Partners of women going through menopause will be invited to experience hot flushes using a menopause simulator at a support event in Hull next month.

Health group Over The Bloody Moon will bring one of its MenoVests to the Menopaus’ull Support Network event, allowing people to experience a hot flush.

Sarah Weichardt, who co-manages the project, said: “We’re particularly interested in getting men along to come and experience the MenoVest, just so that they can understand what women go through.

“It’s not just a hot flush, it’s what the hot flush brings with it.

“So it could be panic, it could be anxiety. It’s experiencing it all at the same time.”

MenoVest is billed as the ‘world’s first’ wearable menopause simulator – a garment worn over regular clothing that generates realistic, intense hot flush sensations while the wearer carries on with everyday work tasks.

After just a few minutes wearing it, people gain a genuine sense of what these symptoms feel like, building empathy and highlighting why better support matters during this transition.

Weichardt said she hoped the vest would give people a “better understanding of what women are going through”.

“The more people we can get to experience it, the better,” she added.

Short-term oral HRT was linked to a 60 per cent higher rate of serious blood clots in women aged 50 to 69, a large study found.

The increased rate was seen among women using oral hormone replacement therapy for less than a year as well as those treated for more than five years.

By contrast, transdermal HRT, delivered through skin patches, gels or sprays, was not associated with the same increased clot risk.

Researchers at North Zealand Hospital in Denmark analysed health registry data from more than one million Danish women aged 50 to 69 between 2003 and 2021.

During the study period, 9,807 women experienced venous thromboembolism, a serious blood clot in a vein. A further 18,460 had a stroke and 11,974 had a heart attack.

Each affected woman was matched by age with five women who had not experienced the same condition. Researchers adjusted the analysis for other factors, including medical history, that could influence risk.

They then examined HRT prescriptions, including the dose and duration of treatment, and looked for associations with blood clots, stroke and heart attack.

Overall, oral HRT was associated with a 60 per cent higher rate of venous thromboembolism, with increased rates seen for both oestrogen-only therapy and treatment combining oestrogen with progestogen.

Venous thromboembolism occurs when a blood clot forms in a vein. A clot in a deep vein can break away and travel to the lungs, causing a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism.

Women taking oral HRT for less than a year had the same raised blood clot risk as those using it for more than five years.

Even a daily oral dose below 1mg was found to significantly increase blood clot risk.

Women taking a daily oral dose above 1mg for more than five years had an 80 per cent higher risk of both heart attack and stroke.

For women taking a high oral dose for more than one year, the study found a 40 per cent higher risk of heart attack and a 50 per cent higher risk of stroke.

The researchers highlighted the importance of choosing the type, dose and duration of treatment carefully, particularly for patients vulnerable to blood clots.

Dr Robert Storey, professor of cardiology at the University of Sheffield, who was not involved in the research, said the findings demonstrated the importance of ensuring cardiovascular risk factors were “well controlled” in women taking oral HRT.

He added: “The study emphasises the superior safety of patches over oral treatment.”

Mira has launched an at-home cortisol tracking kit that allows women to monitor stress-related patterns over time using urine samples.

The Cortisol Pattern Kit measures urinary free cortisol directly from a urine sample and displays results through the company’s existing monitor and app.

The system is intended for repeated testing rather than a single measurement, allowing users to compare results with a personal baseline built from their own data.

Mira said consistent daily testing can establish a baseline in about a week. It recommends testing in the morning and evening to see how cortisol patterns change throughout the day.

Cortisol is involved in the body’s stress response but is not a direct or complete measure of stress. The company said the kit is intended for general wellness use and is not designed to diagnose stress, an endocrine condition or any other medical condition.

The Cortisol Pattern Wands use the same lateral-flow testing format as Mira’s existing hormone tests. Users dip a wand into a urine sample, insert it into the Mira Monitor and view the result in the app within minutes.

The company said cortisol data can be viewed alongside cycle, hormone and daily routine information.

Sylvia Kang, founder and chief executive of Mira, said: “The Cortisol Pattern™ Kit gives women a new way to understand their stress patterns over time, in the context of their own biology.”

She added: “We built Mira to give women answers they had spent far too long searching for, beginning with the TTC journey and expanding into hormone and cycle tracking across life stages, including perimenopause. Now, we’re taking Mira beyond reproductive health and into everyday wellness, bringing personalised stress-pattern tracking directly into women’s homes.”

Mira said more than 350,000 women already use its platform to track their cycle and hormones.

Waitlist sign-ups for the Cortisol Pattern Kit and Cortisol Pattern Wands opened on 22 September, with wand refills available to pre-order in 20- and 30-count options.