Doctor to the stars disciplined over use of controversial menopause therapy

This story is from Kaiser Health News. A Santa Monica doctor who touted a controversial menopause therapy on the Oprah Winfrey Network and received testimonials for her work from such celebrity patients as model Cindy Crawford and actress-author Suzanne Somers has been disciplined by California’s medical board for gross negligence. In a settlement approved late last month, the Medical Board of California put Dr. Prudence Hall on probation for four years, faulting her for being “unaware” of potential risks posed by the plant-based hormones — including cancer — and failing to monitor her patients properly. Hall used numerous hormones to treat two women, according to the board, missing an aggressive uterine cancer in one patient and treating the other based on an “incorrect diagnosis in a manner such that [Hall] stood to gain financially.” “My jaw was on the floor. This is just egregious,” said Dr. Jen Gunter, a San Francisco Bay Area OB-GYN who reviewed the medical board’s report....