hi -

looks like there are a fair number of us who have the hot flash that lasts for days experience...i thought i was going a little crazy. i get the red hot ears, face, scalp and neck/shoulders/back that feels like a pretty good sunburn while the rest of my body (hands, legs, feet) are freezing.....to add another level of fun i haven't had a decent night's sleep in i can't remember how long. anyone else not sleeping for days (weeks) on end and having the hot flashes that seem to last for days and days too????? i'm 42 and have been heading down the perimenopause route for about a year and a half now.....have talked with my doctor about it, but don't really have any other friends/relatives who have experienced menopause.....just want to know if this is "normal" and something i'll have to get used to living with for a while....(sigh!).....or if i should look for alternate causes...

thanks

My hot flashes come in clusters as well. I'll have them for days then nothing for a while. In fact, all of my meno symptoms come in clusters, i.e. insomnia - I swear I didn't sleep for 3 weeks straight several months ago

I can relate to this one! I hadn't had hot flashes for awhile, but now they are back, several times a day and during the night as well. I am sleeping, but it is very disruptive. This past week I have been waking up every 2 hours to go to the bathroom and then I get hot flashes and night sweats that are waking me up as well. Really getting annoyed by this. I am hoping it will go away again. Thank goodness for naps!

Ahh yes...the dreaded HOT flashes......horrible!! I have had ongoing Hot flashes for well over a year now. I have them EVERY day..... 3-4 per hour 24/7. For awhile I took Black Cohosh and had wonderful relief for about a month or so. I think my body became intolerant as the hot flashes came back with a vengance. SOOOO --- I started taking a natural Hormone Replacement Therapy with lots of goodies inside each capsule.....a combination of a various herbs et al. Again for awhile...a few weeks this time my hotflashes were tolerable.....ALAS...they are back again with double the vengance...little buggers!!

My next step is to start taking Soy Supplements as suggested by Power Surge. I also plan on only including Soy Milk in my diet and cutting out 2% milk altogether. In the meantime......here is a link for your perusual to help you in finding some answers.......Hot Flashes

I want to wear turtle necks again!!!

~~ temper tantrum all done now

Dottie

My oh my...this morning I needed to hear from you girls about this as I am on night no. 4 of NO sleep...!!!

Sure I get sleepless nights waking up all of a sudden then getting a hot flash (like someone has placed me in a sauna!) throwing the covers off, taking a while to get cold, then throwing them back on again, having to go to the loo etc., etc.,......but this has been different these last few nights, like my mind is running on a treadmill and it keeps getting faster and faster!

I did try some yoga before bed, then some meditation (Om's!) then I bought a 'sleep' music cd...and nothing is breaking it.

This morning I had to ask my husband to go to work late so he could take our daughter to school - which he hates to be late to work - he wasn't amused with me, he says that I read too much about stuff and I should just forget about it and relax and then I will sleep...HA....wish he could go through meno symptoms for a year or more to experience this!

So...mentally its tearing me down, and I feel like I am going to go crazy or die from no sleep (over run thoughts problem too)......

The WORST thing is, this Thursday we're off to take our daughter to Disneyworld, and right now I am dreading going with no sleep and I also hate flying, I get SO nervous.

BLAAAAAH!!!

thanks for the feedback ladies.....i swear i feel like i'm going a little nuts.....and about the whole brain on crack (mind on the treadmill) thing.....THANK YOU!!! i thought it might just be the years of anxiety attacks coming back to haunt me......i wake up every 2 hours with my head full of everything. and dreams....so many dreams so i feel like even when i do fall asleep my brain doesn't shut down.

my yoga isn't doing much for this either.....and i have been craving chick peas and tofu....go freakin' figure.

anyone have any diet/excersize suggestions? i'm trying to listen to my body but she's a little schizophrenic right now.......i'd like to avoid the whole HRT thing altogether and go through this as "naturally" as possible. although i may rethink that if the bouts of temporary depression and neurosis/psychosis get to be more than i can manage. sigh....

i'm so glad i have years of this to look forward to....

I have no recommendations for those hot flashes. But the sleep problem has been conquered for both me and my husband. Our answer has been melatonin. In the vitamin aisle. I take a double dose - maybe not a great idea, but a single doesn't do as well for me. I can take it as soon as I start reading at night, and just wait for the drowsiness to take over. It took about a week to get a consistent result. We have no side effects.

Good luck!

Last summer was one long hot flash puctuated with months of insomnia. I was not absorbing any oral estrogen and not until they increased my patches to double the usual dose did the sleep and hot flashes improve. Now if I could just find the answer to this darned brain fog!

I was told about Valarian entering into peri. I recommend it. I just bought Sleep MD at Wally World and am going to give it a try with the next episode of insomnia. Usually around my period I cant sleep well. Sleep MD has all kinds o herbs in it.

Also I use Hylands Calms Forte. Calms Forte is also good for internal jitters.

