Health experts from a wide variety of disciplines, including bioengineering, physiology and the behavioral sciences are conducting ongoing research to not only understand the causes of hot flashes, but possibly find a better way to collect data and measure the hot flashes. This in turn should help experts better determine which treatments work and which do not.

Some of the current research that is being conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) includes:

• A better understanding of the physical processes that lead to hot flashes
  
  
• Ways to improve the sterna skin conductance systems (which measure the rise in skin temperature during a hot flash)
  
  
• The development of additional tools to identify hot flashes
  
  
• A better system for collection of data from women enrolled in clinical trials that use diaries or questionnaires on hot flash frequency
  
  
• Better means for collecting information on the intensity and interference with a woman’s daily activities
  
  
• The development of animal models of hot flashes to test complimentary and alternative medicines that have been proposed to manage hot flashes

Other studies hope to determine why, unlike in the United States, hot flashes are uncommon in certain parts of the world. Research is focusing on explaining which environmental factors in the United States may cause a higher incidence of hot flashes.