Catalonia moves to allow pharmacy-compounded menopause hormone treatments

On 7 October 2026, Catalonia's regional government, the Generalitat, signalled that community pharmacies could prepare compounded formulations (known in Spain as formulación magistral) of estradiol. The aim was to fill the gap left by a prolonged shortage of hormone replacement therapies used to treat menopause symptoms.

The shortage hit transdermal estradiol products, especially patches, and affected thousands of women in Catalonia and across Spain. Reports linked it to an international supply failure of the drug Lenzetto, which triggered knock-on shortages among alternative treatments. Trans people who rely on estradiol were affected too.

Compounding means a pharmacist prepares a medicine individually from its active ingredient, rather than dispensing a factory-made product. Reports described it as a fallback if supply problems continued. The Spanish medicines agency, AEMPS, had separately authorised imports of Lenzetto. The Catalan step mattered because it was one of the first regional attempts to work around the supply gap, though an official date for the measure and a timetable for products returning to shelves were not clear.