Hydroquinone is used to gradually lighten the skin that has become dark or skin that has developed dark patches due to many skin problems. These include melasma-skin darkening due to exposure to sunlight especially in women using oral contraceptives (birth control pills), during pregnancy, or on hormone replacement therapy during menopause (hormonal drugs to replace deficient hormones in the body), freckles (clusters of dark spots on cheeks, nose, arms, and upper shoulders that start appearing at a very young age) and solar lentigines (also called ‘age spots’ are brown or black spots on the face, hands, shoulders and arms-areas that get exposed to sun light).