The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), considered by some to be the respectable authority on Women’s Health, published new menopause guidance this month. The version it replaces came out in January 2014, when the newest iPhone was the 5s.
Twelve years. Some of you have been waking up at 3 a.m. in damp sheets for most of them.
The new document is Clinical Practice Guideline No. 13, Management of Menopause-Related Vasomotor, Sleep, and Mood Symptoms. It went online October 15 and appears in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. I was excited to read it and see what guidelines will be informing care for the next one to two decades. .
Short version? Hormone therapy is worth the effort. Was any of this actually news? But anyways, let’s dig in…
The headline: hormone therapy is the strong recommendation
For hot flashes and night sweats, ACOG now recommends systemic hormone therapy: estrogen alone if you have no uterus, or estrogen with a progestogen (progesterone or a progestin) if you do. The progestogen is there to protect the lining of the uterus.
That word "recommends" matters. ACOG grades its advice in two strengths. "Suggests" means the balance depends on the woman and her preferences. "Recommends" means the benefits clearly outweigh the harms and burdens, and most women who fit should receive the treatment. Hormone therapy for hot flashes got the latter, a recommendation backed by moderate-quality evidence.
The guideline is specific about which hormones it means. They do not support progestogen on its own, DHEA or testosterone for hot flashes, sleep or mood, citing a general lack of benefit and their side effects. The star of the show is estrogen, and the estrogen your own ovaries made is 17β-estradiol.
ACOG gives the same strong recommendation for sleep concerns. If you fall asleep without too much trouble and then wake two or three times a night, hot or simply just wide awake, this one is about you.
The details that count: In a pooled analysis of 15 trials, women on hormone therapy rated their sleep better (Pan 2022). Estradiol delivered through the skin (a patch, gel or spray) and regimens built on 17β-estradiol showed the largest improvements. Among the progestogens, only micronized progesterone and medroxyprogesterone acetate were linked to better sleep.
For hot flash frequency itself, ACOG cites a large analysis built for the UK’s national menopause guideline (Sarri 2017). It pooled 32 randomized trials of more than 4,000 women who still had a uterus and compared ten treatments, from estrogen pills and patches to antidepressants, soy isoflavones, black cohosh and acupuncture. Estradiol absorbed through the skin, paired with a progestogen, was superior: women using it had about a quarter as many hot flashes as women on placebo. Oral estrogen with a progestogen also worked, ranking a step lower, though the gap between patch and pill was too small to call a true difference. The analysis came out before the newer neurokinin drugs, so they weren’t part of the comparison.
An important limitation: most of these trials enrolled women who had hot flashes. Whether hormones improve sleep in a woman with no hot flashes at all remains an open question. Objective sleep testing in a lab also did not move the way women's own ratings did.
ACOG on the WHI cancer data
In its counseling section, the guideline tells clinicians they may need to address the misreading of earlier hormone trials, specifically the overemphasis on breast cancer risk. It lists that misreading beside stigma about aging and the marketing of menopause supplements as reasons women avoid treatment.
The trial behind most of that fear is the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), published in 2002. ACOG walks through why its results are hard to apply to the women most likely to want treatment today:
About two-thirds of WHI participants were 60 or older, averaging 63, well past the years when hot flashes usually peak
Every woman took the same regimen: oral conjugated equine estrogens (an estrogen mixture taken from pregnant mares' urine), with or without the synthetic progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate
Observational data suggest that regimen may carry more clot risk than estradiol through the skin with or without micronized progesterone
Then there is the label on the box. In 2025 the FDA asked makers of menopause hormone products to remove the boxed warnings for cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and probable dementia (FDA 2025). The new labels instead advise starting before age 60 or within 10 years of menopause for the best balance of benefit and risk. ACOG's guideline now matches that language.
Credit where it's due: WHI investigators including JoAnn Manson and Jacques Rossouw spent two decades reanalyzing the trial by age and timing, and their work will help so many women in the years to come.
