When I did the post about these products I posted extracts from my correspondence with Besins rather than produce the letters in full so here is the bit about Asia and manufacture elsewhere – which actually is covered in their statement I did post ie “All of the Besins Oestrogen Gels have exactly the same qualititative and quantitative compositions and are all manufactured at Besins Healthcare, Belgiumâ€.
This is the other bit from one of their letters “We do not manufacture any products in the Phillipines and all of the products are identical in terms of the composition, packaging supplied and manufacturer and so there is no difference in hot/cold countries.â€
Rest assured dangermouse I asked several very specific questions including the bit about hot countries as this was the only reason I could think of that there could be different ingredients.
The post you quote from maybe a year ago I also read at the time.
Here is the up-to-date link to Besins products with all the alternative names for their identical products – the ingredients were not listed on there at the time of that post:
https://www.besins-healthcare.com/products/#womensThe first bit of that list which you have requoted is not a list of ingredients – it is a description of what Oestrodose is ie topical gel whose active ingredient is estradiol hemihydrate. The second is the list of ingredients of all their estradiol gel including Oestrodose. As far as I know they have to list all of the ingredients because of possible allergies.
I also remember that post and did my own research at the time and there was no list of ingredients for Oestrodose separately. It was all rumour and supposition and inference as far as I can make out.
Because the subject has been raised yet again – this is when I decided to contact the manufacturers.
The parallel importers Chemilines was founded by two Asian brothers and have offices globally including Asia – this is presumably the origin of the rumours that Oestrodose is manufactured in Asia. As I said I have written to them just to find out what happens to the Oestrodose destined to be repackaged as Oestrogel – but I doubt it is transported to Asia and in any case as I quoted there have been stability studies carried out on the product to 40 deg for 6 months.
http://www.chemilines.com/about-2/Since the product has a three year date on it (I think) – some of the current preparations will have been manufactured a while ago and if the products used to be different (and may still be in use) then Besins would clearly have said so.
I did this investigation because the subject continues to be raised and as I said in my first post – because I was puzzled at the whole idea of two different products being sold as the same if they weren't – as Stellajane pointed out. I have also written to Besins again as I said in my previous post.
The idea was to reassure women who have used or continue to use these two products, not to continue the controversy and leave questions as to any differences. If there is anything different in responses from the companies that suggests there has been a difference - I will post them!
Hurdity x