Menopause Matters Forum

Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: Knockmany on August 26, 2019, 06:43:07 PM

Title: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Knockmany on August 26, 2019, 06:43:07 PM
I'm in peri, age 47, still have periods (now very irregular). For the past few months I seems to have developed an intolerance to heat - and I live in Ireland so by 'heat' I mean anything over 18 degrees  ;D I get very hot and my face gets really clammy. I also feel totally drained when it happens and just want to lie down on a cool bed. I have googled hot flushes and they sound like something that comes on really quick and makes you go very red. I don't go red (just shiny!) and it seems to creep up very gradually and then lasts for ages unless I can get in front of a fan or into the frozen food section. So is this a hot flush? And if so, are there any good tips for dealing with them? I'm already wearing light layers, I have a fan, also a paper fan in my handbag, I drink loads of water and eat frozen fruit. Is there anything anyone can recommend, some sort of cooling facial spray would be brilliant. Any advice gladly accepted!
Thank you (wheres the sweating emoji when you need it  ;D ;D)
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Callisto on August 26, 2019, 06:54:37 PM
How weird!

Hi Knockmany,
That was what I was going to ask-exactly when you posted.

For me it drifts behind and through me like a hot ghost. I feel like I imagine malaria/ queasy swarming heat, aching bones, jittery and anxious then weak and dissipated.
Is this a hot flush ?
They seem to be coming more and more often speeding up over one month.

🐾C
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: shrosphirelass on August 26, 2019, 06:57:09 PM
Sorry I can't advise on a cooling spray, though know someone that sprays cool water on to her face, using an empty detergent spray bottle.

I've never had traditional hot flushes really, but get very hot and my neck has a tendency to look as if Ive ben strangled from time to time! I have to lie down after a moderately warm bath to cool down after. I sip iced water and take HRT. I think everyone experiences symptoms differently.

Good luck, hopefully someone will come along and give some advice
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Knockmany on August 27, 2019, 05:26:42 PM
Thank you both. It's good to know that hot flushes can vary from the one you read about!
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Kathleen on August 27, 2019, 06:10:06 PM
Hello knockmany.

Unfortunately I don't have any tips for dealing with hot flushes but there certainly is a wide variety plus they also have a habit of changing over time. I feel jittery before a flush but apart from a bit of sweating you wouldn't know I was having one. My friend told me recently that hers have become less frequent but now each one lasts 10 minutes.

It seems that Mother Nature, for all her faults has sense of humour.

I hope your flushes calm down soon and you begin to feel better.

Wishing you well.

K.
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Bobidy on August 27, 2019, 06:14:46 PM
I'm the same - no traditional hot flush, just a feeling of overheating and sweatiness that can last ages unless I can cool down. My chin goes bright red (very attractive)! I run my inside wrists under cold water, always have something to waft with, a little bottle of water and mop up tissues are my sos kit.

Changes in room / outside temperature, eating / drinking anything hot, exercise set me off. Im kind of used to it now.

It is difficult as in peri docs ask if we have hot flushes and night sweats to diagnose but I don't, its general 'hotness'. Dr Newson said this was a symptom though. I'm hoping the Oestrogel will sort it eventually x
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Turkish delight on August 27, 2019, 06:52:33 PM
Hia!

I've got a cooling spray by "Beauty formulas"I get from saver shop, online or pound shops do them too, this and simple old fashioned hand fans.

But none of them really touches a real hot flush. Mine were like being boiled alive for 3 minutes at a time. A sort of prickly itchy extreme heat. Had some cold flushes to which have there own particular horror, don't know which are worse.

The only thing that works is hrt or estrogen replacement to be precise, which completely eradicated them. I was having them every hour when in bed at night, each one waking me up so had to do something about them as couldn't function the next day, this went on for a year before I started hrt age 51.

TD
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Littlesue on August 27, 2019, 10:21:51 PM
My hot flushees during day made me feel weak drained and very sick.  For around 3-4 mins
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Butterfly22 on August 28, 2019, 06:38:56 AM
Mine started like a fire at my feet working up and then my whole body burning while dripping with sweaty, my hair always goes wet to. Xx
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Countrygirl on August 28, 2019, 07:02:07 AM
Mine starts with like I'm filled with hot coals (only way I can describe it) then the glowing face then it gradually spreads all the way down and I look like I have sunburn, my anxiety notches up and my heart thumps like mad and I sweat like mad (I'm peri and 48) x
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Butterfly22 on August 28, 2019, 07:29:59 AM
Yes country girl I get the beating heart and anxious too xx
Title: Re: What exactly does a hot flush feel like?
Post by: Gracie65 on August 28, 2019, 09:13:58 AM
Hi,

Hot flushes for me felt like at the start a little click in my chest area, very subtle sensation and then I realised immediately after my heart would start to beat faster and the like a heat you would get when you have a high fever ie with flu. I luckily didn't get any perspiration on my face or hair collapsing with perspiration.
It was more my lower back and chest that would get horribly sticky! Any exertion would bring it on too, so annoying. I put up with it for 2 years and decide on HRT after a fair bit of research and it helped within a week. It was the other things like achy hips and knee joints which are gone now, I was like an old woman in the morning lol ;D
I always carried a fan in my handbag and small cooling spray as others have said.

Grace x