Most women believe that menopause means a number of unpredictable changes in bodies, mainly annoying and disruptive hot flashes. Hormone therapy has proved helpful for many women, but an estimated 50% to 80% are looking for non-hormonal relief.

Experts at the North American Menopause Society, reviewed the medical literature on non-hormonal hot flash treatments, and have supported a report published on Wednesday. They found a longer list of treatments that have not been proven to work as compared to the list of those that do, leaving many women unhappy.

Pauline Maki, a co-author of the group's position statement and president of NAMS, said that cognitive behavioral therapy teaches women ‘to bring down their stress response so the hot flashes are more tolerable’. Maki mentioned that the more stressed women are, the worse the symptoms will be.

Maki, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Illinois in Chicago, said that clinical hypnosis could sound a bit hokey at first, but now there are a number of randomized trials of hypnosis in which women don’t even report hot flashes.

Another treatment, paroxetine salt, has the Food and Drug Administration approval to treat hot flashes. Maki said that low-dose paroxetine lowers down the frequency of hot flashes and is an option that many with breast cancer have been considering. She mentioned that it's nowhere as effective as estrogen therapy, but is a good option for women who can't take HRT.