Concept Device Designed to Tame Menopausal Hot Flashes

According to the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), up to 80% of women experience vasomotor menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes and night sweats, when transitioning into and through menopause. Most of the women studied rated their symptoms as moderate to severe--significantly affecting quality of life. In fact, vasomotor symptoms are one of the chief menopause-related problems for which women in the United States seek medical treatment. To explore what women in menopause experience and to propose technology-based interventions, Cambridge Consultants recently partnered with the National Innovation Centre for Ageing, hosted at Newcastle University and Open Lab at Newcastle University’s School of Computing Science. They conducted a series of workshops to understand the impact of hot flashes, find out how women manage them, and establish a self-help technology to improve outcomes. “When a woman goes into menopause, her estrogen levels drop, and this tinkers around with the thermal balance, which is regulated by the hypothalamus in the brain,” said Nicola Millar, senior Programme Lead for Lifelong Health at Cambridge Consultants, in an interview with MD+DI. “And so the brain sends messages out that say ‘I’m overheating; I’ve got to get rid of lots of heat.' And these come from nowhe...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: R & D Source Type: news