Menopause night sweats
Menopause night sweats

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Menopause night sweats

Menopause night sweats

menopause-night-sweats1Menopause night sweats affect well over half of all menopausal women, and they can be a real source of pain, discomfort and even embarrassment. Women dealing with the agony of menopause night sweats can often feel angry, frustrated and totally helpless to solve the problem.

However, it is important to remember that menopause night sweats are just part of the same biological transition that every woman must experience. As with many conditions, attitude, diet, and other lifestyle factors can play a big part in mitigating the effects of menopause night sweats.

Menopause night sweats? What’s that?

The distasteful definition of menopause night sweats is pretty straightforward. Menopause, of course, is the series of hormonal imbalances and fluctuations experienced by women who are transitioning from the reproductive to the non-reproductive phase of life. Menopause night sweats are caused by these same hormonal imbalances. At night, oftentimes the body’s hypothalamus, or temperature-regulating system, will interpret a drop in estrogen levels as an unusually high body temperature. Based on this reading, it immediately signals the body to discharge an immense amount of heat, which vacates the body in the form of sweat – quite a lot of sweat, as many women can attest.

Menopause night sweats can be rather unpleasant, necessitating a change of nightclothes and bed sheets in the middle of the night, along with causing the sufferer to wake up in a fit of anxiety or disorientation. The stress involved with menopause night sweats can cause many women to despair, but rest assured, there is help for menopause night sweats.

Continue reading to find out how to successfully treat menopause night sweats.

How can menopause night sweats be treated?

The good news about menopause night sweats is that there is a variety of treatment options that don’t require a trip to the doctor. In fact, many of the ways in which menopause night sweats can be treated are as simple as taking a glass of water with dinner instead of wine.

menopause-night-sweats2Avoiding alcohol, hot drinks, spicy and acidic foods, saturated fats, and tobacco will all help immensely in preventing the occurrence of menopause night sweats. It will also help to drink plenty of water, exercise three to five times per week (a sedentary lifestyle has been proven to exacerbate menopause night sweats), take cold showers before bedtime, and wear moisture-wicking clothes to bed. All of these have been reported as effective by sufferers of menopause night sweats.

However, if relief is not found from any of the methods listed above, some women may wish to turn to medical remedies. Medical remedies for menopause night sweats include acupuncture, herbal remedies, and hormone replacement therapy (HRT). All of these have been used, with varying degrees of success, to treat menopause night sweats.

The most effective treatment for menopause night sweats is herbal remedies, which work in harmony with the body to stimulate natural production of estrogen and restore hormonal balance. Acupuncture has also been reported as very effective in treating menopause night sweats, although many are suspicious of it. Finally, HRT, while also proven to be very effective, carries along with it a well-documented risk of developing heart disease, several types of cancer, strokes, and blood clots.

Conclusion: Take a personalized approach to menopause night sweats.

The truth is that there is no one miracle cure for menopause night sweats. Women are all individually different and it is up to each woman (and if necessary, a physician) to determine what the best treatment method is. Women should listen to and support the body during menopause and try not to become frustrated when dealing with the unpleasant side menopause, especially menopause night sweats. Click here to read more about treatments for menopause night sweats.

Other Related Articles:
What do night sweats indicate?
What causes heavy night sweats?
Understanding Night Sweats Causes
The causes of Night Sweats

Sources:
  • The National Institute of Health. "Signs of the Menopausal Transition." www.nih.gov.
  • Boston Women's Health Collective. "Hot Flashes, Night Sweats and Sleep Disturbances." Our Bodies, Ourselves, 2006.
  • Von Muhlen, DG, et al. "A community-based study of menopause symptoms and estrogen replacement in older women." Maturitas. Sept 1995; 22(2):71-8.