# Hot flushes on hormone therapy

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/hot-flushes-on-hormone-therapy/  
OnCo record `hot-flushes-on-hormone-therapy` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Sudden waves of heat and sweating caused by losing testosterone: the commonest complaint on hormone therapy for prostate cancer.

## Summary

They range from under three minutes of feeling warm to hours of sweating that needs a change of clothes or bedding, and they often disturb sleep. NICE NG131 offers medroxyprogesterone 20 mg a day for an initial 10 weeks and then evaluates it, with cyproterone acetate 50 mg twice a day for 4 weeks as the second option. In a randomised trial of 309 men, the median daily hot-flush score fell by 83.7 percent on medroxyprogesterone, 94.5 percent on cyproterone and 47.2 percent on venlafaxine at one month.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-25
- Also known as: vasomotor symptoms in men; hot flashes

## Sources

- NICE NG131: prostate cancer, diagnosis and management: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng131/chapter/Recommendations
- Prostate Cancer UK: hot flushes: https://prostatecanceruk.org/prostate-information-and-support/living-with-prostate-cancer/how-hormone-therapy-affects-you/hot-flushes
- Irani et al., venlafaxine, medroxyprogesterone acetate and cyproterone acetate for vasomotor hot flushes (Lancet Oncology 2010): https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(09)70338-9

## Connected records

- cancers: [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- terms: [Intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD)](https://onco.cc/terms/intermittent-androgen-deprivation/)

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