Hot Flashes

Hot flashes are one of the most common symptoms experienced by women around the time of menopause. In fact, approximately half of all perimenopausal women and 75 to 85% of all post menopausal women experience hot flashes.

While the onset, duration, frequency and severity of hot flashes varies greatly between women, hot flashes often begin one or two years before a woman's last period and last anywhere from six months to fifteen years.

Hot flashes are caused by hormonal fluctuations that occur during the menopausal transition. Fortunately, treating this underlying hormonal imbalance naturally and making simple lifestyle changes can greatly help a woman manage this symptom. Read on to learn more about hot flashes, their symptoms, causes, management, and treatment.

About Hot Flashes

What are Hot Flashes?

Hot flashes, also called "hot flushes," are a vasomotor symptom of menopause. This means that hot flashes can disrupt the usual functioning of the vascular and motor systems of the body, causing intense heat, perspiration, and other symptoms ranging from mild to severe.

The duration and frequency of hot flashes varies from woman to woman. Hot flashes can occur at any time of the day or night, though they are often called night sweats when they happen during sleep.

Women with menopause-related hot flashes will usually experience a consistent and unique pattern of symptoms. Some women experience mild symptoms of hot flashes infrequently, while others have more severe symptoms more than once daily.

While each woman will experience the symptoms of hot flashes in a pattern unique to her, some women are at a greater risk for more severe and prolonged hot flashes. Women taking the breast cancer treatment drug tamoxifen may experience more severe and prolonged hot flashes. Additionally, women who go through rapid menopause will often experience hot flashes more severely and for a longer duration.

The most common cause of hot flashes in menopausal women is changing levels of estrogen in the body. Diminished amounts of estrogen have a direct effect on the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for controlling appetite, sex hormones, sleep, and body temperature.



Lowered levels of estrogen confuse the hypothalamus, causing it to inappropriately sense that the body is overheating. This provokes an internal chain of reactions that women experience as "hot flashes".

In addition to these completely normal hormonal causes of hot flashes, other medical conditions can cause hot flashes.

Thankfully, women who experience hot flashes during menopause have several ways to manage hot flashes in order to reduce their frequency and/or severity. In many cases, simple steps can be taken throughout the day to prevent or allay hot flashes. Also, Avoiding the common triggers of hot flashes is another important way to combat hot flashes.

Simple daily changes can greatly help a menopausal woman manage hot flashes:

Daily behaviors can have a significant impact in woman's experience of hot flashes. For example, eating a spicy dinner or having one too many glasses of wine with dessert can trigger hot flashes. Increased stress due to work pressure or family obligations can also set a hot flash into motion. Lifestyle adjustments are two-pronged: some strategies focus on avoiding triggers while others concentrate on increasing overall health (some overlap in the two exists, as one would expect).