Anderson DJ, Chung HF, Seib CA, et al. - Researchers investigated the relationships between body mass index and smoking, and their joint effects with the risk of vasomotor symptoms as well as assessed the effect of the menopausal stage on the relationships. Data on 21,460 midlife women from eight studies (median age 50 years, interquartile range 49–51 years) for the cross-sectional analysis were obtained in the International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events. For the prospective analysis, data were derived from four studies (n = 11,986). At baseline, vasomotor symptoms were reported by nearly 60% of the women. Of these, half were overweight (30%) or obese (21%), and 17% were current smokers. The analysis revealed a substantially increased women’s risk for experiencing frequent or severe vasomotor symptoms in correlation to high body mass index (≥ 25 kg/m²) and cigarette smoking; this increase occurs in a dose-response manner; smoking was identified intensifying the effect of obesity. However, among postmenopausal women, an opposite effect of body mass index on the risk vasomotor symptoms was observed. The excess risk of VMS in midlife may reduce via maintaining a normal weight before the menopausal transition and quitting smoking before age 40 years.