E4Relief (Response to Estetrol in Life Improvement for MEnopausal-associated Hot Flushes)

Oestrogen therapy is the most consistently effective treatment used in the US and Europe for menopausal VMS. Following the safety issues reported in the primary Women's Health Initiative publications and with continued subject requests for treatment, a challenge to clinicians has been to identify the lowest effective dose of oestrogen for alleviating menopausal symptoms. In addition, it is a challenge to develop a safer oestrogen than those currently used.

For this purpose, the minimum effective dose (MED) of E4 has to be defined for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. The present study is intended to evaluate changes in frequency and in severity of moderate to severe VMS in order to define the MED.

Subjects will be randomly allocated to either treatment group (2.5 mg E4, 5 mg E4, 10 mg E4, 15 mg E4, or placebo) in a 1:1:1:1:1 ratio. All treatments (E4 or Placebo) will be administered once daily (QD) per os for at least 12 consecutive weeks until the last biological assessments (Day 90 maximum) have been performed.