Meet the Super Flasher: Some Menopausal Women Suffer Years of Hot Flashes

A Gynecology Specialists note: An excellent New York Times article by Tara Parker-Pope covered new research on how differently women experience hot flashes. If you have any questions, please call our GYN Clinic at (757) 312-8221.

What the research found

The Times reported on findings from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a long-running NIH-funded study tracking the health of more than 3,300 women. The research showed that the timing and duration of hot flashes vary far more from woman to woman than the traditional wisdom suggests, and that women fall roughly evenly into four categories:

• Early onset flashers begin having hot flashes five to 10 years before their last period, with symptoms stopping around the final menstrual cycle.
• Late onset flashers don’t experience their first hot flash until after their final menstrual period.
• The “lucky few” never have a single hot flash, or only briefly experience a few near the end of the menopausal transition.
• “Super flashers” — about one in four midlife women — start early and keep having symptoms well past menopause, sometimes for 15 years or more.

In all, about 75 percent of women experience some degree of hot flashes, and for half of them — the late onset flashers and the super flashers — the symptoms persist well past menopause. As the study’s senior author put it, that upends the idea that hot flashes last just three to five years around the final menstrual period. Researchers also noted that the timing and duration of hot flashes may be an indicator of a woman’s cardiovascular health, which is another reason to discuss them with your doctor.

Our takeaway for patients

If your hot flashes started early, are lasting longer than you expected, or are disrupting your sleep and daily life, you are not imagining it — and you don’t have to simply wait them out. Our GYN doctors can review your symptoms and health history and discuss options, including hormone therapy, to help you get relief.

Please contact our GYN Clinic at (757) 312-8221 if you have any questions.