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Nonhormonal Management of Menopause-Associated Vasomotor Symptoms: 2015

Position Statement of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

Many women cannot or prefer not to take hormones for hot flushes, but they are often unsure of what works, what doesn't, and what's safe. Now, with help from the new NAMS Position Statement "Nonhormonal Management of Menopause-Associated Vasomotor Symptoms," menopause practitioners can confidently guide these women to effective nonhormonal therapies and steer them away from underuse of effective therapies or inappropriate or ineffective therapies.

The new NAMS Position Statement and accompanying CME activity were published online in the Society's journal, Menopause, and will appear in the November 2015 print edition. The Position Statement is available to all on the NAMS website, where logged-in members can also access an educational slide set. In addition, members who wish to complete the CME activity online can log in and go to the CME Dashboard in the Member Center.

The Position Statement was developed by a NAMS Advisory Panel that included clinician-researchers with special expertise in nonhormonal medical therapy, herbal therapy, behavioral therapy, and lifestyle approaches for vasomotor symptoms (VMS). They evaluated all the available literature on these therapies to develop the recommendations. They concluded that

  • Two behavioral approaches and certain nonhormonal prescription medications have good evidence that they ease VMS, so providers can recommend these. Other lifestyle and behavioral approaches, treatments, and a supplement under study look beneficial, although they need further research. Providers can recommend these with caution.
  • Other supplements, herbal therapies, and vitamins have evidence showing that they are unlikely to be helpful, and the common advice to avoid triggers and use cooling techniques are risk free but have no evidence that they help, so providers should not recommend these at this time.
  • Even though they have some health benefits, other complementary approaches, such as exercise and yoga, have been shown not to be helpful for VMS, so providers should not recommend them for this purpose.

Reference

Nonhormonal management of menopause-associated vasomotor symptoms: 2015 position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause. 2015 Sep 21. [Epub ahead of print] DOI: 10.1097/GME.0000000000000546 

Content updated October 2015