[Vasomotor sudden flushes (author's transl)].

The most typical disorder encountered during the menopause is the sudden flush, but the etiopathogenicity of these disorders is still a matter of hypotheses only. Increased levels of FSH and LH have been evoked ; recent cutaneous temperature studies have demonstrated a significant increase in LH but not of FSH, E1, and E2, during sudden flushes. The degree and rapidity of estradiol level variations have also been suggested as relevant factors. Current opinion conduces to be favoured with the involvement of gonadotropins, catecholamines, and indolamines, and perhaps prostaglandins at the hypothalamic level. Whatever the cause may be, vasomotor flushes are present in 55 to 75 % of menopausal women, and may be accompanied with sudoral crises, palpitations, or lipothymia. Women with a harmonious family life are better able to endure these disorders, treatment being most necessary when they result from a greatest disorder. Therapy is essentially estrogen therapy (after exclusion of cancer), progestogens, or veralipride, a non hormonal agent which produces 80 % of positive results, without apparently the disadvantage of estrogen therapy.