<p>I’m hoping the ladies are willng to share how many months or years they endured hot flashes. It time consuming to keep ripping off my clothes and then re-dressing! Conveniently, we are empty nesters, so it’s only my husband to gets a strange striptease show several times per evening.</p>
<p>My mom still gets hot flashes, and she’s in her 60s. So 10-15 years. (Sorry.)</p>
<p>I feel your pain. I have been having them for about 2 years, although they are decreasing in frequency over the last few months. Sometimes, it goes a week between episodes, then I’ll have them 2 or 3 times a night for a couple of days. I mostly get them at night now. I think it’s different for everybody. My friends have gone from having them for a few months to more than 2 years. I hope yours are short lived!</p>
<p>My trick was to rush to the refrigerator, lift my shirt and press a large bottle of something cold against my stomach. It helped me, though I wouldn’t suggest doing it when you are visiting someone else’s house. :p</p>
<p>I had night sweats for about a year, then hot flashes for 3 years. Nothing for the last 5 and now I am getting them again. Grrrr</p>
<p>My mom is going on almost a decade now. </p>
<p>She uses my old minifridge by her bed and puts an ice pack on her head when she wakes up in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>wow, I am very fortunate as I almost never have hot flashes, in menopause, last period two years ago. so keep in mind, less frequent is also a possibility.</p>
<p>well, I think you got your answer: years, baby! ;)</p>
<p>Has anyone tried those otc herbal/vitamin supplements (like Estroven) that are supposed to relieve symptoms?</p>
<p>So you don’t have hot flashes till you are in menopause?</p>
<p>Oy. baseball–all I know is it’s <em>very</em> individual. I’m pretty sure I missed the beginning of menopause because I was on the pill until last spring. I started symptoms pretty soon after I went off them. BUT (and this is the part where I find a HUGE piece of wood to knock on), they’ve really tapered off the last few weeks. My sleep has gotten better. I’m really thinking (hoping??) that for me it was kind of a 6-8 month event. I should tell you I think they weren’t the absolute worst I’ve heard of. Several times during the days, a few more at night, but not the soak-through-your-jammies type.</p>
<p>FWIW, my sister (18 months older) is having a worse time with it and is considering going on HRT. Keep in mind if it becomes unbearable, that is an option. (And I have to say mine were not fun but not unbearable.)</p>
<p>My mom is still having several hot flashes per day at 81. My sister and I have never had one. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. :0)</p>
<p>I was through with menopause at 42. Started having hot flashes around 39 and had them until I was about 47. I was a text book version of the worst possible menopause ever suffered by any female ever in the history of females. My doctor told me that the earlier you go through it the worse the symptoms are and I will attest to that.</p>
<p>I had them all day everyday for weeks on end and night sweats to go along with them. Each flash was preceded by a feeling of extreme agitation/annoyance/murderous rage. Thats when I knew one was coming. They were cyclical, weeks of flashes followed by a respite and then they would return.</p>
<p>I did try the herbal stuff. It didn’t stand a chance against these monsters. At the time I was menopausal, the study on hormone replacement and cancer came out so I didn’t go on them. My doctor prescribed Effexor (I think it was) and said that it was shown to be effective in reducing symptoms. I never actually took it though. Interestingly, years later, I went on Lexapro for anxiety and found that my flashes diminished. My doctor said that there was no known connection but I notice even now, if I miss a dose or two, the flashes come back a bit.</p>
<p>You have my deepest sympathy.</p>
<p>I grew up in the north but am quite cold intolerant. I have lived my adult life in a very warm climate and it has always suited me. I don’t feel quite alive until summer. I have always taken the heat very well…until hot flashes!!! I am so disappointed that I can’t take heat anymore. I can’t figure out how the pioneer women did it…it’s summer, it’s 105 degrees, you’re cooking for your family over an open fire, you’re wearing a long dress with long sleeves and a high collar, then you have a hot flash…how did those women not harm everyone in their path?!</p>
<p>It’s also a pain because I am still cold intolerant…but then when I bundle up and then have a hot flash I feel panicky.</p>
<p>Thank you for allowing me to vent!!!</p>
<p>I’ve just started having them the last few months. What a pain! I do NOT like heat - that’s why I moved out of Texas! I can’t believe that I’m getting hot in Maine in December. No fair! I wake up and the sheets are drenched.</p>
<p>Years. 
:(</p>
<p>^ What emilybee said. Still having them 2 years post-menopause, though not as frequently. They cluster - I’ll go months without one, then have several each day for weeks. My mom was on HRT for 20 years to deal with the hot flashes, went off it in her early 70s, and then started up with hot flashes again. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the product is, but I love the commercial where the woman of a certain age, in a nice business suit, gets on a crowded elevator and starts tearing her jacket off. Captures the feeling perfectly!</p>
<p>Mine aren’t terrible, but I’ve been getting them since 2003. I know one is coming because I get terribly thirsty. They’ve been less frequent lately. I prefer menopause to the alternatives but, again, my symptoms aren’t so bad. I never were a sweater I can’t remove in public.</p>
<p>My experiences have been like frazzled’s where I’ll think I’m done and then they will come back. I work with many women in this stage of life, and found that just like this thread, we all experience it differently and the hot flashes can last for years or just one year. I think I’ve been having them for about 3 years now. They are less intense now.</p>
<p>For me they were sometimes brought on in situations where I was under pressure, which made them even more awkward.</p>
<p>I am also in the had them for years camp. I had a friend I ate lunch with regularly and she would look at me and say “you’re having one now aren’t you?” as I would turn bright red. Also didn’t help with my rosacea at all - that was probably when it got to it’s worst. I did go on HRT which really helped with both the hot flashes and my emotional basket case state. Luckily when I finally came off it the hot flushes had stopped for the most part. Not sure they prescribe HRT anymore, but the time it was worth any associated risk to me.</p>
<p>My Mum said she never had them, so it does vary from person to person.</p>
<p>Or Mum lived in the arctic and thought it was fine…LOL! I always remember Oprah referring to it as “my own personal summer” which somehow put a new spin on it. Unfortunately, just when you figure they’re gone forever, it shows back up.</p>