• According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 6,000 women reach menopause each day, and the majority come to know the discomfort of hot flashes: the building rush of heat that centers in the chest and climbs to the face. The tiniest pang of nausea, followed by a sense of anxiety and unease. The red cheeks and sudden outbreak of sweat, followed by a chill that's just as sharp and startling as the body quickly cools back down.
• While 80 percent of women have hot flashes, only 20 percent of the time are those hot flashes considered severe, involving profuse sweating, the face turning red, even sweating through the sheets at night.
• Doctors used to tell patients that hot flashes could last for 12 months. Now they're more likely to say they'll continue for up to five years, and some women continue having them into their 70s and 80s.
• Up to 45 percent of the time, hot flashes will recur in women when they discontinue hormone therapy but likely will be milder.
• Many bioidentical hormones, which are identical to women's own hormones, are FDA-approved and widely prescribed for hot flash treatment. These include estradiol patches and creams and some progesterone pills. But the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and most practitioners warn against the use of compounded bioidentical hormones, which are not FDA-regulated and can vary in quality and strength.
• So what causes hot flashes anyway? Why do hormone changes cause the hypothalamus, the part of the body that regulates body temperature, to go haywire? Doctors don't yet know.
– Anita Creamer
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