<p>I usually get mine at night, although I’ve gone months without getting them hoping that meant I was done with them. No such luck. Sometimes they come back worse than they were before.</p>
<p>I’m perimenopausal. I had only had a few episodes of hot flashes, but had TONS of other issues, the worst being unbearable PMS, but pretty much everything you hear associated with the change–except bad hot flashes. </p>
<p>My doc thought super-low dose birth control pills were the ticket. And, they did ease the PMS and many other issues. However, they also nearly killed me. I got deep vein thrombosis which presented just like a charley horse, leg never swelled or turned red, it just felt like a muscle spasm. So I didn’t realize what was going on, until about a month later my allergies seemed worse than usual; I was a bit short of breath. Actually, discussing the problem here on CC made me realize that the 2 things might be connected, and might be bad. Went to doc, wound up in ER, nearly died/would have died had I not gone. I had multiple blood clots filling up both lungs. One more might have done me in. Many, many blood clot issues are ‘diagnosed on the autopsy table’ as they say, because many don’t heed or don’t get a warning. They just keel over dead.</p>
<p>So–though I know many people take HRT, think twice. I am slim, very fit, and had no history of any issues, and have no blood disorders that predispose me to clotting.</p>
<p>But to your actual question–after going off the birth control, I began getting horrible hot flashes while in the hospital. During the day, not too bad. During the night–really intense. They lasted for about 6 months and have tapered off. I think the sudden weaning from HRT actually brought them on in my case. I’m hoping they don’t return, but when I get them now I just think, oh, well–better this than dead! Exercise, lots of fluid, good diet, minimal caffeine and a cool bedroom seemed to help when they were at their worst.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever had one. But I seem to be hitting menopause very late, so that theory of early is bad, later is easier seems true for me. I dn’t think my mom had them much, either. Though my sister does.</p>
<p>I am fifty-eight and have had hot flashes since my early fifties. Now I have them very rarely and they are not severe in nature but there was a point that I had them numerous times a day and they were fairly intense. The most annoying part was that I would lose my concentration…it was almost like a mental “reset”. Thankfully I have never had full blown night sweats.</p>
<p>if I want to snuggle with my H at night, I pretty much have to be outside the covers.</p>
<p>I always like to wonder WHY these things happen to our body. I mean what is the adaptive reason for hot flashes if you look at the big picture? </p>
<p>I have a theory. Back when we lived in caves with barely enough to eat and not enough room around the fire, the hot flashes and mood swings made the infertile women cranky and mean. As a result, they could be thrown off a cliff with little guilt (or they would hurl themselves over while in the clutches of an internal combustion), thereby making more room and food and attention for the buxom young fertile women. I dare you to prove me wrong.</p>
<p>Elleneast–I get the mental lapses without the flashes. I’ll be standing in front of a class, ranting about, well, something (missing thesis statements, run-ons, citation errors, ???), and totally lose my train of thought. Talk about an absent-minded professor!</p>
<p>LMAO EPTR, Too funny and most likely true.</p>
<p>EPTR - I have always been amazed that, on a board full of women likely about to begin perimenopause, or who are close to menopause, that more of these threads haven’t been initiated. Thanks to baseballmom who was courageous enough to enter this territory.</p>
<p>My journey in perimenopause has been hellish, mostly manifest in debilitating anxiety which has led to all sorts of other problems. I’ve had every other possibility checked out, and aside from some hyperthyroid issues about a year ago, perimenopause is the only thing I can contribute most of my symptoms from. Unfortunately for me, they all snowballed, and it’s not been a pleasant year. However, I’m not quite sure I’ve had what most people would define as a hot flash. I’ve never broken out in a sweat, or turned beet red. I have had quite a few occasions where my skin feels like it’s sitting too close to a fire, almost prickly-like.</p>
<p>There’s so much out there about the use of HRT and BHRT; after doing my due diligence research on HRT and BHRT, I finally decided when and if hormone replacement therapy was something I should pursue, I would only use the BHRT. With all the information that came out with the Women’s Health Initiative, none of it was based on women who used BHRT, only women who use HRT. So I found a board-certified GYN who has only been prescribing BHRT for over 25 years now and he has the data to show that BHRT is completely safe (unless someone has other pre-existing conditions that contraindicate it), as opposed to HRT. I was getting my blood drawn about every three months for almost a year, just waiting for that one test that showed it was time to start replacing progesterone. My GYN looks at the ratio between progesterone and estrogen, and my estrogen has always been nice and high and progesterone within normal ranges. Finally at my last appt. my blood draw showed the ratio was high, so he started me on BHRT progesterone. I will say that, while it didn’t do what I’d hoped for the anxiety (although I’ve only been on it for a month now), those moments of prickly skin have all but gone away, so maybe there’s some hope for me.</p>
