How long hot flushes last

Try these tips to stay cool, calm and collected. Avoid triggers. Try keeping a diary for a few weeks to see whether you notice a link or trigger. Dress lightly. Wearing lighter clothing made of natural, breathable fabrics, such as cotton, silk or soft wool, might help you to keep cool. Go for looser styles rather than tighter ones. During the colder months, wear a few light layers so you can easily take clothes off when you feel a hot flush coming on.

Layer your bed linen. The same principle applies at bedtime. Try to keep your room cool. Rather than using one heavy duvet, try layering a few light blankets and sheets made from natural fabrics. Use a fan. Keep a fan in your bedroom and on your desk for times when you need to cool down. You can also carry a battery-powered mini-fan in your bag, or go for vintage glamour with a traditional hand-held fan. Carry a cooling spray. Fill it with water and give yourself a little spritz to cool down during a hot flush.

Take a lukewarm shower. Lead a healthy lifestyle. Following a healthy lifestyle can help with many other symptoms of the menopause, not only hot flushes. This will also help to reduce your risk of developing things like heart disease and osteoporosis , as the risk of these is higher after the menopause. How severe and how frequent your hot flushes are will be different for every woman. Some women try supplements and complementary or alternative remedies to ease their menopause symptoms.

Is menopause the only cause of hot flashes? Other medical conditions such as thyroid disease, infection, or rarely cancer can cause hot flashes too. Drug therapies such as tamoxifen for breast cancer, raloxifene for osteoporosis, and some antidepressants produce them as well. How long will I have hot flashes? Most women experience hot flashes for 6 months to 2 years, although some reports suggest that they last considerably longer—as long as 10 years, depending on when they began.

For a small proportion of women, they may never go away. It is not uncommon for women to experience a recurrence of hot flashes more than 10 years after menopause, even into their 70s or beyond. There is no reliable way of predicting when they will start—or stop. Are there treatments for hot flashes? Although the available treatments for hot flashes do not cure hot flashes, they do offer relief. Hot flashes usually fade away eventually without treatment, and no treatment is necessary unless hot flashes are bothersome.

A few women have an occasional hot flash forever. There are a number of low-risk coping strategies and lifestyle changes that may be helpful for managing hot flashes, but if hot flashes remain very disruptive, prescription drug therapy may be considered.

Prescription hormone therapy approved by FDA and by Health Canada—systemic estrogen therapy and estrogen-progestogen therapy for women with a uterus—are the standard treatments.

Another FDA-approved hormone product for women with a uterus combines estrogen with the selective estrogen receptor modulator bazedoxifene instead of a progestogen.

In this case, it helps to protect the uterus from cancer. The SWAN researchers found that some women are more likely to deal with long-term hot flashes than others. Women who had their first hot flashes before their menstrual periods ended had hot flashes for an average of nine to 10 years. Women in the SWAN study who experienced hot flashes for a longer time tended to be current or former smokers, overweight, stressed, depressed, or anxious.

Ethnicity also played a role. African American women reported the longest duration of hot flashes averaging more than 11 years , while Japanese and Chinese women had hot flashes for about half that time. The "reality check" the SWAN study provides on hot flashes should encourage women to seek solutions.