(If they started taking hormone therapy during the study period, their data stopped being included, Dr. None had had a hysterectomy or both ovaries removed, and none were on hormone therapy. All of them met the researchers’ definition for having frequent symptoms: hot flashes or night sweats at least six days in the previous two weeks. Researchers followed the women in the study, who came from seven American cities, from 1996 to 2013. Studies have found that women with hot flash symptoms also face increased risk of cardiovascular problems and bone loss. Hot flashes, which can seize women many times a day and night – slathering them in sweat, flushing their faces – are linked to drops in estrogen and appear to be regulated by the hypothalamus in the brain. “If you start later, it’s a shorter total duration and it’s shorter from the last period on.” “If you don’t have hot flashes until you’ve stopped menses, then you won’t have them as long,” said Nancy Avis, a professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the study’s first author. About nine of those years occurred after menopause, nearly three times the median of 3.4 years for women whose hot flashes did not start until their periods stopped. In numerical terms, women who started getting hot flashes when they were still having regular periods or were in early perimenopause experienced symptoms for a median of 11.8 years. For two-thirds of women, they began in perimenopause, when periods play hide and seek but have not completely disappeared. One in eight women began getting hot flashes while still having regular periods. In this study, only a fifth of cases started after menopause. Perhaps, she and others suggested, early birds are more biologically sensitive to hormonal changes.Īnd many women fall into the early bird category. Neill Epperson, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Women’s Behavioral Wellness, who was not involved in the study. “That having symptoms earlier in the transition bodes ill for your symptoms during menopause – that part is certainly new to me,” said Dr. And in a particularly unfair hormonal twist, the researchers found that the earlier hot flashes started, the longer they were likely to continue.Īmong women who got hot flashes before they stopped menstruating, the hot flashes were likely to continue for years after menopause, longer than for women whose symptoms began only when their periods had stopped. Over all, black and Hispanic women experienced hot flashes for significantly longer periods than white or Asian women. “I’ll be so glad when they stop – if they ever stop.” “I keep one of the little fans with me at all times – one in my purse, a couple in my desk, some in just random places in the office,” she said. At her job at a tax and accounting office, she has had to stop wearing silk. “It’s miserable, I’ll tell you what,” said Sharon Brown, 57, of Winston-Salem, N.C., who has endured hot flashes for six years. So while half of the women were affected for less than that time, half had symptoms longer – some for 14 years, researchers reported. In a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse group of 1,449 women with frequent hot flashes or night sweats – the largest study to date – the median length of time women endured symptoms was 7.4 years. But hot flashes can continue for as long as 14 years, and the earlier they begin the longer a woman is likely to suffer, a study published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine found. Newly published SWAN research shows that menopausal symptoms may continue for up to 14 years.Ĭonventional wisdom has it that hot flashes, which afflict up to 80 percent of middle-aged women, usually persist for just a few years.
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