Daily HealthBeat Tip

The hot flashes are back.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Hot flashes, night sweats – they commonly come with menopause. And women who wanted relief sometimes turned to hormone therapy. Then research showed increased risks, such as for heart disease. Many women went off the estrogen-progestin therapy.

Now, research in the Journal of the American Medical Association says more than half of women who quit found their menopausal symptoms came back. Beverly Fiske was in the Women's Health Initiative study supported by the National Institutes of Health:

"The menopausal symptoms reoccurred, and I was uncomfortable – with hot flashes, with the mood swings." (10 seconds)

Fiske says she is off hormones and is letting time take its course. But researcher Judith Ockene of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester says some women may need hormones. Experts say treatment should be at the lowest dose for the least time.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August 25, 2005

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