have a menopause question- hot flashes

[mopinko]

wondering what older women here have experienced re how long hot flashes last after menstruation has ceased. i know that they can go on for a long time. i am still getting them, and it has been several years.

how bout you? feel free to post in the third person, or to relay your info as- when my aunt....

[NV Whino]

1. I was one of the lucky ones

Early menopause and very few hot flashes.

Some of my friends, on the other hand, have had severe and long-lasting hot flashes. There doesn't appear to be any standard. Hang in there, it does go away

[lizerdbits]

11. Just curious

What age was early for you? Of course that's a little nosy, so you don't have to answer if you're not comfortable. :)

I started taking bcps at 33 (a year ago) for severe bloating after 7 months with no period and noticed it helped my sleep and night sweats. IF I'm getting it early, which might not be the case since 2 docs have refused to run FSH saying I'm too young and maybe my problems are from something else, I've never had anything during the day that resembles a hot flash.

[Raven]

2. I get them once and a while and it's been 15 years. n/t

[NMDemDist2]

3. LOL, I still get power surges

not as bad, not as often but like clockwork when I lay down most every night

it's been 8 years.....

[Hepburn]

4. Had one hot flash, maybe....

...but then from what I have heard from my gal pals ~~ we all are well over 50 ~~ there is a HUGE difference in what each of us experienced.

One of us had symptoms like you described and went to her MD ~~ not sure what went on, but things did not get that much better according to her.

Don't know what to tell you...but hope you find and answer and things get better. I would venture to say that help with these kinds of problems probably is not much of a priority with our medical system.

Edit for typo

[Howler]

15. I feel you!

I'm 49 and I still have occasional hot flashes they don't bother me as much as the heart palpitations though.
The Doc calls them panic attacks but I never had panic attacks before I started going through the change.

[Thirtieschild]

5. I didn't fit the mold so don't panic, but mine lasted for 15 years

They would start in the back of my head and engulf my face. I would even steam up the windshield of the car if I was driving when one hit. I couldn't take hormones so had to suffer through them. They seemed to be worse when I was (1) hot, or (2) emotional. Moving to a cool, dry climate helped, finally stopped them.

[Career Prole]

6. My wife's been dealing with it for going on two years now.

I called her to check so I didn't give an inaccurate third-person report. :)

[ensho]

7. lasted a couple of yrs. and none since

(I've wondered if physical activity got all those hormones out of the body sooner. plus breast movement gets rid of fat,etc. quicker then breasts in bras 24/7)

[aintitfunny]

8. They are less frequent after 5+ years

I did not have the "Power surge" hot flashes so much as I was always overheated. After 5 years or so, I am finally feeling cold sometimes, where before I felt like a constantly running furnace. Just this year there seemed to be some improvement, but I have been told by many that it did not go away completely.

[Siwsan]

9. Phytoenstrogens might help

Estrogen from plants. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts. There are also some over the counter things that contain herbs, that might help.

[enlightenment]

10. My mother still gets them at night.

That would be upward of 35 years. I think that's unusual, though.

Mine are getting less frequent, after about three years of 'kill me now. Better yet, stand still and I'll kill you'. Mostly just at night now, and after I shower (so helpful, that, to get one right after I'm cleaned up).

I don't medicate - I have no interest in HRT, since once you start it you are pretty much committed to it. I tried some of the soy products and they seemed to help a little, but not much. Easier just to muddle through.

[aquart]

12. You mean they're supposed to go away? When?

[NMDemDist2]

13. here's a thread on that topic that's still going on after 4 years LOL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=270&topic_id=30&mesg_id=30

[mopinko]

23. omg! nt

[gblady]

14. I am one of the lucky ones....

very few...and none for years now...
I found mine to be very diet related...
sugar and coffee guaranteed them for me.

[roody]

16. I like them. I had been cold all my life.

Also dress in layers so you can take off sweaters, shirts, down to a tank top.

[mucifer]

17. I'm getting more used to them. I'm 43 and they started a few years ago.

[Kceres]

18. I've been on HRT for almost two years now and I still get them.

Almost every time I stand up from lying down, wake up from being asleep, and spontaneously throughout the day. My HRT dosage is very low and I'm keeping it that way on purpose. I supposed my symptoms would be much, much worse without the HRT. I'm 51 BTW.

[Hardrada]

19. hot flashes

I'm wondering the same thing. Someone told me they don't last forever but it has been over 4 years now. At first I liked them - it was like a zingy feeling but then I started waking up really hot and sweaty. I am taking a HyVee product that is like Estroven (just soy and black cohosh, etc) which my doctor recommended. I think it is helping. I still get kind of a zingy feeling inside when I'm trying to get to sleep.

[classof56]

20. A nurse once told me hot flashes could last for the rest of my life.

That was a few years past menopause, and I was on HRT (Premarin), intended to keep taking the pills forever. Then I had serious medical complicatons because of the HRT, so had to give them up. So--here I am, a few weeks shy of 71, and still experiencing hot flashes mainly in the middle of the night. We live with what we have to, I guess, and the issues I dealt with caused by the Premarin make the hot flashes tolerable by comparison. I tried an herbal alternative, it didn't work. I'm sure Premarin works fine for most post-menopausal women, as it did for me for many years, and I do recommend it if your medical provider prescribes it or another HRT. My hot flashes started when I was 48, working a very high-stress job, dealing with teenage kids and aging parents--I needed all the help I could get and my gynecologist okayed the HRT (after me assuring him I wasn't pregnant--kinda funny when you think about it!). So here I am, in my 8th decade of life, loving being a grandmother, pursuing my lifelong dream (writing), active and generally in good health. While the hot flashes continue, I remind myself that things could be much, much worse!

