---
title: "Longstanding Clinical Use of Topical Estrogen"
description: "Explore the long clinical history behind topical estrogen for skin, including vaginal estradiol and facial estriol studies on safety and efficacy."
url: "https://www.myalloy.com/knowledge-base/longstanding-clinical-use-of-topical-estrogen"
---

# Longstanding Clinical Use of Topical Estrogen

> Explore the long clinical history behind topical estrogen for skin, including vaginal estradiol and facial estriol studies on safety and efficacy.

## What long-standing clinical use supports the safety and effectiveness of estrogen applied to skin?

Topical estrogen actually has a pretty long clinical history behind it. Dr. Ellen Gendler explains that estrogen creams were already being used on skin back in the 1920s. Max Factor and Helena Rubinstein both sold hormone creams because women saw real improvements in the look and feel of their skin. Later on, when the FDA began regulating drug claims, those products left the market, but the medical research kept going.

What really supports safety today is the decades of data on **FDA approved vaginal estrogen**. Doctors have used vaginal estradiol for a long time, and studies show it stays local, doesn’t meaningfully raise blood estrogen levels, and is safe for most women, including many breast cancer survivors under specialist care. That same low systemic absorption applies to topical estriol used on the face. The studies Alloy cites, like the one published in the *International Journal of Dermatology*, confirm that topical facial estriol keeps serum estrogen levels unchanged and has no hormonal side effects.

So the combination of almost a century of real-world use plus modern clinical studies is what gives us confidence in both the safety and effectiveness of estrogen applied to skin. If you want to see the research behind our own estriol formula, you can look at the independent clinical study linked on the [M4 Face Cream Rx page](https://www.myalloy.com/solutions/m4).


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