<p>EPTR - just curious, when your doctor said you were one of the worst cases of perimenopause, what else did you have going on that made your case so bad? If you’d be willing to share. I sometimes feel SO alone in this journey.</p>
<p>After about five years, I only get uncomfortably warm at night. Even then, I only have to throw off the covers a minute until I’m cool again. I, too, would like to WHY we get them. What purpose could they possibly serve? Burn off some extra calories? Keep our grandchildren warm when we snuggle them? Why?</p>
<p>My best friend has hot flashes that primarily manifest themselves as sweating eyebrows. Lol.</p>
<p>I think I am at the stage danceclass is at. It has been five years, and they seem to have subsided to the point now where I think maybe at night I’m feeling a little warm, but then I throw off my extra blanket, and I’m okay. And then after a few minutes, I’m too cold and put the blanket back on and the cycle starts again. Sigh. Although it didn’t eliminate them, drinking soy supplements helped (only a certain brand, though), and eventually I tried a black cohosh supplement that worked pretty well. Now, I mostly don’t take anything anymore, unless I start to feel a twinge of the old symptoms, and then I will make myself a soy smoothie or take the cohosh, and the feeling passes in a day or two. I have heard that they can revisit a person at any age. Not welcome news. But an occasional visit is manageable, I guess.</p>
<p>In all seriousness, the answer is most likely, there is no purpose. Things happen as people evolve and develop, that are artifacts of some other process or mutation. They don’t necessarily have a “purpose.”</p>
<p>I’d rather think that the negative physical things that affect us are not “there for a reason”. That would actually bother me more.</p>
<p>Like those green boxes, for instance.</p>
<p>10 years and still counting. Perhaps the early peri-menopause is the explanation as it started about age 45, but did use estrogen for several years early on. Once I stopped with that, the hot flashes returned with a vengeance. They are less intense, but pretty much a nightly event. Haven’t been able to use flannel sheets or anything but summer jammies for years and years. Figure it must be a permanent phenomena.</p>
<p>I’m going to lose all my reputation points by saying this, but honestly I never had any hot flashes or any kind of menopause symptoms. Just went from non-menopausal (according to the FSH test the physician ordered and regular periods) to menopausal in a year and a half. My thyroid went wacko and my Synthroid prescription which had been constant for several decades changed 2x but nothing else happened. I was not menopausal at 55, my period stopped a few months later after the FSH test (8) was run and that was it. I am menopausal as of last month finally (and happily) at 56 1/2 and my FSH last month was 80. I’m somewhat shocked as pretty much everyone I know had hot flashes. With the exception of my thyroid wacking out I’m just me…the same me only no more tampax in my desk drawer and purse.</p>
<p>Twelve years and counting. Often a glass of wine will trigger one. When they were really bad and i mean several an hour, I bought pretty folding fans. Gptmtired of using menus, coasters or whatever. Had two today. </p>
<p>In the midst of the worst of it, my husband could just look at me and go uh oh. </p>
<p>Best advice is dress in layers. No heavy sweaters. I also carried really mild wipes very helpful for back of neck to cool down. Mine would gomfrom just feeling warm to sweating in the oddest places, like i had just run five miles. Getting up and just standing outside. Leaving movies for a minute to get fresh air and such. </p>
<p>I am 52 now amd started menopause when I was 40. Sigh</p>
<p>Okay I cannot friggin’ believe it but I AM HAVING A PERIOD. Somehow I think it’s this thread’s fault. Got me thinking about all this stuff. I told some friends last week that my hot flashes were better but my breasts were sore (something I was used to three weeks of every four when I was on the pill). I have this sinking feeling that it was all leading up to this, and after this STUPID STUPID period stops, my breasts will go down but the hot flashes will return. Aarrrrgggghhhhhh.</p>
<p>P.S. And as to the why, I don’t think there is any. It’s just a body freaking out because the hormones are out of whack. We’re all supposed to be dead by now. Other species do not live beyond their childbearing years. (Yeah that’s my pleasant thought for the day but HEY–I’M HAVING A FREAKIN’ PERIOD.)</p>
<p>My doctor told me this: As your estrogen and progesterone levels drop during menopause, your body produces more of a brain hormone called gonadotropin hormone (GnRH) in order to force fertility. GnRH is also responsible for regulating heat sensors in the brain. </p>
<p>I have them on occasion. When I first started perimenopause, at 42, my periods got more frequent and I was having them during the PMS period. Then the periods started getting more sporadic and so did the flashes. I really only have one occasionally now though. I went 10 months without a period last year and thought I was almost officially in menopause when I had a period. I’m at the 10 month mark again and starting to think I’m really finished. I’ll be 48 in March. So, I seem to break the mold of “early” and having worse symptoms. </p>
<p>I do notice more anxiety, but I don’t know if that is menopause, a job that is very stressful, increased financial stress, being in grad school while working full time, or life changes that are making me more stressed in general.</p>
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<p>That is actually what I was thinking. My fictional pioneer woman didn’t have them because she died in childbirth.</p>