Researchers haven’t yet pinpointed why those differences exist, Thurston says. Though it's estimated that 70% of American women will have hot flashes, there are very pronounced racial-ethnic differences, Thurston says: 80% of Black women will have hot flashes and 50% of Asian-American will have them, while the incidence rate for white women and Latinas falls somewhere in the middle. Even men being treated for prostate cancer can get them. Women undergoing treatment for breast cancer also often experience hot flashes. Who gets hot flashes?Ī majority of women will get hot flashes at some point, whether they’ve entered menopause naturally or surgically, following a hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus) or oophorectomy (surgical removal of one or both ovaries). Faubion says it may even be approved by the FDA later this year. “These neurons appear to facilitate the crosstalk between the thermoregulatory centers and the reproductive endocrine centers in the brain,” says Thurston.Ī new class of drug called NK3 inhibitors may be able to block the pathway that’s hosting that “crosstalk” and - fingers crossed - shut down hot flashes. New research has found that these neurons - dubbed KNDy neurons (pronounced “candy”) - seem to begin firing when the ovaries stop producing estrogen. A cluster of neurons in the hypothalamus may hold the secret to unlocking the hot-flash mystery. “We don’t know the exact mechanism of hot flashes, but we are starting to figure out more and more about where it occurs in the brain,” says Dr. Researchers still don't know precisely how or why hot flashes happen. What ’ s happening in the body when you have hot flashes? “The mean duration of symptoms is seven to nine years, and about a third of women will hot-flash for a decade or longer,” Dr. Some women can start experiencing hot flashes as early as their 30s and as late as their 60s, says Rebecca Thurston, Ph.D., professor and Pittsburgh Foundation Chair of Women’s Health and Dementia at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and president emeritus of the North American Menopause Society. Faubion says.Ī long-held myth was hot flashes were short-term, temporary inconveniences. “It can be anywhere from a mild nuisance to something that stops you in your tracks so you can't think or do anything else except deal with it,” Dr. Hot flashes typically last for one to five minutes and can occur several times per hour. ![]() “We describe it as sort of a malfunctioning thermostat in the hypothalamus,” says Stephanie Faubion, M.D., director of Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health and medical director of The North American Menopause Society. It may sound counterintuitive, but a hot flash is actually the brain’s attempt at cooling down what it thinks is an overheated body. Hot flashes are one of a number of menopausal symptoms that occur because the body is producing less estrogen, which helps the brain regulate body temperature. When they happen at night, waking you from your sleep, they're called night sweats, and they can leave you drenched with perspiration, shivering with cold - and exhausted the next day. Hot flashes tend to peak in late morning to late afternoon, though the severity, duration, and frequency are highly individualized to each woman. Natural Ways to Ease Annoying Menopause Symptoms.
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