Earlier this week, a report surfaced about a 52-year-old mother who was wracked with guilt after she accidentally triggered puberty in her 3-year-old daughter. It turns out that the toddler had absorbed some of the hormone replacement therapy gel doctors had prescribed to treat her mother’s menopause symptoms. Meanwhile, there have been dozens of incidents where topical medications have wreaked havoc on family members and even pets. Unlike tablets, which stay inside the body of the person taking them, topical drugs are absorbed through the skin. If the treated area is touched before the medication has fully dried or been washed off, some of the drug could accidentally be transferred to another person, or even an animal, through skin-to-skin contact. Medicines that carry the greatest risk include hormone replacement therapy, hair-loss treatments, pain patches, nicotine patches, and heart medication. In most cases, once the exposure is stopped, the changes are reversed.
