How to Avoid Hot Flashes During Menopause
The Mayo Clinic reports that as many as three out of four women have hot flashes while they go through menopause---meaning that they're common. Most women do not need to treat hot flashes, which are momentary episodes of feeling extraordinarily warm in any variety of locations that may or may not lend to feeling warm or hot. If your hot flashes are bothersome and disrupt your daily life, with help from your doctor or slight changes to lifestyle you can make these episodes more tolerable and may even be able to eliminate mild occurrences.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Reducing Menopausal Hot Flashes
-
1
Avoid triggers. If you start recording when hot flash episodes take place, you may begin seeing a pattern. Stressful events, such as giving a speech, meeting new people or work deadlines, can trigger hot flashes. Prepare in advance for an event that could set off a hot flash. Practice your speech in front of your husband or group of girlfriends. Be sure you haven't left all your work to do at the last minute, and if going into a new social situation frightens you, take along a friend for support.
-
2
Steer clear of foods and beverages that can prompt a hot flash. Alcohol and caffeine are known culprits. Rooms that are overheated, hot tubs and saunas can also spike your internal thermometer. Spicy and just plain hot food ups your chances of a hot flash.
-
-
3
Think about some lifestyle changes that you can make. BreastCancer.org is a website for women who have or have recovered from breast cancer. But it is also a woman's health-information portal. It suggests reducing hot flashes by getting more exercise, but nothing drastic. Climb two or three flights of stairs instead of taking an escalator or elevator. Park farther away from the grocery store or mall.
-
4
Relax. It may sound easy, but relaxing is more than kicking up your feet and watching television. Practice breathing exercises. Close your eyes; focus on a soothing image like a cloud or beach. Breathe in deeply through your nose and out steadily through your mouth. Start by doing this for 30 seconds to a minute and try to get up to three minutes in one sitting.
-
5
Try medication. For intolerable hot flashes, those that cause soaking (extreme sweating), nausea and headaches, discuss a plan with your doctor. The Mayo Clinic suggests that estrogen therapy may be the most effective treatment for hot flash episodes. Your doctor may prescribe progesterone instead of estrogen. BreastCancer.org reports that Megace (megesterol acetate) reduces hot flashes in about 80 percent of women. Because medication is so intertwined with your medical history, health circumstances and many other lifestyle issues, only you and your doctor can decide what medication is best.
-
6
Give alternative therapies a chance. Before asking for a prescription, it can't hurt to try acupuncture and herbology. Many women swear by these Eastern-influenced treatments. Acupuncture aims to move your Xi (chi), energy, wind and spirit. Herbology involves combining many different herbs into a tea that you can drink. You should discuss any therapy you want to use with your doctor first.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Keep a diary of how often hot flash episodes appear, what you're doing and how you're feeling prior to a hot flash. This information can go a long way in helping you identify triggers. You could potentially eliminate some hot flashes all together.
If you have a history of breast cancer in your family, you may want to avoid some hormonal therapies. Go over your family history before getting a prescription from your doctor.
