Hot Flashes

I get night sweats—have gotten them for >15 yrs. What helps me is using a lighter blanket (can’t sleep w/o any covers), turning on the ceiling fan, and (because my bedroom’s upstairs and heat rises) using A/C in summer. Keep the shades in the bedroom drawn during daylight to keep out the sun, and raise them after dark to help with “radiational cooling” (meteorological term). And I also put my hair up with a clip when I sleep or work out so that it doesn’t get sweaty and then dry curly or frizzy. (My hair is long—your mileage may vary).

As with the others, the answer is FANS. My house has central air, but the best thing about my house's previous owners is that they put ceiling fans in practically every room. I sleep with my ceiling fan on full-blast. I wear only a cotton t-shirt and cotton panties.

Hope you have minimal SEs from whatever AI you are prescribed!

Fans of fans, indeed. I would add buy a box of the little fold-up manual fans from Anazon. I know that is an awful description. Hopefully you know what I mean. Always have one on you. The clothing advice is good. I have to wear layers and peal stuff off and then put it back on because I'm soaked in sweat and the freezing after the hot flash. I used to be embarressed and just sit and suffer. Now I don't care. I whip that fan out in business meetings or put my jacket on and off as much as I want.

There is no guarantee you will get them but good to be prepared! Wishing you no side effects!

There is some evidence that abdominal/deep, slow breathing helps.

I am on Letrozole and have hot flashes as my only side effect. During the day, it doesn't bother me that much but at night, they can keep me awake. So, I have a portable air conditioner in the bedroom (in addition to central air) that I run at night at 61°, the coldest it will go. That AC is the best investment I have ever made. I don't have to cool down the whole house. In addition, I have the ceiling fan on high. My mattress is memory foam and retains body heat terribly, so I rigged up another small fan and some flexible tubing to blow cool air under the covers as well. (I can't sleep without covers.) All of this helps, but I still wake up too hot to sleep occasionally! I have started taking black cohosh before bed and last night was the first night in months I stayed cool all night.

One of my kids is getting married in a couple of weeks and I worry about being to hot in my dress for the wedding which is outdoors in the south. I think I will order some of those small instant ice packs that I can discretely squeeze to activate. I have not ruled out putting one in my bodice! Any other suggestions for staying cool at a formal event? It would really be awful if I start sweating profusely!

When I travel, I take a small portable fan to put on the nightstand and have blowing right in my face. That helps when I don't have control over the room temp.

Please tell me these hot flashes are just a temporary side effect and not something I'll have to deal with for the next ten years!

I get night sweats and hot flashes, usually after I come out of the shower or drink something hot. It feels like the air may be cool or even cold, but that has nothing to do with me. For me the first step is just to accept it. When they first started I would get all upset but now I say to myself "this is just a side effect. Its expected. It will pass". During the day I've learned to blow dry my hair as little as possible, and to expect to take night and morning showers. I looked into that expensive Dyson hairdryer but it's still hot and not much faster. At night I do what these other ladies recommend, and I keep a fresh t shirt out where I can change into it quickly. I hate trying to go back to sleep with a soaking wet shirt.

It's the change in temperature that gets me.  I'll go into an air conditioned store and break out in a sweat.  At night, I usually wake up cold because the AC has come on after I slept through the "hot" part and am soaking wet.  This has gone on for more than 20 years, although it's worse now that I'm on a hormonal.  Oh well must mean it's working.  A doctor told me that estrogen governs a woman's thermostat.  I can relate to that.