Menopause and hot flashes: a “hormone-free” drug seems promising

Hot flashes affect the vast majority of postmenopausal women and often have a significant impact on their physical and psychological well-being. To counter them, various treatments exist, but a new experimental drug “without hormones” would seem quite promising. The point on this discovery, published in the review The Lancet.

Fezolinetant would limit the frequency of symptoms by half

While many women use hormonal treatments to try to reduce their hot flashes, not all of them can take them. This is particularly the case for those who have suffered from phlebitis or breast cancer.

Faced with this major problem, researchers have listed the non-hormonal alternatives available to postmenopausal women. This is how the drug “Fezolinetant” appeared at the top of the list.

According to a study based on 2205 women divided into several groups, the frequency of symptoms in those who received the drug was reduced by just over 50% compared to the placebo group.

A formidable efficiency which would be explained by the mechanism of action of Fezolinetant: it would act on the area of ​​the brain in charge of regulating body temperature.

This selective neurokinin-3 receptor antagonist would also have the (not insignificant) advantage of being non-hormonal – and therefore “at lower risk“, according to some experts.

But for Antonio Cano, head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Spanish hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia and co-author of the study, the results of the study would be “a little below what hormonal treatments offer“.

With the exception of women who have had cancer, “the treatment that should be used in the general population is therefore hormonal“, although Fezolinetant may be a second option for women who refuse this type of treatment.