A brand-new nonhormonal treatment for hot flashes has helped women who are experiencing disruptive menopausal symptoms during menopause get a better night’s sleep and experienced relief from their symptoms.
Elinzanetant and a placebo were compared at two different points in two phase 3 clinical trials. By the fourth week, the majority of those taking the medication reported at least a 50% reduction in the frequency of their hot flashes.
According to a study published on August 22, 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than 70% of those taking elinzanetant experienced a decrease in the frequency of hot flashes by week 12, compared to more than 40% of those taking a placebo. At the 12-week mark, participants on elinzanetant also reported significantly improved sleep compared to those on placebo.
Some women’s health internists and gynecologists have endorsed the drug as a promising new nonhormonal treatment.
The trials switched participants from the placebo to the drug after the first 12 weeks. A placebo effect is frequently observed in studies of hot flash treatments. This could be expected to some extent to the remedial ceremonies of the preliminaries, as per scientists.
By 26 weeks, 82 percent of the members who took elinzanetant the whole time, and in excess of 84% of those changed from the fake treatment, revealed basically a 50 percent decrease in hot blaze recurrence.
According to Professor Pinkerton, the finding that more than 80% of all participants benefited, regardless of whether they began taking the drug or switched to it halfway through the trials, is “pretty dramatic.”
In the progress to menopause, which flags the end of ovulation and feminine periods, the ovaries’ creation of the sex chemicals estrogen and progesterone changes and in the long run stops.
During the lead-up to menopause and for quite a long time later, people can encounter a scope of oppressive side effects, including hot flashes, night sweats, disturbed sleep, changes in mood, loss of concentration, vaginal dryness and urgency with urination.
During the menopausal transition, many women experience hot flashes, which can last for more than seven years in some cases.
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A narrowing of the body’s temperature sensitivity is thought to be the cause of hot flashes, making even a small rise in temperature feel like a blast of heat. Dilated blood vessels can cause excessive sweating and a flushed appearance as a result of the body’s overactive cooling response.
Chemical treatment — estrogen with progesterone or estrogen alone — is the best treatment for hot flashes and menopausal side effects that influence the vagina and the urinary plot (SN: 1/9/18).
The North American Menopause Society reaffirmed in 2022 that, missing specific medical issue, chemical treatment is a protected decision for ladies who are more younger than 60 or who start treatment in no less than 10 years of the beginning of menopause. Additionally, hormone therapy prevents bone loss caused by menopause’s decrease in estrogen.
According to experts, people who’ve had estrogen-sensitive breast cancer, prior blood clots, a history of stroke, severe endometriosis and migraines with aura are among those who wouldn’t be good candidates for hormone therapy.
Research focusing on a group of neurons in the hypothalamus — called KNDy neurons — that are involved in temperature regulation has led to the development of new nonhormonal treatments for hot flashes.
As estrogen levels decline, these neurons grow and become overactive, which stimulates production of certain chemical messengers. One of the messengers binds to a receptor found on KNDy neurons and on nearby thermoregulatory neurons, which appears to spur hot flashes.
A drug called fezolinetant, which blocks that receptor, received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023. The new drug, elinzanetant, targets that same receptor, but also interferes with another receptor displayed by KNDy neurons that may have a role in insomnia.
The participants in the two phase 3 clinical trials for elinzanetant were post-menopausal women 40 to 65 years old having 50 or more moderate to severe hot flashes during the course of a week. Headache and fatigue were the most commonly reported side effects by participants taking the drug compared with those on placebo.
There is a 52-week trial of elinzanetant assessing longer-term safety, while another trial is looking at how well the drug works for women receiving therapy for hormone-positive breast cancer (SN: 5/3/23).
Source: Sciencenews.org
