Many women experience vasomotor symptoms commonly referred to as hot flashes because of the drop in estrogen during menopause. Symptoms have generally been accepted to last a few years. A recent study published in JAMA found that the duration of hot flashes is a median of 7.4 years! Also, this study found that they can last up to 14 years.
There are some subsets that stand out. Hispanic and African American women tended to have a longer duration of symptoms. For all women with symptoms, if hot flashes started before the cessation of menstrual periods, then the median length of symptoms is increased to 11.8 years. Those who were totally post-menopausal when symptoms began had the shortest duration of symptoms with a median of 3.4 years.
(Did You Know? Menopausal vasomotor symptoms can affect roughly 80 % of women.)
Since the origin of hot flashes is in part from a drop in estrogen, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) helps many with the symptoms. The negative is that HRT causes an increase in the possibility of breast cancer and heart disease. Therefore, in general, it is recommended that the lowest dose of hormone replacement for the shortest duration be used that improves the symptoms. Some low dose anti-depressants can improve symptoms in certain individuals.
