Introduction
sweats, flushes/flashes, CHC
In population-based data, perimenopausal women, who have menstruated within 1-year, are as likely to experience night sweats and/or hot flushes (vasomotor symptoms, VMS) as postmenopausal womenVMS in We have only found two RCT that have tested estrogen-based VMS treatments solely in perimenopausal women. The first (1997), was a 6-cycle industry-sponsored RCT of a 20-µg ethinyl estradiol oral combined hormonal contraceptive (CHC) with 132 enrolled perimenopausal women of whom 74 experienced hot flushesProgesterone and estradiol complement or counterbalance each other’s effects in most tissues and cellsBased on the following evidence, we hypothesized that oral micronized progesterone would be an effective, well tolerated treatment for perimenopausal VMSProgesterone was superior to placebo in The 46 postmenopausal women in this RCT who had Severe VMS (> 50 moderate-severe VMS/week)Abrupt discontinuation of progesterone produced no rapid increase in VMS over 1-month in postmenopausal womenProgesterone levels are importantly lower in perimenopausal than in premenopausal womenThus, progesterone VMS treatment could be considered a “replacement-type” therapy in still-menstruating perimenopausal womenWe tested the hypothesis that progesterone would be effective for perimenopausal VMS with an RCT in community dwelling women who had menstruated within 1-year and who reported bothersome night sweats and/or hot flushes/flashes.