Suzanne was sitting in an important meeting at work when her first 'embarrassing' hot flush happened

A new medication to treat hot flushes hits the Australian market today, and for sufferers like Suzanne Foot, it's a beacon of hope in getting her life back to normal.

Foot, a 49-year-old sales account manager, had her first perimenopausal hot flush a couple of years ago in the middle of an important boardroom meeting.

Just like the heat of the flush, the memory of it is seared into her mind.

"I was sitting in airconditioned comfort and all of a sudden I wanted to rip my jacket off, the back of my hair was wet and my makeup started sweating off my face," she says.

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Although there have been leaps and bounds in removing the stigma around menopausal symptoms at work, she says she felt mortified.

"I describe it to people as imagine you are severely embarrassed, and you can feel that flushing in your face. Imagine that all over your body, and then perspiration starts. It's like a heat from within. You can't explain it unless you've experienced it," she says.

"During the menopause, about 80 per cent of Australian women will experience either hot flushes during the day or sweats at night," says Professor Rodney Baber, Head of Menopause and Menstrual Disorders Clinic at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.

He emphasises the duration and severity of these symptoms varies, noting they "can last on average about seven years, and for some women for longer than 10 years."

"And about one in four Australian women experience those symptoms to such a degree that it interferes with their working life, with their daily activities, and it also disrupts their sleep," he says.

"So, they're really quite unpleasant things to have, and they're caused by loss of oestrogen, which occurs at the menopause."

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Despite these profound impacts, a study of Australian women aged 40-64 years showed that 85 per cent of women with moderate to severe hot flushes are not currently receiving any treatment. That's around 385,000 women.

However, Baber says new research and a new drug called Veoza has given a higher level of understanding of the problem, involving a brain chemical's role in this process.

"When those oestrogen levels go down, there are some neurons, brain cells up in the hypothalamus, which get bigger... it produces a peptide called neurokinin. And if you have too much neurokinin, that acts on another part of the brain which controls temperatures."

"We've just had approved by the Australian regulators a new non-hormonal oral tablet, which is a neurokinin B receptor blocker."

This new oral tablet, distinct in its non-hormonal approach, targets the excessive activity of neurokinin, aiming to address the temperature dysregulation responsible for hot flushes and night sweats.

According to the Jean Hailes for Women's Health, "There are many ways to treat hot flushes, but no other treatment has been shown to be as effective as oestrogen replacement therapy or Menopause Hormone Therapy (MHT)."

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MHT/HRT is still considered the gold standard for treating menopausal symptoms and can protect women from osteoporosis, heart disease, endometrial cancer and more.

However, it's important women have choice. For some, their main concern with menopause is hot flushes.

"We have had a few non-hormonal options available to us, but mostly they've been pharmaceutical products which have been approved for other uses, which we have found have had some benefit on hot flushes. But this is the first time we've actually had a non-hormonal oral treatment, which has been approved by regulators specifically to treat hot flushes," says Baber.

"And like hormones it's not for everyone. We still believe that oestrogen is the most effective treatment for most women's menopausal vasomotor symptoms.

"But there are some women who are not able to take hormones because of medical contraindications, and there are a lot of women who would rather not take hormones. For those women, this represents a really significant breakthrough and a new option to try and alleviate their symptoms and improve their quality of life."

For women like Foot, a drug to stop her night sweats would be a game changer.

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"The best way I describe night sweats for younger people is imagine you have the flu coming on and it's that hot and cold scenario. One minute you are hot and you're throwing the donna off and you are laying there in a pool of sweat, trying to cool down. And then about 10 to 15 minutes later, you've got a bit of a chill and you're putting the doona back on," she says.

"I've double sheeted my bed. I have a sheet, a mattress protector, and another sheet. So, after waking up with night sweats I can just whip off the top sheet and the top mattress protector and hop back into bed."

"But it's the broken sleep, that's a killer. I'm tired enough in this time of my life without not having good sleep. So, the thought of having a non-hormonal type of treatment, I would definitely consider it," she says.

Baber suggests that increased options and open discussions will contribute to destigmatising menopause.

"There's nothing shameful about having a hot flush or a night sweat. So please speak to your GP. Because there is certainly no reason to suppose there is not a treatment that couldn't be used to help you," he states, advocating for informed decision-making and the empowerment of women through knowledge and choice.

Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health professional with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition.

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