I have been having the most severe hot flashes and night sweats I have ever experienced for going on 3 months now! Every day ...all day long. At least one every hour or so. I am extremely HOT with the sweating and funny head feeling, occasional weakness to the point that I want to just cry.Then it passes and I'm my good ole jolly self again. I rarely sleep more than an hour or two before another one hits. The one thing I notice is that I don't seem to be having the increased heart rate with them lately. How severe can these get and will I EVER find relief? What do you lovely ladies do to get some relief? I'm not taking any hormones or anything for them, but I do know I could probably change my diet some...ok, a LOT! HELP!!!!!!!

Ajay,
You poor thing you are having a hard time of it arnt you?

I'm on some Herbal stuff that the Herbalist gave me and its seems to be working for me.

I hope you get the help you need. I tell you that a good person to ask for help is Flushing Lady. She is really good at giving great advice.

Well take care.

From Deb

Hi Ajay,

I'm five years post but I can definitely remember having days when I had hot flashes all day long. I remember telling my husband that "I could really understand why women take hormones" because it was SO unpleasant. Yes, I had the nighttime ones, too. I always slept with a towel next to my bed and our bedroom ceiling fan ran 24 hours 365 days a year.

Everything diminishes, although I'm one of those women who's still getting hot flashes every day, five yeqrs post - they're not severe anymore - but I do still get them....and I've given up caffeine, never have alcohol, take vitamins, etc. I guess it's going to take the full ten years for me.

I'm a teacher - third grade - and last year I had one girl who sat right in the front and would always tell me when my face was getting red. She was only eight so I'm sure she didn't know why, but I have no doubt that she went home and told her mother that "the teacher's face is always getting red." I'm sure her mother figured the whole thing out.

Hang in there - it WILL get better.

Helen

Mine started about 3 years ago....although they were not regular, but affected me mainly at nights around 2-5am with sweats.

I have gone through different changes in the last year, with months of 'hotness' day and nightime, then after my lovely alternative Dr. did his kinesiology and acupressure I would get relief for a month or 2, then 'viola' they came back. I went to him again, it worked for just a month the next time, now I seem to be having them at nights again around 3-5am which wierdly enough I only seem to get if I wake up suddenly, either needing to go to the loo (toilet) or because of a strange/disturbing dream....then I usually can't get back to sleep because the 'hotness' keeps coming and going (like I flip off the covers to get freezing cold, then I put them on again, and after 5 minutes I'm too hot again!!!)

It's a real nuisance to me, and I'm on a mission to completely get rid of them!

I am taking some 'Drenamin' (by standard process) for my poor adrenal function, and that seemed to help a little these last 2 weeks, but NOT ENOUGH!

I'm wondering whats going on in there (hormones) and still cannot understand WHY this is happening to me and yet my Mum (82) and my sisters (61 and 58) say they didn't get ANY problems when they stopped their
periods.......

I haven't had one now since beginning of August and I just turned 48 last week, they were all around 49/50 when they stopped, so I feel I should be the same?

...Anxiety?....that was with me big time going to sleep last night, but it had dropped off quite a bit in the last
2 months.

I'm wishing for a 'Meno-symtoms' free 2008! (and to all of you ladies!!!)

Oh...here's to that !

Thank you for your replies, Ladies! It's always nice to know we're in this together and that we can all sympathize with each other. Hopefully this will all diminish too as Helen mentioned. I raise my ice water in a toast to a meno-symptom-free 2008 as well!! (((HUGS TO ALL!!)))

Yes, but all this reading about hot flashes has made me wonder if anyone else is still getting them 4 years post.

I posted about this.

Hope that 2008 is a great year for us all!

Helen

Yikes...after reading your post I called my mom who is 79. She said she STILL gets night sweats at times, though not as severe. But she wonders (and I do too) if it isn't attributed to her medications she's on. Gosh, I hope we won't have to endure these forever. One thing about having these in the winter is that I certainly stay warm while running errands etc! Blessings!

Add me to the always "hot" basket case !!!

But Caz, I seem to have a much worse time at night, too, and at what I call a flashing band of time between 3-5am. I totally do not like this. Most of the day time ones I can put up with unpleasantly, but the night time ones are so sleep disruptive.

No period for almost 3 months......last break was almost 6 months, but with such severe symptoms now, I would be a little surprised to see AF.

Whewwwwwwwwww.......we all need a 2008 cool change!

Hugs to all hot sisters!!!!

Viktoria

Hi Ajay
I had my ovaries removed- and suffered hot flushes and anxiety attacks like you would not believe!
That was almost 2 years ago and I still get them but not nearly so badly.
I find soy works really well. I believe in US they have a product called Revival. There is loads of info about it on this site,
I am in UK and I just buy soy capsules from our local Tesco which are really good and I also drink soy milk every day.
janet c

Ladies,

Thought I would jump in here too....I have also suffered terribly with hot flashes, and hot flashes at NIGHT, they are the worst!!

I have had them for over 2 years, but starting this past summer I was getting them ALL the time, day and night. It was far more uncomfortable during the summer months, but I could even flash in subzero winter temps. Sleeping became impossible, and was a constant..covers off, covers on, covers off, covers on!

I broke down and went on BHRT. And I am not sorry. I have stopped having flashes....and even at first, when I first started the BHRT, the flashes lost their intensity, being warm flashes instead and much more easily tolerated.

I also sleep better, have way more energy during the day, don't have anxiety and just feel much better overall. I hope you all figure what works best for you!

