Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

A woman is considered menopausal when she has not had her period for twelve consecutive months. It is natural menopause if it occurs between the age of 45 and 55 but in some cases due to various factors menopause can set in early too. When a girl reaches puberty she starts to menstruate every month till she is about 50 and that’s when the decline in ovarian function starts to decline which also signals the end of fertility in a woman. Just like while menstruating women experience various hormonal changes every month which is termed as PMS or premenstrual syndrome menopause too has many premenopausal stages when a woman will experience symptoms like anxiety, depression, hot flashes and Night Sweats.

Hot flashes and its common symptoms:

Hot flashes during menopause are believed to be a disorder of thermoregulation caused by the hypothalamus which regulates body temperature. It starts with a sudden burst of heat which starts in a woman’s chest area and recedes upwards into the face. Hot flashes can disrupt sleep patterns in women and though not all sleep disruptions in middle aged women can be attributed to menopausal hot flashes studies show that thermal stimuli have the potential to alter sleep stages. Hot flashes mostly occur during two hours prior to the time we usually sleep. Although many epidemiologic studies have found increased reports of sleep disturbance during the menopausal transition, recent laboratory investigations have not found this effect, nor have they found that hot flashes produce disturbed sleep

Night Sweats

Night sweats as the name suggests is excessive sweating at night followed by chills and lack of sleep. Day time sweating is very rare but it can occur in some women. Night sweats can also happen due to medications that a woman maybe taking for some other disease. Sometimes even simple cold medications like Aspirin can set off a bout of night sweats in a woman approaching menopause. Nausea and chills are symptoms after night sweats and in some cases just like in hot flashes it can also lead to irregular heartbeats.

Since menopause and the symptoms accompanying its onset is quite natural in a woman’s life who has crossed fifty most women go for natural remedies like increase in intake of Vitamin-E, herbs and in some cases Yoga and meditation. In some severe cases estrogen hormone therapy is also an option available. Wearing cotton fabrics especially for the underwear and using cotton sheets also helps during the nights. Smoking and drinking alcohol can also be avoided to reduce the hot flashes and night sweats and also spicy food should be avoided.

What is Induced Menopause

Menopause, which is the stoppage of menstrual period, if resulting due to the induced non functioning of ovaries, is known as induced menopause. The ovaries can be damaged as a result of many causes such as drugs, radiation, chemotherapy or may even be surgically removed. Oophorectomy, the surgical removal of the ovaries, may be done together with or separately from hysterectomy, the surgical removal of the uterus.

Effects of Hysterectomy

When a woman undergoes only hysterectomy, the ovaries are left in place. These ovaries continue to produce the hormones – estrogen, progesterone and androgen. Thus, the process of uterus removal, though does not result in an immediate menopause in the true hormonal sense, it results in stoppage of menstrual bleeding and the woman can no longer bear children. Though the ovaries are intact and continue to produce the hormones, hysterectomy cause menopause to occur about two to three years earlier than normal. This may be as a result of hormonal changes due to the disturbance in the blood supply to the ovaries. Hysterectomy would not prevent a woman from undergoing perimenopause due to the gradual decrease in secretion of estrogen by the ovaries. But without the uterus there will be no menstruation and the woman would not have the most reliable indicator of the beginning of the perimenopause i.e. irregular periods.

Effects of Oophorectomy

On the other hand, when a woman undergoes Oophorectomy, wherein her ovaries are removed, she will immediately experience menopause due to the sudden decrease in the levels of all ovarian hormones - estrogen, progesterone and androgen. Generally, the induced menopause is tougher than natural menopause and the drastic and abrupt hormonal levels drop due to induced menopause is likely to result in more intense symptoms from estrogen loss (such as hot flashes) and from androgen loss (such as low sex drive) than what would occur in a natural menopause.

Hormonal Therapy and Induced Menopause

When the ovaries in their natural process decrease the production of hormones, it results in natural menopause. Induced menopause on the other hand is distinctly different as it is caused due to abruptly reducing the production of ovarian hormones by process that is not natural. The process of the decline of sex hormones is not steady and thus may result in the onset of hot flashes, dryness of vaginal lining and other changes associated with the symptoms of menopause.

Induced menopause, especially when it occurs well before the typical age at menopause, as well as premature natural menopause, usually results in special longer-term health concerns. Since this results in a women living with lower than normal hormonal levels, they are at increased risk for various aging-related diseases, such as osteoporosis and heart disease. Therefore, traditional hormone therapy is most likely to benefit such women.