The honest numbers
Fun aside, here are the risks ACOG reports. They come from a 2025 Cochrane analysis of the WHI regimens (Bofill Rodriguez 2025), compared with placebo, and they are counted per 1,000 women.
| WHI regimen | Stroke | Blood clot (VTE) | Invasive breast cancer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral CEE + MPAEstrogen plus a synthetic progestin, median 5.6 years | about 5 | about 10 | about 5 |
| Oral CEE aloneEstrogen only, women without a uterus, median 7.2 years | about 8 | about 5 | No increase |
Numbers are extra cases per 1,000 women compared with placebo. CEE = conjugated equine estrogens. MPA = medroxyprogesterone acetate. These risks are for systemic hormones in the WHI, where most women were 60 or older. Sources: ACOG Clinical Practice Guideline No. 13, Obstet Gynecol 2026;148:e345–e369; Bofill Rodriguez 2025, Cochrane.
Age and timing impact the outcome. In women who started hormone therapy before 60 or within 10 years of menopause, a Cochrane review of 19 trials (Boardman 2015) found a lower risk of coronary heart disease, a similar risk of stroke and a higher risk of clots compared with placebo. In a 2025 reanalysis of WHI women who had hot flashes (Rossouw 2025), those aged 50 to 69 showed no significant rise in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Women 70 and older, however, did show a rise. Clot risk is also where route matters most. ACOG advises clinicians to look carefully at personal and family clot history and to consider transdermal estrogen for those with documented risk factors.
These numbers apply to systemic hormones specifically, that meaningfully rise the body’s estrogen levels. Low-dose vaginal estrogen for dryness, painful sex or repeat urinary infections is a separate conversation with no such evidence of risk, and menopause guidelines support it at any age.
Timing: the benefit window, and beyond
Ok, great, so: ACOG recommends starting hormone therapy before age 60 or within 10 years of a natural menopause. And if you're 63 and miserable? The guideline leaves the door open. It says the decision to start later should be individualized, through a shared conversation about your symptoms, your goals and your risk of cancer, clots, stroke and heart disease. That conversation takes time, and deserves its own visit with a specialized clinician, I do not recommend trying to fit this visit into your annual wellness (your provider and insurance also do not generally consider this as part of an annual visit).
The same goes for stopping. ACOG says some women need to continue past 60 to manage symptoms that still affect their lives. There is no set expiration date on using hormone therapy. The decision should get revisited regularly, with recognition that both taking and not taking hormones has its own risk/benefit profile that looks different for everyone.
Systemic hormone therapy isn't for everyone. ACOG lists these as reasons not to use it:
Vaginal bleeding that hasn't been explained
Breast cancer, now or in the past
Certain uterine and ovarian cancers, now or in the past
Coronary heart disease
A blood clot, stroke or heart attack, now or in the past
A known clotting disorder
Liver disease
Pregnancy, known or possible
If one of these applies to you, the options in the next section are where your conversation starts. A few women with early-stage endometrial cancer or high-grade serous ovarian cancer may still be candidates, decided together with a gynecologic oncologist.
A few practical points from the guideline worth knowing:
Efficacy and side effects get checked about 3 months after starting, then every 12 months
Spotting in the first 3 months is common; bleeding that starts or continues after 6 months gets evaluated
A 52 mg levonorgestrel IUD can protect the uterine lining (off-label) and provide birth control, and should be replaced after 5 years when used this way
If you're still having periods, the need for contraception gets assessed until age 55
Where the evidence stops
Hormones are an important part of women’s health, but they are not a cure-all. The guideline is decisive about where the data is still lacking.
Mood. ACOG found the evidence insufficient to recommend for or against hormone therapy to treat depressive symptoms. The available trials suggest it may help in perimenopause and may boost the effect of an antidepressant. In postmenopausal women it has not beaten placebo for depression. If you meet criteria for major depression, or depression is the main thing you're living with, ACOG says it gets treated on its own terms, with antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy as first-line options.
This tracks with the physiology. Falling estradiol and progesterone shift serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine and GABA signaling, along with the stress-hormone axis. Your history matters too: a past episode of major depression is the strongest predictor of depression during the transition. Hot flashes, broken sleep and mood often travel together, and the SWAN study (Maki 2026) found strong two-way links between hot flashes and sleep, and between hot flashes and mood.
Supplements. ACOG found that the evidence does not support soy isoflavones, other phytoestrogens or herbal supplements for hot flashes. The trials it reviewed were small and used different products, doses and lengths. Supplements also are not regulated by the FDA for purity or dose, so two bottles with the same label can hold different things.
