Hot Flash Forum!

I went to visit my friend in Dallas and ended up with a new nickname - Hot Flash.   She is nowhere near going through menopause so she had a hard time understanding what I was going through but she did let me use her hand fan the entire time I was there.

We have a swamp cooler system so we are not hit with high electric bills in the summer and I have this place down to 55 degrees.  In the winter it is more like 36 degrees and even less because I have the window wide open and the ceiling fan going.  Even then I have the flashes so I stand outside in my undies in the snow until I cool down.

The only reason I can sleep is because I am taking ambien at night and if it is really bad I will take a lorazepam instead which does totally knock me out.

I am going to have to google Chillow - a cold pillow??  When I was bald I would just take a cold wet cloth and soak my scalp and cool down instantly - the hot flashes got worse as my hair grew in VERY THICK.

Never dealt with beads of sweat running down my face until menopause or riding my horse and my entire ponytail was soaking wet from sweat, my shirt was wet - I am sure you get the picture.

Jancie - frog togs would be great for riding !  I take one with me whenever I am outside.

does anyone know if the flashes get better once your on tamox  for awhile---it's about 6 weeks for me--and they are steadily increasing--YUK!

Great subject. I've been on Tamoxifen since January 2010. As another victim of the DC-area summer, I find my window-unit AC does ****-all to cool me down and I'm losing a lot of sleep. I also have a freezer full of ice packs, and I use a cloth bag thing that you put ice cubes in and then seal with a screw top. My problem is I'm so warm at night I melt those very quickly and have to replace them in the middle of the night. I shower before sleeping so my wet hair will cool me.

I am a little worried that some of the ice packs I've been using have plastic stuff that is leaching on me. I need to be careful to cover them. I also vaguely wonder if holding an icepack next to me is doing some kind of tissue damage....but can't imagine doing without them.

I really miss winter. I slept every night under an open window no matter how cold it was outside. I've been taking melatonin sometimes, but it is only partially effective. It does produce some really wild dreams. Sleepily yours, C.

Sashaz, I've found that the hot flashes on tamoxifen tend to come and go in cycles.  Any type of heated condition definitely brings them on worse.  There are periods where I've gone several weeks with hardly any at all, and then I notice them getting bad again.

Omaz, megace is a progestin (synthetic form of progesterone).  One of the main things it's used for is to help gain weight.  I think I'd feel better using the bioidentical progesterone instead, but most conventional doctors really don't know much about this and won't prescribe it because it hasn't been studied and FDA approved.  It is available over the counter however.

I sleep with the fan blowing on me at night and this seems to help a lot at preventing the night sweats, which I don't have a problem with unless I have a lot of covers on.

"fellow flashers" - lol!

i also get hot flashes, it gets so annoying when im asleep wake me up , then not long after im cold have to put my beany on (hat) it gets frustrating so im with blankets on off on off ,,

New studies seem to indicate black cohosh isn't an estrogen stimulator/mimicker!

My 4th night using menoret and it worked like a charm. 

I did increase my melatonin from 3-6 grams this week as well.  Increasing the dose caused me to dream profusly again which does go away after a few days.

Oops menoret is the name of the product that is manufactured by Biornica.



5 days now and last night, no hot flash.