Experimental pill can ease hot flashes for menopausal women, study finds

More than 75% of women experience menopause-related hot flashes during their lives — and an experimental pill could help ease them, a new study suggests.

In a study published in JAMA Thursday, researchers found the drug, elinzanetant, demonstrated "statistically significant reductions" in the frequency and severity of hot flashes for women in menopause — without the use of hormones.

Not using hormones in the drug is important because it's not a safe option for everyone, Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said on "CBS Mornings" Friday .

"Some women cannot take hormones, so maybe they've had breast cancer, heart attacks, stroke, blood clots," she said, adding some women are also afraid to take hormones. "This dates back to a study that was done over 20 years ago on hormone replacement therapy. There were a lot of problems with that study, and now, in retrospect, we understand for the vast majority of women, hormone replacement therapy is safe, and I think that's really important to emphasize that, because a lot of women are not using it, who could be using it, but now we have some alternatives for women who can't or don't want to take hormone replacement."

The two main side effects seen in the clinical trials were headache and fatigue, but longer-term effects are still unknown.

"This is on data that's been reported out to 26 weeks of use. So obviously, women would be on these medications for much longer. Are there longer term side effects? We don't know," Gounder said.

Exactly how soon the medication could be available is also unknown. But Bayer, the company that makes it, submitted an application over the summer to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and expects to hear back in September.