Hot Flashes Can Last HOW Long?????

Some women are just plain lucky. They sail through Menopause without a minute of discomfort.  I put them in the same category as super-models.  They’re freaks of nature.  The fact is that most menopausal women experience hot flashes and/or night sweats and they can range from mildly disruptive to downright debilitating.   Hormone therapy will help with the hot flashes (vasomotor symptoms as they are called), but current guidelines recommend that it be taken at the lowest effective dose for the shortest period of time.   So,  in making the decision to take HT, wouldn’t it be a lot easier if women knew how long their hot flashes would last?

Current guidelines state that vasomotor symptoms last anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.  Another report claims that hot flashes resolve in most women within 4 to 5 years.  So, to find an estimate based on real data, researchers at the Melbourne Women’s Midlife Health Project tracked more than 400 Australian women, ages 45-55, from pre-menopause through the menopausal transition.  After thirteen years, they recently reported that hot flashes, for these women, averaged nearly SIX YEARS (!!!) in hormone users and just over FIVE YEARS (!!!) for nonusers.

Two other noteworthy findings:  There was a connection between high exercise levels and shorter hot flash duration;  and the longer women experienced hot flashes, the lower the average positive mood score.  That’s certainly not a surprise.