2024-10-18 21:58:00
The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) published this Friday (18/10) a determination that suspends the sale, advertising and use of manipulated hormonal implants, the so-called beauty chips.
Injectable gestrinone implants, a testosterone derivative, promise gains in lean mass and relief from menopausal symptoms for women. The aesthetic use of hormones, however, has never been proven effective and is related to serious health complications, such as an increased risk of stroke.
Health complications due to the use of beauty chips
The increase in complications characteristic of the use of beauty chips was one of the motivators for Anvisa’s decision.
“These implants led to elevated cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood (dyslipidemia), high blood pressure, stroke and cardiac arrhythmia. Furthermore, excessive hair growth may occur in women (hirsutism), hair loss (alopecia), acne, voice changes (dysphonia), insomnia and agitation”, warns the agency.
With the decision, Anvisa opened a channel so that patients who had reactions to the use of beauty chips can report the problem (notifications can be done at this link). Pharmacies that sell beauty chips may be punished with bans.
Ban history
One of the main bodies defending the ban was the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Febrasgo). The entity celebrated the ban. “There is no control over what is inserted into these implants and there is a lack of quality scientific research on their effects and possible adverse effects”, states gynecologist Maria Celeste Wender, president of Febrasgo, in a press release.
In 2023, the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) had already banned the use of steroids for aesthetic purposes. “The gestrinone implant, the ‘beauty chip’, is not a recognized therapeutic option and is condemned by the largest federations and medical associations in the world. There is no support for the use of these substances for these aesthetic purposes”, stated, at the time, the CFM advisor responsible for the measure, Annelise Meneguesso.
In an open letter published in December last year, a series of medical entities had already requested that Anvisa act more closely against the use of beauty chips. “The prescription of these agents is trivialized and disseminated, with free dissemination on social networks, without due ethical and scientific support from Evidence-Based Medicine”, warned the document.
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