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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 With hormone replacement therapy, there was an average reduction of two-and-a-half to three hot flashes a day, Nelson said. Whether that reduction is worth it depends on how many hot flashes a woman has in a typical day, she said.
Many doctors suggest that women with symptoms severe enough to disturb their life can take the lowest effective dose of hormone replacement therapy for the shortest period of time possible.
In an accompanying editorial in the journal, Dr. Jeffrey Tice, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, noted that all non-hormonal treatments have side effects. For instance, the antidepressant Paxil can cause headache, insomnia, anxiety and sexual dysfunction. And, he added, in the trials reviewed for the meta-analysis, the treatments were only studied for a few months, so there's no long-term research on their use for hot flash relief.
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"All antidepressants aren't created equal," he said. "The one antidepressant with the most consistent evidence [for hot flash relief] is Paxil."
For some women with milder menopausal symptoms, it may be enough to avoid triggers of hot flashes, such as spicy foods, and to drink cool drinks when a flash occurs, Tice said. "Start with that. If you don't need drugs, don't take them," he said.
Nelson also suggested other measures, such as layering clothes and removing them when hot flashes strike.
"Women with disturbing symptoms, if they are not eligible for estrogen, they should look at these other therapies and perhaps find some relief," she said.
More information
To learn more about menopause, visit the North American Menopause Society (www.menopause.org ).
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