Menopause Transition: most Women experience Hot Flashes, Night Sweats for over 7 Years

Duration of Menopausal Vasomotor Symptoms Over the Menopause Transition

menopause Hot Flashes image
Research suggests that those with early and frequent menopause symptoms can expect them to last seven years

The menopause is part of the natural ageing process and is caused by a change in the balance of the body’s sex hormones.
Frequent menopausal vasomotor symptoms (VMS), including hot flashes and night sweats, lasted for more than seven years during the transition to menopause for more than half of the women in a large study and African-American women reported the longest total VMS duration, according to a new article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Women who experienced hot flashes and night sweats at a younger age tended to have them last longer, the study found, as did women with less education and greater levels of stress.

Sources and more information

  • Hot Flashes, Night Sweats Last for 7+ Years in Many Midlife Women, JAMA Internal Medicine Releases for February 16, 2015.
  • Duration of Menopausal Vasomotor Symptoms Over the Menopause Transition, doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8063, articleid=2110996, JAMA Intern Med. Published online February 16, 2015.
  • Vasomotor Symptom Duration in Midlife Women—Research Overturns Dogma, doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8099, articleid=2110993, JAMA Intern Med. Published online February 16, 2015.

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