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HOT FLASHES The archetypal distress of menopause! Early physical symptoms often include hot flashes, night sweats and sleep problems as a result of both. These infamous hot flashes usually last between one and six minutes and may occur up to several times a day. They can intrude every 60-90 minutes or only at certain times of the day or night. Women have experienced hot flashes up to 30 times a day, but the average is less than once a day. They tend to be most common between 6 and 9 PM. Could this have to do with rushing from a busy day to the many domestic duties waiting for us at home without taking any kind of a break? Hmmm..... After a hot flash provokes enough perspiration to dampen or soak your clothes, you may experience a profound chill. Estimates of women who have hot flashes during the menopausal years range from 50-85 percent. Of the women who do have hot flashes, 80 percent experience them for between two months and two years. A small percentage of women have hot flashes into their seventies and eighties, and about 20 percent experience them for a full decade after the last menstrual flow has stopped. When menopause is induced by surgical removal of the ovaries, chemotherapy or radiation, nearly 100 percent of the women experience hot flashes. For those who refuse post-operative hormonal drugs due to the risky side-effects, the period of hot flashes is almost always under two years, though they are often more frequent and intense than for women achieving menopause naturally. Since fat cells store estrogen for us, thinner women are more likely to experience strong hot flashes. These temporary internal saunas can be disabling and physically draining, sometimes causing profuse sweating which can be quite embarrassing. They generally begin suddenly on the chest, neck and face. Hot flashes can also contribute to insomnia since they are sometimes powerful enough to wake you during the night - even forcing some women to take a shower or change the sheets before getting back to sleep. Associated symptoms such as headache or pressure, nausea, and difficulty with concentration are common companions of hot flashes. After years of successfully hiding our hormonal changes from the world, we now often worry about graphic displays of hot flashes making us break out into an embarrassing sweat, or the red flush in our face, neck and extremities. If we lived in another time or culture, this might be a cherished event, the first indicator of becoming a 'baby Crone'. Some cultures urge their women to take their 'Crone's Year Away'. Interested? Don't underestimate the power of some time off. However, in our Western culture, many of us simply experience these hormonal changes in temperature as embarrassing, inconvenient and exhausting. In addition to acknowledging this may be Mother Nature's way of asking you to slow down, try the following: QUICK TIPS
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