to break out really bad,” Burke said. “It also made hair grow on the face. I didn't like that, so she cut me off.” Burke took Estratest for five years, but she didn't know the drug had never been approved by the FDA. "I thought every pill, everything, had to be approved by the FDA before it could be put on the shelves," she said. By law, all drugs are required to get FDA approval before they are sold.
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