Self-guided hypnosis significantly reduces menopausal hot flushes, study finds

Daily self-guided hypnosis cut hot flushes by over 50 per cent in postmenopausal women, a new clinical trial has found.

The multicentre randomised clinical trial tested a six-week, self-administered hypnosis programme against a sham control using white noise.

It enrolled 250 postmenopausal women with frequent hot flushes — sudden heat surges that can disrupt sleep and daily life.

Nearly 25 per cent of participants had a history of breast cancer, a group often unable to use hormone therapies because of safety concerns.

Lead researcher Gary R. Elkins, professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory at Baylor, said the findings offer hope for women seeking non-hormonal options.

Elkins said: “It is estimated that over 25 million women in the United States have hot flushes, with up to 80 per cent of women in the general population reporting hot flushes during the menopause transition, and 96 per cent of women with breast cancer report hot flushes soon after beginning anti-cancer therapy.

He added: “While hormone replacement therapy is highly effective in reducing hot flushes, it is not a safe choice for everyone, and therefore, women need additional safe and effective alternatives.”

After six weeks of daily self-hypnosis audio recordings, participants reported a 53.4 per cent reduction in both frequency and intensity of hot flushes. At the three-month follow-up, hot flushes were reduced by 60.9 per cent, compared with 40.9 per cent for the control group.

Women with a history of breast cancer saw a 64 per cent reduction after six weeks.

The trial is the first to compare self-guided hypnosis with an active control, helping to separate treatment effects from expectancy or the placebo effect — improvement driven by belief rather than the intervention itself.

Elkins said: “This was a major breakthrough and innovation, as almost all prior studies of mind-body interventions have only used wait-list, psycho-education or simple relaxation to compare the active hypnotherapy intervention.”

He added: “Also, all sessions were self-administered hypnosis, which demonstrated that women could learn how to use hypnosis for hot flushes on their own with support and guidance.

“It can be practised at home without needing to travel for doctor visits, and it is relatively inexpensive compared to in-person sessions.

“Once a person learns how to use self-hypnosis to reduce hot flushes and improve sleep, it can be used for other purposes such as managing anxiety, coping with pain and for stress management.”

At 12 weeks, the hypnosis group showed greater gains in sleep, mood, concentration and quality of life. Nearly 90 per cent reported feeling better, versus 64 per cent in the control arm.

Elkins said: “We are very excited about the findings from this important study.

He added: “Our ongoing research aims to further determine how self-hypnosis can significantly improve sleep for breast cancer survivors and women in the peri- to post-menopause transition.”

Through this and other studies, Elkins and colleagues say hypnotherapy is the only behavioural intervention consistently shown to reduce hot flush frequency and severity to a clinically significant level in postmenopausal women and breast cancer survivors.