The North American Menopause Society releases its 2023 Nonhormone Therapy Position Statement

CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 1, 2023)—The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) has issued its 2023 Nonhormone Therapy Position Statement to provide women with the most up-to-date, scientifically based recommendations regarding proven nonhormone therapies for the treatment of bothersome menopause symptoms, such as hot flashes. The Nonhormone Position Statement, which provides CME for NAMS members, will be published today in Menopause, the official NAMS journal.

“Many women cannot or prefer not to take hormone therapy for hot flashes, but they are often unsure of what nonhormone options work and what doesn’t,” says Dr. Chrisandra Shufelt, Lead of the Advisory Panel for the 2023 Nonhormone Therapy Position Statement. “Now, with help from this Position Statement, healthcare professionals can confidently guide women to effective nonhormone therapies and steer them away from inappropriate or ineffective therapies.”

The Position Statement was developed by a NAMS Advisory Panel that included clinician-researchers with special expertise in nonhormone medical therapy, herbal therapy, behavioral therapy, and lifestyle approaches for vasomotor symptoms (VMS). They evaluated all the available literature on these therapies since the publication of the last Position Statement in 2015 to develop the recommendations.

The evidence-based review of the literature resulted in several recommended nonhormone options for the treatment of hot flashes, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, clinical hypnosis, weight loss, stellate ganglion blockade, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors/serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, gabapentin, oxybutynin, and the new, first-in-class FDA-approved medication, fezolinetant.

Therapies that were not recommended include paced respiration, supplements/herbal remedies, cooling techniques, avoiding triggers, exercise, yoga, mindfulness-based intervention, relaxation, suvorexant, soy products, cannabinoids, acupuncture, calibration of neural oscillations, chiropractic interventions, clonidine, dietary modification, and pregabalin.

“The good news for women is that there are many options available for the treatment of bothersome hot flashes, including several nonhormone therapies. We also have a better understanding of what is not effective so that women and healthcare professionals can target therapies that have been proven to work and avoid the wasted time, energy, and expense associated with ineffective or unproven remedies,” says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.

The 2023 Nonhormone Therapy Position Statement [Link to: https://www.menopause.org/docs/default-source/professional/2023-nonhormone-therapy-position-statement.pdf] is available on the NAMS website. To help women trying to make decisions about whether to use hormone therapy or switch to a nonhormone option, NAMS will soon release a MenoNote for patients that simplifies the information in the 2023 Nonhormone Therapy Position Statement. MenoNotes are free information sheets written by menopause experts that provide clear, easy-to-understand explanations of important menopause-related topics. This valuable information simplifies the more technical information contained in the NAMS Position Statement.

For more information about menopause and healthy aging, visit www.menopause.org.

Founded in 1989, The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) is North America’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the health and quality of life of all women during midlife and beyond through an understanding of menopause and healthy aging. Its multidisciplinary membership of 2,000 leaders in the field—including clinical and basic science experts from medicine, nursing, sociology, psychology, nutrition, anthropology, epidemiology, pharmacy, and education—makes NAMS uniquely qualified to serve as the definitive resource for health professionals and the public for accurate, unbiased information about menopause and healthy aging. To learn more about NAMS, visit www.menopause.org.