Hi there, This is something that's been happening since December. It seems to get worse when I'm in a room with a lot of people...lots of body heat. At the pre-Xmas party a couple of people commented on how red my face was.

My face gets hot, looks flushed and feels kinda prickly and dry, like when you have a wind/sunburn. I had it for a couple of weeks in December then nothing again until last week. I'm not sure if it's at a certain time of my cycle, because I don't even really know when my cycle is anymore...LOL! It comes and goes during the day, lasting a few hours at a time. It then disappears completely and starts up again in a few hours. The only part of me that feels hot is my face. I don't sweat or feel overheated anywhere else on my body. It's so strange.

Of course, like many of you I get on the internet and come up with worst case scenarios. I read about thyroid problems causing flushing etc, but I've had my thyroid checked 3 times now at my annual checkup. I don't have any other thyroid symptoms either.

Are these just a different type of hot flash? Tell me your experiences. Thanks.

Do you think you might have some rosacea going on? I now have some on my neck and it will get really stingy, hot and reactive for hours. Other times it quiets down and seems normal.
It has flare ups according to my stress level, the people I am around, and definitly a change in my hormones.
I use a prescription cream called "Metronidzole" once or twcie a day when I need it! It has really helped and if I were the doc that would be my diagnosis !

Best wishes!

Sharon

When I get a hot flash it is mainly in my face and neck. My head feels like it becomes congested and my nasel passeges hot and dry. Then about 30 seconds later- watch Out! It's on! only lasts about 2-3 minutes though.

This might be a stupid question, but are hot flashes different from night sweats? Or is it just a timing thing? I've turned up the heat in the house this year because I'm cold all the time, but then on occasion I wake up drenched in sweat. I've had very few "flashes" during the day, however.

I've had the "hot red face" thing, and for me that was rosacea. Laser treatments and antibiotics helped a lot.

I also get the hot flushed face that can last for hours or a few minutes. I don't get the prickly and dry feeling and I don't believe that my face looks red. My face just feels like it almost on fire or maybe the sunburn feeling. Like I said it can happen anytime but I notice it alot right when I go to bed. My face will just get very warm for a few minutes and then it will go away or it will do it if I get nervous or excited about something. I don't really feel hot anywhere else except my face.

I have been experiencing a similar thing for a couple of months. I was also trying to figure out if it was connected to my cycle - but just like you - I'm not sure where my cycle is right now.

My face feels hot, and also dry - and my sinuses and head feel a little strange. When i touch my face, it doesn't feel hot on my skin - the heat is internal. I don't sweat and the rest of my body can be cold. Mine lasts for a day or two and comes and goes... I feel best when i keep the air temperature in my house very cool and dress in removable layers

With the hot face, I also have touchy digestion and sometimes internal vibrations.

I just keep telling myself this too shall pass. My thyroid is normal too. I really think its part of this meno process.

It seems everyone has a little bit different experience with flushes/flashes...whatever you want to call them. At first they were only in the evening and I thought maybe it was because of the glass of wine at I have at dinnertime. Then they started happening at other times of the day, and even though I'd like to sometimes, I don't drink wine during the day...LOL!

I really don't think it's rosacea. I have a friend that has it and this isn't the same. As I said before, I'm going to try and see if there's any pattern to it in relation to my cycle...good luck to me

Thanks for the replies.

Does anyone else get the sunburned feeling that comes and goes? I was hoping more of you experienced this, so I wouldn't worry about it so much. I haven't had a period going on 3 months now, but get a little crampy sometimes.

If anyone else experiences these weird flushes I'd love to hear about it, thanks.

Funny this topic should come back up just when I was about to go hunting for it. I had the return of the hot face just this weekend. We were going out to a party on Saturday night and all the way there, an hour and a half drive away, I had the hot burning face thing going on but once I got there it slowly went away during the course of the evening but it has returned on and off over the past couple of days. I have had it before from time to time also so it's something that seems to come and go. I even remember having it many years ago when I was a teenager & early 20s. I would be working and feel this hot flush feeling come over my face like I was highly embarassed or something but without looking particularly red just hot and uncomfortable and it was around the time I was trying to take the BCP with no success and my symptoms now are similar to that time so it must be a hormonal thing.