This is probably more than you wanted to hear! You have my best wishes for a long and healthy life, even if beset with those annoying, maddening power surges (as I've heard them called). Not one of the better joys of womanhood, but a reminder, perhaps, of how special we are!

Classof56

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

21. there are some meds that have hot flashes as a side effect

just a FYI. I was having sort of hotflashes at 45, and discontinued a prescription
drug and they immediately stopped.

I later read the fine print of that med and it mentioned that it could cause
(in some people) excessive sweating, night sweats, change in hair texture, and
feeling hot. (not exact wording but you get the gist).

So other than that, no other hot sweats for me, and I am almost 50.

[remember2000forever]

22. I've My Own Personal "Weather" in excess of 20 years!

[mopinko]

24. my oh my. in all my time at du, i don't think i have ever had a thread

take off like this! pretty funny!

just a little more info about me- i mostly ask because i have some autoimmune stuff, sort of indeterminate, maybe lupus, maybe not. been watching it for several years, an no seriously symptoms, so i guess it is not going to kill me any time soon.
but, my night sweats are the big question. and the 'power surges'- are they fevers, are the flashes?
so, mostly just trying to figure out what is something normal, and what might be related. i went a while without any, and then they started back up recently. since i had some skin things erupt also, i am just wondering if i should talk to my rheumie.

with all the other things about this mortal coil that cause me trouble, this stuff is a minor pain. but i seem to be in some good company!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

27. Google the Lupus Lady.... if you care to. Just a friendly

recommendation... ciao!

[WVRICK13]

25. I'm A Guy But

my mother (86 years old) and my sister (not telling her age, I want to keep living) were both having hot flashes until they went to a holistic practitioner who referred them to an endocrinologist. He found they both had over active parathyroids. It also seems the normal thyroid test do not take the parathyroid into account. Once regulated they are both cool calm and happy. It's worth a look see.

[Warpy]

26. Mine started when the monthly misery stopped

and were every 41 minutes for about 3 years. 10 years down the road, they're about every 2 hours but can come in clusters, maddening in the middle of the night, nothing to do but get up and do something constructive until the damned things go away.

I snagged an extra Premarin pill about 2 years in, decided to give myself a good night's sleep. Big mistake. It gave me a migraine within 20 minutes and I remembered just why I could never take birth control pills. HRT is out.

Herbal stuff just hasn't worked at all, nor has eating tofu until it comes out of my ears (good thing I like the stuff).

What galls me is that they still don't know what sort of cascade starts them off or how to treat them, beyond giving us hormones our bodies say we should no longer have and exposing us to a far greater risk of various other diseases.

If men got these miserable suckers, we'd have had massive studies, would know every single thing happening within our bodies to cause them, and have an array of generic drugs that would treat them without risking our lives down the line.

[rocktivity]

28. Menopauses are as unqiue as pregnancies, unfortunately

One of my sisters found that she didn't get morning sickness if she stopped eating before 7PM the night before, and another of my sisters found that SHE didn't get morning sickness if she ate something right before she went to bed!

I'm finding than menopause is the same way. I've had mood swings, a drop in sex drive, and hot flashed, but nothing extreme, and it all seems to be behind me now. But maybe that's because I didn't wait until I started having symptoms: I've starting taking Estroven the day I turned fifty, and extra calcium the day I hit forty.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[BonnieJW]

29. I am 59 and

started menopause right on time at 50. Hot flashes and sleepless nights. I have been taking bio-identical hormones for five years. I feel fabulous. No flashes, no sleepless nights, no brain fog. I get hormone levels tested every year and sometimes the doses get tweaked. My levels are kept at pre-menopause levels. As you doctor if he/she is familiar with bio-identicals and they aren't, find a compounding pharmacy and ask the pharmacist which doctors he fills hormone prescriptions for. That's the doctor you want. That's how I did it.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

30. Menopause is only threatening

. . . but as my sister already went there, I figured I should prepare. Started taking black cohosh and vitex, which both help to even out the hormonal surges and eliminated the flooding that suddenly became an issue. Vitex is actually a great all-purpose herb and can eliminate everything from PMS symptoms onward. Both herbs are pretty cheap (around $5/mo total for capsule form) and don't seem to have side effects or contraindications to taking them long term.

[nightrain]

31. consider taking bio-identical estrogen and progesterone cream.

My Nurse Practitioner prescribes it, and it's safer than pill-form of hormone replacement therapy. I haven't had a hot flash in a several months, and am slowly decreasing my dose after about 6 years on it. Good stuff since the herbs etc weren't effective.

[Why Syzygy]

32. Are the bio-identical

hormones NOT linked to the same vascular/heart warnings as synthetics or non-identical? It always comes up in my exams, due to ongoing smoking behavior :blush:

[nightrain]

33. My Nurse Practitioner tells me that the main problem with

staying on the bio-identical creams is breast cancer.

Can you do something about the smoking?? Most States have quite a few options available free or low-cost for smoking cessation.

Very sadly, my sister, 65.5 years old and a 50 year smoker, recently had a stroke, and is to have an ultrasound to rule out an abdominal aortic aneurysm which is life-threatening if not treated. All of this is related to her smoking and the vascular consequences. Very scary. She's doing the nicotine patch now and is being very successful for 10 days now.

[taurus ascendant]

34. I think too many toxins in the system...It's like getting a fever...

Having a 100% natural diet would be the best thing. No caffeine, etc.