Hot Flashes: Surviving Your Body's Heatwaves

Hot flashes are the most familiar symptom of menopause, and among the most immediately troublesome, but do you really know what causes your temperature to soar and your comfort zone to shrink? Join me to find out.

Disclaimer: This content is educational and not a substitute for professional medical care.

Transcript

Welcome to Menopause Taylor on Insight Timer. I'm Dr. Barbara Taylor, A gynecologist on a mission to give women the menopause education they need. The most familiar symptom of menopause is hot flashes, But there's a lot more to them than people realize. My teaching style is one in which I use the familiar to teach you the unfamiliar. Thus, Hula Hoop Let's use these hula hoops to represent your body's temperature comfort zone. You see, You can think of hot flashes as a situation in which your body's temperature exceeds its comfort zone. So it's out of its thermal comfort zone. So here's your body's thermal comfort zone before menopause. And here's your body's thermal comfort zone during and after menopause. There's a big. . . Difference. Hot flashes originate as a response to loss of your ovarian estradiol at the time of menopause. Ovarian estradiol loss is the ultimate cause. So you have your ovaries producing huge amounts of estrogen, But then your estradiol deficient ovaries Send a heat wave warning. To your brain. So it's like you feel like your body's on fire. And finally, Your brain sends a message to your skin. Skin, And it makes Your veins. And the overall result for you is that your skin feels more like. . . It's hot, Red, Prickly, And sweaty. So the organs that create a hot flash include your estradiol deficient ovaries, Your brain. And your skin. And what do you know? All of your options for managing your hot flashes target one of these three organs. One of your options is to avoid any trigger. That sets the stage for hot flashes. And these range from your food. . . You drink. Your environment, To your body weight and the degree of your estradiol deficiency. And if you have hot flashes that you want to alleviate, You have three categories of options. You can choose to replace. The estradiol deficiency from your ovaries. Or you can adjust your brain's comfort zone with medications like antidepressants or brain-altering temperature agents. Or you can adjust the dilation of the blood vessels. In your skin. All the decisions should be yours and the goal is to revert your thermal comfort zone from back to this. Of course, Not all women have hot flashes, But 80% of women have some version of them. And they can be temporary or permanent. And they can range from mild to severe. That's why I thought it beneficial to give you this little lesson on hot flashes.