United States: Over 75% of women experience hot flashes during menopause, but a new pill might help. A study published in JAMA found that the drug elinzanetant significantly reduced the number and severity of hot flashes.
The best part?
This pill doesn’t use hormones, which can be unsafe for some women. Dr. Céline Gounder, a medical expert, highlighted the importance of this breakthrough on “CBS Mornings.
Expert Weighs In
“Some women cannot take hormones, so maybe they’ve had breast cancer, heart attacks, stroke, blood clots,” she said, and some women are also scared to take hormones.
”This goes back to a study that was done more than 20 years ago on hormone replacement therapy, and frankly there were a lot of issues with that study now in retrospect we know that for 99 percent of women hormone replacement therapy is safe and I think it is important to underscore that because many women are not using it who should be, but we finally have some options for women who should not be or do not want to be taking hormones.”
Potential Side Effects and Unknowns
Two of the most common side effects experienced in the clinical trials include headache and fatigue while the long-term effects have not been ascertained.
This is on data that’s been reported out to 26 weeks of use. So, of course, women would be on these medications for way longer than that. Are there long-term side effects? The answer is no one knows.
As is also the case with the time span a medication could be produced within and how soon it could be out on the market. Yet the makers of the drug, Bayer, applied for its permit over the summer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with a response expected to be out in September.