Women Need Treatment for Hot Flashes. Why Is This So Hard?

Dr. Goddard is an endocrinologist.

My first inkling that people couldn’t get their hormone medication was a phone call from a patient in December. She’d been my patient since 2022, when chemotherapy for colon cancer had damaged her ovaries and put her into menopause, triggering hot flashes and night sweats that wrecked her sleep. Her doctors at the time had dismissed her concerns and told her she didn’t need hormone therapy.

This happens all too often. Women are told that menopause is “natural” and are expected to just deal with it. Together, my patient and I decided hormone therapy could help her.........

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