Living With Hot Flashes

By Connie Hambrock, PhD

For many women in menopause, hot flashes maybe a daily annoyance. For some women, hot flashes or hot flushes as the NIH refers to them, can be much more serious.According to the NIH studies, hot flushes are associated with poor sleep, depressed mood, decreased quality of life, and may worsen depressive symptoms signaling the onset or relapse of a major depressive episode.

Hot flushes may possibly mark underlying vascular changes that are associated with subclinical cardiovascular disease, increased aortic calcification among users of hormone therapy, greater incident of coronary heart diseaseand may be a risk factor for poor bone health.

The peak prevalence of hot flushes occurs approximately one year after menopause, but the overall duration of hot flushes is unclear. Clinical guidelines indicate that the duration of hot flushes for most women is about six months to two years. However, theaverage duration of hot flushes was more than five years in the Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project, and the median duration was four years in a meta-analysis of 10 previous hot flush studies, with 10% of the women reporting hot flushes 12 years after the final menstrual period.

In another NIH study”data suggests that anxiety and negative thoughts effect the subjective perception of hot flashes. Therefore, future studies utilizing multi-component interventions should clearly match study components to relevant outcomes. Evidence supports that an intervention utilizing relaxation-training/paced respiration to influence sympathetic tone, cognitive/behavioral strategies for stress and negative thoughts, and behavioral strategies for sleep would impact the actual number and psychological experience of hot flashes and improves sleep parameters.”

What that means is that stress reduction through relaxation methods such as hypnosis, meditation and yoga practices can help greatly with controlling hot flashes. The study continues by saying that consistent practice of these relaxation methods must be maintained in order to be effective. As with any other practice, consistency is key.

Because menopause it caused by hormonal changes that cause reactions throughout the body no one treatment has been found effective for everyone. Here are some other measures that have also been found helpful in the comfort level and health of women experiencing hot flashes