If hormones are off the table
The alternatives with evidence behind their use:
| Option | ACOG grade | What it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Neurokinin receptor antagonistsfezolinetant, elinzanetant | Recommends | Hot flashes; elinzanetant also helps sleep |
| SSRIs and SNRIsparoxetine, escitalopram, venlafaxine and others | Recommends | Hot flashes and depression |
| Gabapentin | SuggestsWhen the options above don't work or aren't tolerated | Hot flashes |
| Cognitive behavioral therapy | Suggests | Hot flashes, sleep and mood |
| Mindfulness-based practicesincluding yoga | Suggests | Sleep and mood |
| Exercise | Suggests | Sleep and mood |
| Clinical hypnosis | Suggests | Hot flashes, sleep and anxiety |
| Acupuncture | Suggests | Hot flashes, sleep and mood |
Recommends means benefits clearly outweigh harms for most women. Suggests means the balance depends on the woman and her preferences. Source: ACOG Clinical Practice Guideline No. 13, Obstet Gynecol 2026;148:e345–e369.
The neurokinin drugs are the new kid on the block. They block a signal in the hypothalamus, the brain's thermostat, that runs hot when estrogen falls. Both call for liver function monitoring: fezolinetant carries a boxed warning with testing through the first 9 months, and elinzanetant's label recommends testing before you start and again at 3 months.
If you take tamoxifen, ACOG advises generally avoiding paroxetine and fluoxetine. Both can block your body from converting tamoxifen into its active form.
Even clinical hypnosis made the list. In one trial, five weekly sessions cut hot flash frequency by about 74%, against 17% with a sham session (Elkins 2013). The evidence is graded low quality, but the risk is little more than your time.
Most of the nonpharmacologic options work best layered on top of medication. ACOG frames them as part of a whole-person plan, because your full picture is more than just this or that treatment.
In closing
If you were told years ago that hormones were off the table, it may be time to ask again. There is a clearer understanding of the risks and benefits than ever before, and women deserve this important treatment.
About the author. Kailia Wray, CNM, APRN, MN, is a board-certified nurse midwife with 20 years in reproductive and hormonal health and a clinical focus on metabolic and hormonal care. She is licensed in Oregon and Washington and founded Recalibrate Women's Wellness. Read more about Kailia.
Medically reviewed by Kailia Wray, CNM, APRN, MN. Last reviewed October 2026.
This post is for education and entertainment purposes, not individual medical advice. Talk with your own clinician before starting, changing or stopping any medication or supplement.
References
American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists. Management of menopause-related vasomotor, sleep, and mood symptoms. Clinical Practice Guideline No. 13. Obstet Gynecol. 2026;148:e345–e369.
Bofill Rodriguez M, Yong LN, Mirkov S, et al. Long-term hormone therapy for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025;(11):CD004143. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004143.pub6
Boardman HMP, Hartley L, Eisinga A, et al. Hormone therapy for preventing cardiovascular disease in post-menopausal women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;(3):CD002229. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD002229.pub4
Elkins GR, Fisher WI, Johnson AK, et al. Clinical hypnosis in the treatment of postmenopausal hot flashes: a randomized controlled trial. Menopause. 2013;20:291–298. doi:10.1097/gme.0b013e31826ce3ed
Maki PM, Inan Eroglu E, Janssenswillen C, et al. Associations between vasomotor symptoms, sleep disturbances, and frequent mood changes across the menopausal transition and early postmenopause: observations from SWAN. Menopause. 2026;33:673–682. doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000002725
Pan Z, Wen S, Qiao X, et al. Different regimens of menopausal hormone therapy for improving sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Menopause. 2022;29:627–635. doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000001945
Rossouw JE, Aragaki AK, Manson JE, et al. Menopausal hormone therapy and cardiovascular diseases in women with vasomotor symptoms: a secondary analysis of the Women's Health Initiative randomized clinical trials. JAMA Intern Med. 2025;185:1330–1339. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.4510
Sarri G, Pedder H, Dias S, et al. Vasomotor symptoms resulting from natural menopause: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of treatment effects from the NICE guideline on menopause. BJOG. 2017;124:1514–1523. doi:10.1111/1471-0528.14619
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA requests labeling changes related to safety information to clarify the benefit/risk considerations for menopausal hormone therapies. 2025.