I have also had all the tests including many thyroid tests (including a full thyroid panel) and everything is normal so I chalk it up to good old hormones but it doesn't stop my health anxiety from getting out of control once again with all the what if's. My favourite what if at the moment is 'is it lupus' or 'MS' or or or...... sheesh I feel pathetic but I just can't help myself.

Rox

I'm convinced it's hormonal. It used to bother me to no end and it would happen a lot. My face would go hot, bright red and it wouldn't pass like a normal hot flash, it would stay for hours. I mean there was no hiding it, and you knew everyone that looked at you must think you'd either been baking in the sun or were having a hot flash, LOL.

I'm post menopausal now, and maybe once every couple of months it'll happen again, but it's not so burning hot and it doesn't last as long.

P.S. I have MS, and it's not MS...although at one point I thought it might have been my med (interferon) that I use for my MS as I noted that one of the side effects was flushing. But now that the red face has slacked off significantly, I'm more convinced than ever that it was hormones.

Thanks Dawn for your reply and reassurance it's not MS. I think it's commonplace for us peri ladies entering this phase of our life to think we have MS or some other similar thing. It's only just recently that I have started experiencing peri related hot flashes for the first time and now it's seems to have morphed into a longer period of the hot face. It comes and goes randomly throughout the day and some days it's not there at all and it can even disappear for months at a time ( I like those months LOL ).

Oh well I can deal with the hot face better than some of the other symptoms I keep getting and can't get rid of. Funny thing this month since getting the hot face back I haven't felt as lightheaded as I sometimes do, see what I mean, get rid of one thing just to be taken over by another, sheesh

Rox

My hot red face is back again today with a vengeance and it's ovulation time again just like it was last month when this happened, must be hormones or lack of and another thing the lightheadedness is not as bad as some days either, very weird. But my hyperventilation syndrome is bad at present and my upper back is as tight as heck and I'm clenching my fists at night when I'm supposed to be relaxing while watching telly. I've taken to wearing my wrist brace to bed to stop me from screwing my wrist around and sleeping on it and causing it to go numb, it has helped ALOT, no more carpal tunnel in that hand for now.

At least it was a nice sunny warm day today while I had my hot red face so everyone would have just thought I had been rushing around and gotten hot and bothered and not hormonal and bothered as I really am

Rox

Rox,
I have a question for you. You mention that you get the hot, red face at ovulation time. Do you think you actually ovulate at that time (soon before or after the hot face). I know estrogen levels drop just before ovulation, but if they are high enough to actually start the process it seems like they wouldn't get low enough to cause a hot flash or hot face. I'm really trying to figure out how this hormone thing works. I've been getting the hot face too (just at night) when supposedly my estrogen levels are very high.

Skiergirl you bring up a very good point here....... To tell you the truth I'm not entirely sure if I am ovulating or not these days. My body is trying to go through the motions but I just don't think it's quite getting there. I used to be able to pinpoint to the hour when I ovulated for many years as this was the method of birth control I used as I can't tolerate the BCP, but for the past couple of years it's getting darn near impossible to tell that exact moment. The past couple of months I've had some mild lower abdomen discomfort at ovulation time along with the flushed face and some but not lots of stringy mucous but I haven't had that elusive wet feeling like I just peed my pants a little that is the indicator for me that ovulation has taken place. A few months back a FSH test indicated I was not in peri or meno stage but from memory I think I did ovulate that month and I felt good that month so maybe that's why everything looked normal in that snapshot of time.

I do have night sweats on occasion too so my guess is my estrogen dips down a bit too low for my bodies liking at certain times of the month. Oh this is just getting too hard to figure out . I don't know whether the supplements I'm taking are doing me any good or more harm. I've just had a mild heart palp while sitting here typing this (haven't had them for ages) my right eye is twitching (a sure sign of low magnesium) and I can feel the cracks in the corners of my mouth reappearing (too little essential fatty acids or folic acid). I have been slackening off taking my supplements for the past couple of weeks and all this happening is a sure sign to me that I indeed need them or do I

Oh well onwards and upwards, I will not be beaten, well not today anyway, I'm far too busy

Rox