Avoiding Triggers for Hot Flashes
Prevention is better than cure! Identifying triggers for hot flashes and avoiding them can save you a lot of sleepless nights! Learn more from US Board-certified ObGyn and NAMS-certified Menopause practitioner, Dr. Deepali Kothary, MD.
Transcript
Question MenopauseWize:
Are hot flashes Inevitable? Just like how menopause is inevitable for everyone. Does every woman go through hot flashes during perimenopause or menopause?
Answer Dr. Deepali Kothary, MD:
So one of the big studies, the SWAN study has come out, which shows that the hot flashes vary by ethnicity and socioeconomic factors and triggers. So the worse the black and Hispanic women have the most hot flashes, and Eastern, East Asian, and Japanese have the least hot flashes. There's an ethnic component to that. So again, when you see a patient in the office, you need to look at the patient holistically and say you know, it's just, it's just not one-size-fits-all. Right. So that's a big socioeconomic factors are a big factor. Low socioeconomic status, usually they have more hot flashes and triggers. How much alcohol are you having? How much coffee are you having? Your stress? All of these things make hot flashes worse, right?
Question MenopauseWize:
You mentioned caffeine alcohol, and stress. What about sleep? Any other triggers that can completely change the way you experience hot flashes because. In my personal experience, I was sort of hot flash-free for a couple of years and then came a very stressful period and I started experiencing them all over again and I was like, Oh my God, I didn't expect this to come back again. So, are there any other factors that you would call triggers for hot flashes?
Answer Dr. Deepali Kothary, MD:
Sure. Teenagers at home? Triggers hot flash. That's a good one. So, no so. So definitely anything, if you've gone through a particularly stressful period, you're probably gonna face a lot more hot flashes. So that's a definite trigger. Like I said, alcohol, caffeine. The other thing I've noticed is people sometimes hot flashes are OK in the summer because they're regulating their temperature with their air conditioner or whatever, but when is the change of seasons? Especially in the fall or going to winter, that is when people feel like they're having more hot flashes. Oh yeah. So again, if maybe your temperature regulation, you're probably outside in the heat and then coming into a really cold room or vice versa. A lot of my patients have noticed it Now I don't have studies I have to go find a study to correlate that with the change of seasons.
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