Women don't need hormone therapy to overcome bothersome hot flashes.
Researchers found that low-dose oral estrogen and low-dose non-hormonal venlafaxine hydrochloride extended release (XR) reduced the number of night sweats in women when compared with a placebo, a Brigham and Women's Hospital news release reported.
"Since the publication of the Women's Health Initiative findings, which demonstrated risks associated with ET and led to our current recommendations - that ET be used only at the lowest possible dosage for the shortest possible duration - there has been increased interest in non-hormonal treatments. Our new findings provide critical data for physicians and women making treatment decisions for hot flashes [and] night sweats. Our data show that first-line hormonal and non-hormonal pharmacological treatments are well-tolerated and effective options for alleviating symptoms," Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc, director of the Women's Hormone and Aging Research Program at BWH, and lead author of the paper said in the news release.
"Hot flashes and night sweats known as vasomotor symptoms (VMS) affect up to 80 percent of women in midlife and are the primary menopause-related symptoms leading menopausal women to seek medical attention," she said.
To make their findings the researchers looked at 339 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women who suffered from VMS.
After eight weeks of treatmen the frequency of hot flashes and night sweats decreased by "52.9 percent with estradiol, 47.6 percent with venlafaxine, and by 28.6 percent with placebo," the news release reported.
Estradiol proved to decrease the frequency of these bothersome symptoms by 2.3 more per day than the placebo; venlafaxine reduced the frequency of hot flashes by 1.8 more per day than the placebo.
The benefit of estradiol was found to be slightly more beneficial than venlafaxine, but this difference was found to be miniscule and statistically insignificant.
Both drugs were well-tolerated by the study subjects.
