Menopause pill cuts hot f lushes by 75%

New drug could be first alternative to HRT since 60s

A BREAKTHROUGH drug could transform the lives of millions of women undergoing the menopause, cutting hot flushes and night sweats by nearly three quarters.

The results, unveiled yesterday by British scientists, suggest the new drug could become the first alternative treatment for the menopause since the development of HRT in the 1960s.

The Imperial College London team say the daily pills – which could be available within five years – provide hope for the many women who do not want to take HRT because of safety concerns.

Writing in the Lancet medical journal, they said: ‘It is estimated that a novel treatment for menopausal flushes could currently benefit ten million women in the UK alone.’

Their NHS-funded trial of the drug – known only as MLE4901 – showed that taking the pills twice a day reduced the severity and number of hot flushes or night sweats by 73 per cent.

Study leader Professor Waljit Dhillo, who presented the paper at the Endocrine Society annual conference in the US yesterday, said: ‘For day-to- day living and work, that’s a significant impact on quality of life. If we can reduce flushing by 73 per cent it’s a gamechanger for those patients.’

The menopause, which commonly strikes women in their late 40s and early 50s, is triggered when the body stops making the hormone oestrogen. This change causes a wide range of symptoms, including mood swings, joint pain and lack of concentration.

But hot flushes and night sweats are the most common symptoms, affecting 70 per cent of women going through the menopause. Severe episodes can lead to clothes and bed sheets drenched in sweat, as well as relentless waking from sleep, which has a knockon impact on their daily life. Hormone replacement therapy – or HRT – tackles the symptoms by providing oestrogen as the body stops producing it. But take-up plummeted in the early 2000s amid fears of side effects, including breast and ovarian cancer.

MLE4901 works by blocking a receptor in the brain linked to hot flushes. This means it works for only the one symptom – rather than the broad approach of HRT – but because flushes are the most common symptom of the menopause experts say it could benefit many. The success of a study involving 28 menopausal women has led to a much larger trial. Study coauthor Dr Julia Prague said: ‘For millions of women their menopausal symptoms are intolerable. It was so exciting to see the lives of those who participated in the study become transformed.

‘They could sleep through the night, and be less embarrassed in the daytime.’