Hot Flash Facts...What, why and when?

Hot flashes can start much before menopause, but very often we don't realize that we are experiencing one. Learning what to expect can help us understand the problem and look for solutions. Find out more as we interview Dr Deepali Kothary, a US board-certified OBGYN and a Certified Menopause practitioner from the North American Menopause Society. You can choose from watching the video or enjoy the transcript below.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Menopause Wize. I am Doctor Sukhpreet Patel and today with us we have Doctor Deepali Kothary. Dr. Kothary is a US Board Certified OBGYN with the Mid-Atlantic Permanent Medical Group. She is a Certified Menopause Practitioner from the North American Menopause Society and a Fellow of the International Society of Women's Sexual Health. She is also an Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Penn State University with an office practice located in Burke , VA. And today we will be specifically addressing the most common and perhaps the most troublesome symptom of menopause, hot flashes, or as some may choose to call it, hot flushes. So welcome, Doctor Kothari, and thank you for joining us today. 

Thank you so much, Doctor Patel. I'm so excited to be here and I love this podcast because it's so important that we can get some information out to all those millions of people who are suffering from many different things associated with perimenopause and menopause. So happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you. 

Question MenopauseWize:

So let's get started with the very basic question of what does a hot flash really feel like? I've been asked very often by friends, family and sometimes patients in the past. That I feel really hot these days. Am I undergoing menopause? So could you please describe what distinguishes a hot flash as a symptom of menopause from someone who's just feeling hot? 

Answer Dr. Deepali Kothary, MD:

So what I tell people first is that hot flash is not like in the movies where you have sweat pouring down your face all the time, which is typically what people think. A lot of times it's your temperature fluctuations. So for example, imagine that your body has a zone in which you moderate your temperature. If the temperature if, if you go to , you feel hot. If you go to , you feel cold. It's called the thermal neutral zone. And that zone actually decreases in menopause. So even slight fluctuations will start making you feel hot or warm. So typically you'll feel like, oh, you're sitting in the room and suddenly you feel warm and you have to take off your sweater and then you have to put it back again in an hour. So it's this fluctuations that are bothersome to people because it's just hard to regulate your temperature. Some people also have it so bad that they just are pouring down sweat. But other times it's just this constant, uncomfortable feeling like your body's not being able to regulate. The other common symptom is is waking up at night. You go to bed at : , you are nice and cozy. At : AM your temperature goes up and then you throw off your sheets and you put it back on and it really disturbs your sleep. So a lot of these constant changes that are happening in your body are just throwing you off. And just, you know, making it super uncomfortable. One of the big things, which is really effects work, is as so many females are in the workplace, they're CEOs, they're doing some really high important stuff. They're in a meeting and they start feeling hot and it gets really embarrassing for people. So. So it's really this hot. Flash varies with every person. It also varies with ethnicity, with your family history, but it's not one-size-fits-all. Right, right. 

Question MenopauseWize:

You mentioned waking up in the night. Are those night sweats or is night sweats something different? 

Answer Dr. Deepali Kothary, MD:

So those are night sweats. Night sweats can vary again from really severe where you're just soaking wet. Or it can be this constant fluctuations where you wake up at : AM because you have to throw off the blankets and then you put them on again because you're really cold. And so it really affects your sleep and affects your mood. So it's this, you know, Yeah, so those are night sweats, just not being able to regulate your temperature when you're sleeping.

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