Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

Is it hot in here or is it hot flashes?? It�s a common refrain among the estimated 50 to 75% of women in the U.S. who experience hot flashes and/or night sweats during menopause.

It can be very mild, or bad enough to have you opening every window in the house, even in the dead of winter. Also known as �vasomotor flushing,� the flashes occurs when the blood vessels in the skin of the head and neck open more widely than usual, allowing more blood to shift into the area, creating the heat and redness. Perspiration is also common to the phenomena and in some women it takes the form of a night sweat, followed by a chill that has one groping for the covers kicked to the floor just minutes earlier.

Night sweats are on a continuum with hot flashes, occurring most often in the wee hours between 3 to 4 a.m., a common cause of sleep disturbance in menopausal women, many of whom say they wake drenched in perspiration. Usually triggered by falling estrogen and rising levels of follicle stimulating hormone, they arrive unannounced, and usually at a most inconvenient time�in the middle of a job interview, in the middle of an important speech, in the middle of the night.

Besides hormonal changes, anxiety and tension magnify this phenomena and many women find that hot drinks and wine do the same.