A med for hot flashes is getting a new black box warning.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/menopause/111922

After just a year on the market, Veozah is getting a black box warning for liver failure and biliary complications. This drug has been touted as a “non-hormonal” option to treat hot flashes in peri/menopausal women. What does it do? It messes with receptors in your brain that control your body temperature. Sounds totally safe to me. Not.

The drug requires that liver lab monitoring be performed a month after starting the drug to ensure the liver is tolerating it.

Also of concern, much like our friend Paxlovid, this drug has known interactions. Patients who take Veozah are not to take any drug that uses the CYP450 1A2 pathway to metabolize medications. What are some of those drugs? Luvox for mental health, leukotriene medications for asthma, antacid medications, ESTROGEN, antibiotics such as cipro, caffeine, and medications for restless leg syndrome.

Here is the press release by the FDA: https://www.fda.gov/media/181764/download

Wanna know how to treat hot flashes without messing with your brain temperature regulation center? Go see a functional medicine provider, have your hormones checked, and use bioidentical hormones to treat it. There are reasons that healthcare providers ignore that treatment option, they blame it on the cancer risk and push these new fangled drugs instead. Another news flash is that progesterone and testosterone are needed in peri/menopausal women as well. It isn’t all about the estrogen.