Treatment for hot flashes

Hot flashes.  Many women treat these symptoms of menopause with estrogen.  That’s all very well, but some women find that the estrogen is causing them more migraine attacks – and that means jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.  Continuous estrogen therapy has been the best for some migraine sufferers.  But others still can’t get free of the migraine attacks.  But a Canadian-led study, published in the January issue of Clinical Science, may have a solution.

The answer may actually be a 40 year old treatment.  Medroxyprogesterone, a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, was found to be just as effective and safer than estrogen.  In the one year study, there was no evidence that the treatment caused blood clots, breast cancer, or migraine attacks.  This doesn’t mean help to alleviate migraine, just that the treatment will not cause attacks.

The author of the study was Dr. Jerilynn Prior, professor of endocrinology at the University of British Columbia.  She says,”As a doctor who takes care of women who have very bad hot flashes, the good news is that those with migraine headaches … now they have an equally effective choice.“