HCG as a Dietary Aid: What Say the FDA?

The FDA has provided its stamp of approval to the use of hCG -- as a fertility drug. In your attempts to lose weight by tricking your body with the presence of a pregnancy-related hormone, your body may turn the tables and help you get pregnant. Within five years of its discovery, hCG was already being packaged and marketed to the public as a fertility drug. (If you're a woman who doesn't want to get pregnant, you should be extra-careful if you're taking HCG.)

Aside from fertility, the FDA doesn't approve hCG use for any other reason, including weight loss. However, lack of approval doesn't prevent hCG's use as a dietary aid. As long as you have a doctor willing to write a prescription, you can obtain hCG. With a surge in public interest in the hCG diet (owing almost entirely to a large marketing push of this dusted-off 60-year-old diet craze), there's no shortage of weight-loss clinics staffed by doctors who write such prescriptions all day long. There have been reports of people obtaining hCG (or something being passed off as hCG) on the Internet, despite the need for a prescription to obtain the drug. Such practice would bring up issues of safety and effectiveness of the doses being provided through the black market.

There have been few reports of health problems developing as a result of the hCG diet, although there are some risks, among them an increased risk of blood clots, headaches, restlessness and depression. Also, you may feel, well, like you're pregnant -- swelling, breast tenderness and water retention, anyone? HCG can also cause a potentially life-threatening condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).

Proponents of the diet point out that hCG is clearly safe for pregnant women and the fetuses they carry, and that dieters receive a much smaller dose of hCG than is found under normal conditions in pregnant women.

The hCG diet isn't covered by insurance, and it can be somewhat pricey: A consultation visit may run around $150, as well as follow-up visits after a month. The costs of the injections (which can be self-administered) is around $10 a pop, and this cost (as well as that of any additional appetite suppressants) may or may not be included in the cost of the office visits.

Next, why did the hCG diet fall off the radar until recently?