Q. My doctor prescribed hormones due to bone loss. I am using an estrogen patch, progesterone and testosterone cream. My osteoporosis is now reversed. My spine is in the normal range. Hormones are the best thing I’ve ever done, and my sex drive is back!

A. The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, agrees with you that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can be helpful. He has promoted HRT to reduce the risk of bone fractures, heart disease and dementia. A study in the journal Clinical Endocrinology (March 15, 2026) reports an “improvement in sexual function” with the use of topical testosterone gel.

There is an estrogen patch shortage, though. After the FDA removed boxed warnings about breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia, prescriptions for estrogen patches soared. It may be some time before this scarcity is remedied.

Q. I developed terrible fatigue, joint pain, swollen ankles, low blood sugar levels and depression. I went to five different doctors who could not figure out what was going on.

I finally saw an endocrinologist who took one look at me and said: “You’re losing your eyebrows. You have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.”

After some simple blood work, he started me on Synthroid (levothyroxine). That helped me resume a normal life. My TSH levels were normal, so the other doctors never bothered to do any additional testing.

A. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is a common cause of hypothyroidism (low thyroid function). It is an autoimmune condition that leads to many symptoms, including the loss of the outer third of the eyebrows (Hertoghe’s sign).

It is possible to have normal TSH levels and still experience symptoms of hypothyroidism, as you did. Additional testing of free T3 and T4, along with antibody tests, can tell the rest of the story. You can learn much more about testing, as well as both hypo- and hyperthyroidism, in our “eGuide to Thyroid Hormones.” This online resource can be found under the Health eGuides tab at www.PeoplesPharmacy.com.

Some people, like you, do well on pure T4 found in levothyroxine (Synthroid). Others may need both T3 and T4 found in “natural” desiccated thyroid extract (DTE) such as Armour Thyroid.

Q. When my daughter was 8 years old, five warts appeared on her hand. We tried all of the over-the-counter products, to no avail. She was having no part in having them “cut off” by the doctor.

I read about the Tagamet treatment. She took Tagamet for two weeks. The warts were gone and have never returned. She is now 39. The only side effect we noticed was that she started sleepwalking during that two-week period! That happened four times, and also, never returned.

A. We first read about cimetidine (Tagamet) therapy for warts in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (May 1993). The dermatologists treated 32 children. All had multiple warts that had not responded to standard therapies. At the end of two months, 81% of the children taking cimetidine no longer had any warts.

A more recent article in the journal Dermatologic Therapy (October 8, 2021) describes a case of “recalcitrant” warts in an 8-year-old girl who had been treated with freezing, “burning” with electrodesiccation and salicylic acid solution. Nothing worked. The dermatologists treated her with the oral heartburn drug, cimetidine, for several weeks. As in the case with your daughter, the warts disappeared and never returned.

In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of King Features, 300 W. 57th Street, 41st Floor, New York, NY 10019, or email them via their website: www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Their newest book is “Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.”