The high-profile doctor accused of advocating experimental doses of oestrogen in the treatment of women at her menopause clinics has defended her clinical practice.

Dr Louise Newson’s appearance as a headline speaker at a Sydney medical conference in March has already triggered criticism from one of Australia’s leading doctors, Professor Susan Davis, an endocrinologist and former president of the Australasian Menopause Society.

“Dr Newson advocates that, if someone is on oestrogen as a patch or gel and the symptoms are not going away, just keep hiking up the dose. And if you hike up the dose of oestrogen, you have to hike up the dose of progesterone,” Professor Davis said.

“But we have no breast cancer safety data for these high doses. It is like experimenting on women outside of a clinical trial.”