Hugs
Kathie

Hi there, about 2 years ago I visited powersurge because I thought I was having very severe symptoms including very severe hot flashes that were accompanied by the most horrible emotional feelings on earth, like impending doom or something. That was the tip of the ice berg. I ended up taking 3 months off work because the fatigue and symptoms were so bad- irregular periods thinking that they would stop any minute for good. Very emotional, afraid I was losing my mind, anxiety, couldn't settle down to sleep until around 1:30am, getting woke up by sweat, racing heart the moment I would wake up. I lost about 30 pounds. (due to constant nausea women talked about on this website) I felt HORRIBLE. I will try to give you an abridged version. I am a massage therapist and study alternative med. so my daughter and I do constant research. She is only 20 and had been having alot of stress due to work and a break up. She was starting to have alot of the same symptoms. Except the hot flashes. Through advice of a woman in my dr. office she suggested a great book about adrenal fatigue. Someone had mentioned adrenals to me before but I did'nt realize that they practically drive everything in us!! And I realized I had severe adrenal burnout and my body had stopped producing enough progesterone (hence the horrible hot flashes) and the fatigue and all the rest of it. All my stress had finally caught up with me. The adrenals produce about 50 different hormones, esp. later in life. If we have tired wornout adrenals our bodies cannot handle any kind of stress or homone flux. when a woman has a hot flash her body releases adrenaline. SO, if her adrenals are shot- bingo horrible symptoms. Basically our adrenals are our coping mechanism. If we take care of them gingerly and religiously we will totally improve without the use of drugs or sythetic HRT. When the adrenals are worn out the body doesn't produce enough ceruplasmin which is a protein that chelates the copper and other metals out of our bodies (mainly the copper though) so what happens is it produces bizzare symptoms and it is what is called copper overload and the liver gets congested and toxins build up making us feel horrible and so it is imperative to eat as many natural and organic things as possible and only use vegtable based soaps and shampoos which contain no xenoestrogens which can throw off the hormones. So my daughter and I have been treating our adrenal fatigue for a year and have improved greatly. Dr. James Wilson has a great book called "adrenal fatigue, the 21st century stress syndrome". And Ann Louise Gittleman has one about copper overload called "why am I always so tired?" . People who have adrenal burnout (esp. woman) almost always have a copper imbalance. I take mega doses of C, B6, B5 (pantathentic acid afternoon esp) MSM (only optiMSM) to get rid of the toxins and let nutrients in. Take 3 epsom salt baths a week to get rid of toxins. Magnesium citrate helps with palps and sleep. I take valerian that helps too. Stay AWAY from caffeine or atleast the Starbucks! I can tell you this- I was living a nightmare and never thought I'd get relief. I am finally starting to feel normal again. NO MORE hot flashes, rarely get night sweats, NO MORE anxiety. NO MORE impending doom or any of it. AND my periods are more normal than before! Please if you have any more questions feel free to e-mail me anyone at cms61@verizon.net I so want to help anyone who needs encouragement. Oh and emerita has some really good NATURAL bioidentical progesterone cream that will help the hot flashes until you get your adrenals straightened out. :-))

Just watch out, soy has alot of copper and it attaches to the estrogen receptors and can actually aggravate symptoms in some woman, esp. if they are in estrogen dominance like I was

I am certainly not estrogen dominant as I have no ovaries and am not using HRT systemically. I have only found relief from soy. It blocks estrogen receptors-it is not the same as taking estrogen.
janet c

Wow...fantastic, tips ! On the subject of hot flashes..my neighbour who is 70, still gets a few a year but they are not at all as horrible as they were years ago ie with anxiety, headaches etc.

Hi Kathie: I feel like I'm going to have to break down and try BHRT as well. Did you have a doctor in your area or did you use the pharmacy from power-surge. I contacted them and I'm waiting for a consult. My doctor is very skeptical about Bio-identical HRT and just doesn't seem very knowledgeable about the menopause in general. Anyway, wondering if you could tell me exactly what you use, how often and how long you've been using it. Thanks and btw: I agree, nothing better than the love of a dog!

Hi Viktoria

I'm glad I found you again. It's Rose here. Hope you are well.

I am going through a very difficult time right now. Remember how the natural progesterone got rid of my hot flashes? Well, since three weeks ago they are back with a vengeance, and I am freaking out. Why would they come back if the progesterone was working so beautifully?

Then, a doctor I went to several months ago, put the fear of god into me. I went to him to ask him about my face flushing when I drank wine, and he told me about this rare kind of cancer called carcinoid syndrome. Well, of course I googled this and it talks about flushing (with or without alcohol) and one other symptom was diarrhoea. Of course, since the flashes came back I haven't had diarrhoea, but this morning (after a very bad day and night of flashes) I had diarrhoea, and now I'm panicking. And remember that left sided abdominal pain I used to get? Well, it's still there from time to time, mainly as a twingy pain, and after having the u/s come back normal, I don't know what it is. But I read that these carcinoid tumours can start up in the bowel. So now I'm in a major panic, which of course doesn't help my flashes.

I've been flashing mainly at night, with some day time ones as well, and sometimes in the early morning or late evening I also get the cold flashes, which make my teeth chatter.

The hot flashes last anywhere up to 20 mins, and sometimes when one subsides another one starts, and I panic even more.

Got any suggestions for me? I don't know what to do and I'm feeling soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo horrible

Hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Rose