Estrogen (medication)
Estradiol, estrone, and estriol have all been approved as pharmaceutical drugs and are used medically. Estetrol is currently under development for medical indications, but has not yet been approved in any country. A variety of synthetic estrogen esters, such as estradiol valerate, estradiol cypionate, estradiol acetate, estradiol benzoate, estradiol undecylate, and polyestradiol phosphate, are used clinically. The aforementioned compounds behave as prodrugs to estradiol, and are much longer-lasting in comparison when administered by intramuscular or subcutaneous injection. Esters of estrone and estriol also exist and are or have been used in clinical medicine, for example estrone sulfate (e.g., as estropipate), estriol succinate, and estriol glucuronide (as Emmenin and Progynon).
Desogestrel
Desogestrel is available widely throughout the world, including in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, many other European countries, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Latin America, South, East, and Southeast Asia, and elsewhere in the world. In the United States, it is available only in combination with ethinylestradiol as a combined oral contraceptive; it is not available alone and is not approved for any other indications in this country.