You will want to read this story about hormone replacement compounds: Attorney General Concerned About HRC's Former Patients

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Story Updated 2012.10.10 at 12:48 PM CDT

By Jennifer Kraus

Consumer Investigator

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--  Tennessee's attorney general said he's prepared to contact every patient in the state who got hormone replacement therapy from Nashville-based HRC Medical.

This comes as the attorney general has gone to court to shut down the entire company. It comes after NewsChannel 5 Investigates first exposed problems with HRC's hormone therapy nearly a year ago.

In addition, the AG is so concerned that he wants every patient who went to the HRC clinics in Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville to talk with their primary care physicians about the possible long-term health problems they could face -- including endometrial cancer and breast cancer.

Read the lawsuit filed against HRC Medical

"It's frightening," said former HRC patient Susan Moerschel.

Moerschel, who underwent hormone replacement therapy at HRC for a year, was stunned to hear now that the state attorney general has gone to court to shut down HRC Medical in order to "protect consumers."

The 160-page complaint filed Monday accuses HRC and its owners of running the company in a "persistently fraudulent manner" and repeatedly making "false and misleading statements" about its heavily promoted hormone replacement therapy.

The complaint also confirmed what NewsChannel 5 Investigates first reported back in November of last year, that HRC gave patients substantially more testosterone than they needed.

"I kinda grew a moustache," Moerschel shared.

She said she experienced what she described as extreme side effects from the therapy. She grew facial hair and her menopause symptoms went away.

"Some of the things that my body had gone through and I was kinda glad to see go away, came back and are still back," she said.

The attorney general says HRC patients were never told or fully informed of the potential adverse health risks.

According to the AG, Dr. Dan Hale, the company's former medical director, and other HRC managers told the company's salespeople not to mention the specific risks or side effects associated with the therapy because "we'll never have anybody come in here."

Perhaps most concerning is that the Tennessee Attorney General's Office now wants all of HRC's patients who took its hormone therapy to see their primary care physicians as soon as possible.

Many HRC patients have shared the same sort of experience during their visits to HRC. Susan Moerschel is one of them.

"How often did you see a doctor?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked.

"I did not."

"Ever?"

"No."

And, according to the complaint, HRC employees routinely falsified patients' medical records to make it appear that doctors had reviewed the charts, frequently signing the files themselves, even though they had no medical training whatsoever.