Adapted from BMJ 23 Nov 24
Four in five women get hot flushes during the menopausal years. These can cause embarrassment, lack of sleep, low mood and problems concentrating. The main group of women who can’t take HRT to treat these vasomotor symptoms is women who have a personal or strong family history of breast cancer. Worldwide only 10% of women actually use HRT for flushes.
Fezolinetant is a new drug that reduces flush frequency, severity and sleep disturbance. It blocks neurokinin in the thermoregulatory centre of the brain.
The drug works within a week of starting treatment. So far it has been compared to placebo but not HRT. There were no side effects that required withdrawal from the trial.
This sounds like a very helpful medication for those women who cannot or don’t want to take HRT.
Other Women’s Health Updates
Women in the Nurses Health Study, who had a history of Endometriosis, Adenomyosis or Uterine Fibroids had worse total mortality ratings compared to women without these conditions. Premature death extended past the reproductive years and was measured to the age of 70. The causes included an increase in gynaecological cancers, cardiac disease, respiratory disease, other cancers and other causes. The reasons for this increase in total mortality is not clear.
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