Hi,
just wanted to add my experience to this, the old 'misery loves company' thing!
I have had hot flashes in the past but have always made them go again by eating more soya but for the past 5 weeks I have been experiencing intense (for me) hot flashes. They're not too bad in the day although I've had loads today but at night I can be woken up from 2 to 10 times. I feel like I only ever get dream sleep & not the deeper, refreshing sleep that you need.
This week I have also had 2 times where I have woken up with a racing heart, slightly breathless, hot flash, adrenaline shakes & just feeling blah. They weren't panic attacks as such as I wasn't panicking during them & when the shakes stopped I went back to sleep, maybe it's adrenaline being released along with estrogen from my adrenals?!
I also get a really weird feeling mostly in my legs, it's as though the skin is touching clothing that is hot & wet, this sensation is just underneath the skin during a hot flash, maybe it's something to do with the nerve ending, I don't know, can anyone relate to this?
My period is 12 days late & there is still no sign of it.
I have just started taking soy isoflavones in the hope that these will help but I've no idea how long it will take for me to feel any benefit.
I am sooooo desperate for a good nights sleep. I take valerian to help me sleep too & it does work, it's just these hot flashes keeping me awake!
I just feel like crying because I'm so tired & so frustrated after 5 weeks of nightly flashes. I think if I just got them in the day I could cope but I just can't stand being repeatedly woken up night after night, I didn't have this much broken sleep when my son was a baby!!!!
Anyway, just needed to rant to people who understand!
Getting a hot flash right now-aaarrrggghhh!!!!
love Sarah xx

hi---I too have these problems---approx 3months on-3 months off---and then it starts again-----I think mine are more night sweats-----i never had to take a nap during the day----now I just fall asleep .The few minutes I get to rest during the day,is so much more helpful than,trying to force myself to go to bed ,and stay there.I have heard and read many times that it is best to not to get up if you can't sleep---but fighting with myself does not help either.I TRY to do yoga an hour or so before bedtime,but not to close to bedtime.If possible do it during the day.take a calm walk,not power walking before bedtime,I find that helps.sleep well,this too shall pass.Don't ask me when?'''''

I have one solid hot flash that lasts about 72 to 96 hours, without relief
I get a few good nights sleep - a year. The rest of the time its 4 to 6 hours
If I wake up in 4 hours, two gravol and hot milk give me a 50-50 chance of getting a couple more hours.

I'm on HRT (just posted on Does Hormone Replacement Work?) http://www.power-surge.com/php/forums
/index.php?showtopic=16150&pid=215451&st=0&#entry215451://http://www.power-surge.com/php/foru...mp;#entry215451


ON SUPPLEMENTS

Just so you all know, there is a website for the mayo clinic which reviews the use of herbs etc. None of it has been shown to work past placebo. If it works for you, super! Go for it!! But I am compelled to say this because my doctor let me suffer from February to September, when a second doctor took a look at my situation.

It was a painful waste of time and money.

marchgirl, I get the terrible rushes at night too. I bolt up out of sleep and swear I am dying. It takes a minute to settle down though and realize I m ok.
The other night, I did it 4 or 5 times!!!

Last night I woke at 4:30 hot,than cold. Couldnt go back to sleep.

Marchgirl,

That could have been my post!

I have suffered with sleepless nights on and off over the last 3 years...but in the last 6 months I feel like they have been worse and are really beginning to play with my state of mind.

I went to see a 'alternative health' Dr. 3 weeks ago...he gave me sublingual B12 supplements, which I'm taking 6 a day at 2,000mcg's each, thats a total of 12,000mcg's a day (or 20mg a day)....I don't really know if they are having any effect on me, THEN just last week I got 4 good nights of sleep in a row and I thought 'HURRAY'
finally somethings working.....only to be let down again with 2 following nights of 5 hours sleep and then last night I couldn't sleep AT ALL!!!

I looked at what I did, what I ate, and couldn't see anything that would have upset me...I even went to bed feeling calm. It wasn't until I got in bed that I felt 'wierd' and couldn't fall asleep and felt totally insomniac-ish!

I'm going back to the Dr. today, and will report what he thinks about the situation.

I must add that I have high nightime cortisol levels, which showed from an adrenal stress test (I did because of suspected adrenal exhaustion), and have been following a gluten free diet also for the last 3 weeks (becuase I am having constant loose stools and upset/bloated stomach).....

Nice, eh?.....we girls really have to suffer, and it's just NOT FAIR! 9that some girls don't!!)

Caz

Hi girls,
sorry you are also suffering with broken sleep. My sleep had improved so much in recent weeks as my anxiety has been much improved & so waking up with adrenaline shakes etc was almost a thing of the past but I just know this month that my hormones are struggling.
My period is now nearly 3 weeks late, I'm getting around 20-30 hot flashes through the day & night & I feel so yuk with them. Before, I would just feel abit warm/hot but it was no big deal but now they are so intense & if I'm somewhere where I can't easily strip off or cool myself I can just feel the heat building.
I get a kind of aura before a flash where I feel a kind of tension through my body, then the heat starts then the prickly sensation & then I worry I'm going to go dizzy or faint.
I've been taking the soy isoflavones for a week now, I know we're all different but how long do they take to work-if they're going to work at all?!

Caz-I did the adrenal stress test too but mine was fairly mild AF. Sorry you've had no luck with the B12 stuff, hope you find some relief soon.

Peri-although I do occassionally wake up & then get adrenaline shakes I don't have the full blown panic anymore (touch wood). I think that's because my anxiety is overall alot better & I am not living on red alert like I was before. If you are suffering from anxiety then do all you can to reduce that & the night time panics will stop too. I found valerian really good for improving my sleep & anxiety at night, I took a product called Kalms night time.

Hope everyone on here gets a good nights sleep soon!!
love Sarah xx