I know this is off topic and a lot of the women have probably already gone through this, but I would like any input on how to deal with hot flashes. These suckers have been messing up my sleep for the last couple of months. I wake up like every hour and a half drenched. We are in Illinois and it has been a pretty cold winter here but I'm sleeping under just a top sheet and my husband has an electric blanket going. My friend told me to try Estroven as it was a godsend for her, so I just started to take it today. Gosh, I really hope they do something :)
I just alternate between throwing the sheets off until I cool off, pull them back over, sleep a little and repeat procedure. I was fortunate and didn't start until after 52 and really have not been bad. My sister has finally stopped waking up soaked and she will be 70 on Friday. For me Estroven didn't help.
Keep in mind that if you are sleep deprived that can often make it worse. My sister's went down after sleeping for 6 months after her husband died. I find when I don't get at least 7 hours sleep they are worse.
I am 73 and I have them in spades but I just recently went off estrogen!! Estroven didn't help me. THrow off the covers, for sure! I will say that I notice I almost never have them in the daytime unless I think about it! or am under stress.
Other than the AD journey we are on right now, Hot Flashes have always been one of those scary things to me. My poor little Mom who is a whopping size 0 (zero) got them really bad. I am just now starting into the whole menopause thing............................. And I am thinking crap, big girls don't like to sweat! I am soooooooo not looking forward to them. I honestly swear if I survive Dh's AD and menopause I could do anything! And it's only just began, if you come up with a miracle let me know. Rk
Mine weren't too bad, so I didn't do anything to prevent them. However, two things helped--(1) Open freezer door and get in (side by side refrig) (2) keep spray bottle of water on nightstand and use as needed. A bottle of Evian water spray was nice too--more of a fine mist. This really helped if ceiling fan was going in summer.
Anyone ever hear Robin McGraw's story? She would sleep nude and tell the boys if the door is closed they best stay out. Phil bought her one of those personal fans with a water bottle thinking she could turn it on with the spray to cool off. The first night, about 4am he was awaken to this horrible noise - it was the sound of the fan on that bottle running. They laughed for the next couple hours. I don't think she used it again - went back to throwing the covers off her and onto him. Of course, when he told it, it was much funnier.
That's what I do now. Every hour and half or so I throw the covers off, cool off, get cold and but the covers on. My husband doesn't get it. He just says "are you heating up", I say yes and he goes okay :) I used to keep the fan on until he complained I was trying to freeze him out.
ladies, if you are suffering severe hot flashing, i finally found my cure. nobody was in more need of help than me. i finally got online and google bioidentical hormone replacement in my area and its been my godsend. its a natural form of hormone replacement and i use the sublinqual lozenges daily now and i ha no flashing after only a few days after starting. it has to be a dr specializing in Bio-identical=not reg hormone replacement. my brother the pharmacist has his wife on them and suzanne somers has been inthe news for yrs claiming her success on them too. i am elated with my progress and it took several lab tests to get the dose right but now i am super good on them and wouldnt dream of ever stopping! i suffered with them cold turkey for 3yrs and it was devastating to my health too. by the way, my dr told me most women who suffer the flashing is due to a need of more progesterone not estrogen! i was taking estrogen and no progesterone before. now i have it balanced and its a whole different world again. i know many who just go thru the yrs suffering it, its horrible! anyway thats my story on this topic! divvi
These days your regular ob-gyn has access to bio identical hormones from the regular pharmacy. If your current doctor won't put you on them, get another doctor.
In my case it wasn't estrogen than I needed. In my case it is a thyroid out of whack so that once I'm on enough thyroid medication to not have symptoms I'm testing hyperthyroid. I've never had a hyperthyroid symptom. I need to be over-medicated to feel normal.
On the other hand I belong to the age group of women who's doctors insisted I had to go on hormone therapy right up to the point where the testing got stopped because they were getting really bad results on women who were on synthetic hormones. Bio identical hormones are not the same as the synthetic ones. And if you need them, you need them.
I decided in 2007 to just stop the small dose of estrogen I was taking, just before I went to Cambodia. It was about 100 degrees outside at siesta time and I started having hot flashes. Spread-eagled on the bed, stark naked, fan running, and hot as hell! It's calmed down a lot now - my doctor recently upped my thyroid meds which may have helped too - but of course today when I had an mri on my knee for 45 minutes, I started having them the minute I was nicely tucked in with a blanket.
(I'm just a participant in the Osteoarthritis initiative, observational study, nothing wrong with me. Well, not as far as they are conceerned!!)
I had stopped having hot flashes a few years ago. After I had my colonoscopy, they returned!!! Please don't tell me it was coincidence, because I would have difficulty believing it! <grin> I have a ceiling fan that is always on during the night, and I throw off the covers and cover up all through the night, but rarely wake up enough to realize what is happening. I guess that is the fortunate part of it! I have a small desk fan at work (as do all of the women in our department) so that we can get it from under the desk, set it on the desk and run it until the flashes pass. None of us bother to comment on who uses their fan when! <grin>
Briegull, you have really have had the experiences!!!!
I started the hot and cold flashes about 18 months after a hysterectomy in 1974. I was 42 years old. I am now almost 78 and I still have them every once in a while. The covers on the covers off. I wear myself out. During the day time I wear out the furnace thermostat. I tried HRT--didn't work. I lost weight--looked great but no luck. Now I've gained the weight back--look awful but the flashes have diminished a lot--not entirely--but a lot.
Good luck to all of you. I feel good most of the time.
C'mon guys, can't we male caregivers come up with something to deflect this thread? I've had about all the mental images of naked babes spread-eagled on the bed with the fan on that this old head can take!
I guess I went through male menopause once, at age 43, -- quit my good engineering job and took a flier on getting rich and famous as boss of my own motorhome rental firm. It only took about three years of business reality to cure me and send me, with tail between my legs, back to the security of my engineering profession. But I DID emerge from the experience a wiser and stronger person, so not too many regrets.
GC, I have had the same thought, but couldn't come up with anything useful. About all I can say is that having hot flashes should be a help in the cold Maine winters.
As for "male menopause", at age 43 I moved from New Jersey to Maine. It turned out to be the best move I ever made, both for me and for my entire family.
marsh, was your family practice in Blue Hill? We had friends in Mt. Desert nearby.
And by the way, are you holding up your end of our pact to get in 45 minutes or so of exercise at least three times a week? As the days get a little longer, I'm enjoying my late afternoon walks, most days in nothing more than shirtsleeves or a light jacket. Fresh deer tracks last evening and some other tracks that might have been from a bobcat or fox.
GC, I started as head of the Pulmonary Department at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Then switched to Primary Care when Pulmonary became mostly in the Intensive Care Unit. We moved to our "summer" home in Surry when I retired, then to Blue Hill when my wife's AD got worse so I needed more help.
As for the exercise, I had to quit for the past week due to pain in my knee. It is better now, so I'll be getting back to it.
With the heavy snow cover we have in Maine, Bobcats have been turning up on people's porches hoping to get some birds from the feeders.
When I went for the OsteoArthritis Initiative knee study yesterday, they asked if I'd do a study of my motion. So now for a week I have this elastic belt on with a strange sort of pedometer - it isn't measuring how much I walk but how much energy I expend, walking or otherwise. I can't read it; after a week I send it in and they send me back $20 and a printout of how much exercise I've had in the week. Be curious to see!