Menopause Hot Flashes

Everything You Need to Know about This Dreaded Symptom and How to Stop It!

The single most common symptom of Menopause: Hot Flashes!

It is understandable that you probably just want to find the best treatment for your symptoms right away. We understand that you are probably as miserable as we were and care only about making your hot flashes stop.

But it is also important to understand a little bit more about what is going in on your body. This will help you to make sure that your symptoms are really menopause related. It will also help you with selecting the best treatment.

This article gives you all this information about menopause hot flashes:

• Symptoms - to find out if what you experience is "normal"
• Causes - to understand what is going on in your body
• How to stop hot flashes- to get your life back to normal.

Keep in mind that not every treatment will work equally for every woman. There is probably some trial and error involved. If you just want to find out about your treatment options, follow this link.

Hot Flash Symptoms

Feelings of intense heat, sometimes all over the body, sometimes just in the upper body or the face are the hallmark of hot flash symptoms. At the end of an attack, which can last from under a minute to half an hour, women can feel cold and get chills all over.

Each woman experiences her own kind of "power surges" in menopause:

• Some women have them during the day
• Others suffer mostly at night (night sweats)
• Some have a single "hotflash" with the accompanying face "flushing",
• Others have several of them in clusters without turning red.

The frequency and intensity of hot flashes increase over the course of perimenopause and are at their worst for the first 2 - 3 years of the postmenopausal period.Only about 25% of postmenopausal women still have symptoms 5 years after they stop having a period.

Many women are concerned by the intensity of their hotflash attacks. Because the symptoms are often more than just feelings of heat, they want to know if this is "normal" (as if something like this could be considered such).

If you have any questions about your menopause hot flashes symptoms follow this link.

What Causes Hot Flashes

The causes of menopause hot flashes and night sweats are complicated. A hot flash is a vasomotor symptom. Originally, it was thought that the drop in estrogen was the culprit, hence the prescription of estrogen hormones as a treatment.

Now we know that the mechanisms are much more complicated and that the temperature regulation in the brain is affected.

The sensory system is sending a wrong signal to the brain that the body is getting overheated. This triggers the normal reaction to cool the core body temperature down. The result is a hotflash.

Other conditions can lead to hot flashes and night sweats (such as infections, autoimmune disorders etc.) and men can get them as well (usually because of a sudden drop in testosterone).

Science has come a long way to explain the mechanics of the symptoms but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. If you want to understand more about "What Causes Hot Flashes?" follow this link.

Help for Menopause Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

Now that you understand what causes hot flashes, you are probably eager to find out what to do about them. You probably also understand why a cure for hot flashes is so complicated. After all we are dealing with brain functions, neurotransmitters, hormones and genetics all at the same time.

But there ARE several effective treatments to help your symptoms:

• Hormone therapy - still the gold standard and the only FDA approved treatment
• Natural remedies for hot flashes including herbs
• Alternative treatments such as lifestyle changes, acupuncture, relaxation techniques etc.
• Prescription drugs that were developed for other illnesses but have been found to treat menopause hot flashes as well.

Which treatment will work for your symptoms depends on numerous factors like:

• The severity of your symptoms
• The stage of menopause you are in
• Genetic differences
• Your personal preferences
• Your lifestyle
• Your health history

It is always a good idea to start with the least invasive and most natural choice such as simple lifestyle changes or herbal remedies. Only if these don't work, go for the heavy guns such as hormone treatments or prescription drugs.

Hotflash treatments are not an "all or nothing" approach. You may find that some natural treatments can alleviate your symptoms in a way to make them bearable.

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