Doctors sound warning about skin-lightening creams

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — British doctors have issued a warning about illegal skin-lightening creams after a case in which a woman fell sick from using a product laced with a powerful steroid.

The woman was extremely obese, had thin, bruised, stripy skin and suffered from muscle weakness. She had been trying unsuccessfully to conceive for the previous 18 months even though she had regular periods.

Physicians initially believed she had a disorder called Cushing's syndrome, caused by the adrenal or pituitary glands. But blood tests turned up no sign of excess levels of two hormones that are the usual telltales of this syndrome.

After further inquiries, the patient admitted she had been using a skin-lightening cream for seven years, bought not from a pharmacist but from a...