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• Posted November 14, 2025

Self-Hypnosis Can Thwart Hot Flashes

Self-hypnosis might help some women in menopause find relief from hot flashes.

Hot flash frequency and intensity decreased by more than 50% among women who listened to a daily audio hypnosis session, researchers reported Nov. 11 in JAMA Network Open.

“All sessions were self-administered hypnosis, which demonstrated that women could learn how to use hypnosis for hot flashes on their own with support and guidance,” said lead researcher Gary Elkins, director of Baylor University’s Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory in Waco, Texas.

“It can be practiced at home without needing to travel for doctor visits, and it is relatively inexpensive compared to in-person sessions,” Elkins added in a news release. “Once a person learns how to use self-hypnosis to reduce hot flashes and improve sleep, it can be used for other purposes such as managing anxiety, coping with pain and for stress management.”

More than 25 million women in the U.S. have hot flashes, with as many as 80% of women in menopause reporting these symptoms, researchers said in background notes. In addition, 96% of women with breast cancer have hot flashes after beginning treatment.

“While hormone replacement therapy is highly effective in reducing hot flashes, it is not a safe choice for everyone, and therefore, women need additional safe and effective alternatives,” Elkins said.

For the study, researchers recruited 250 women who were having a minimum of four daily or 28 weekly hot flashes.

Half were provided a 20-minute hypnosis audio file that they listened to every day for six weeks. The session focused on cooling imagery and suggestions for relaxation.

The other half got a sham audio file labeled “hypnosis” that consisted only of white noise, which they listened to daily.

After six weeks, the hypnosis group reported a 53% reduction in hot flashes, compared to a 41% decrease among the white noise group, results showed.

By three months, hot flashes had declined by 61% among the hypnosis group compared to 44% for those listening to white noise, the study found.

Nearly 90% of women receiving hypnosis reported feeling better, compared to 64% in the control group, researchers said.

Women with a history of breast cancer had the greatest benefit from self-hypnosis, with a 64% reduction in their hot flashes after six weeks, researchers said.

They next plan to test how self-hypnosis might improve sleep for women in menopause and breast cancer survivors.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on self-hypnosis.

SOURCES: JAMA Network Open, Nov. 11, 2025; Baylor University, news release, Nov. 11, 2025