Is the Embr Wave 2 the Quick Fix for Hot-Flash and Night-Sweat Misery?

It’s a pretty well-established tool used in mindfulness training and in behavioral health: A pamphlet for the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Recovery Program at the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center (now the Richmond Veterans Affairs Medical Center) recommends that servicemembers with post-traumatic stress disorder run their hands under cool water as a way to turn their attention to the “here and now,” while sexual assault survivors at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) are instructed to touch cold water to bring the focus to “present moment safety.” The employee assistance program for Princeton University advises that people suffering from anxiety use grounding techniques like holding an ice cube to bring attention to the present and reduce panic and anxiety. 

But what about for menopause-related pain and discomfort? “While such a device would not be able to prevent hot flashes from occurring, it is certainly theoretically possible that such a device may lessen the perceived severity of a hot flash,” says Tara K. Iyer, MD, medical director of the Menopause and Midlife Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She was discussing not the Embr Wave specifically but a theoretical product similar to it. “Placebo-controlled research would be necessary to confirm the efficacy of such a product.” (Embr Labs, the manufacturer, doesn’t claim the Embr Wave 2 can prevent hot flashes.) 

To date, we couldn’t find placebo-controlled research on a device, like the Embr Wave, that uses temperature to soothe menopause and perimenopause symptoms. A small pilot study from 2019 found that perimenopausal and postmenopausal women who experienced insomnia as a result of hot flashes still reported having nighttime hot flashes while using the Embr Wave, though they reported that these hot flashes interfered less with their sleep. This study was funded by Johnson & Johnson, which has collaborated with Embr Labs.

The women in the study knew the purposes of the study, which could have biased the results. Another study, from 2020, found that the Embr Wave improved feelings of “thermal comfort” in moderate indoor environments. This study, while it did use the Embr Wave, had nothing to do with menopause.

“To my knowledge, there is minimal published research” on using cold or cool sensations to treat hot flashes, says Susan D. Reed, MD, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a past president of the Menopause Society. “This can be because it is understudied or it just doesn’t work.” She says women often describe throwing their hands and feet out from underneath their bed covers in response to hot flashes, but “I don’t think there is evidence that sleeping with feet and hands out from covers stops hot flashes from occurring. Just having a cooling device on the wrist makes no sense to me that this would keep someone from having a hot flash and doesn’t make much sense that it will really dissipate a hot flash.”