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Historical perspective| Volume 3, ISSUE 2, P115-123, August 1981

Thyrotropin-releasing hormone and the menopausal hot flash

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5122(81)90003-7
Thyrotropin-releasing hormone and the menopausal hot flash
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      Abstract

      The possibility that the sudden discharge of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) in the brain triggers the climacteric hot flash was tested (double-blind) by an intra-venous, bolus injection of 500 μg of TRH into 7 post-menopausal women and 1 menstruating control. Temperatures and sweating were recorded continuously on the recumbent subject during the 2-h test. None of the women reacted either subjectively or objectively to the placebo. TRH induced gastric pain in 1 post-menopausal subject. In another subject TRH elicited no response during the first test, but a week later in a second test it evoked transient nausea and a series of hot flashes with bursts of sweating. Published results of animal studies suggest that a higher dose of TRH would probably stimulate hot flash-like responses in more women.

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      Article info

      Publication history

      Accepted: January 23, 1981
      Received: October 8, 1980

      Identification

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5122(81)90003-7

      Copyright

      © 1981 Published by Elsevier Inc.

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