Menopause Hot Flashes Explained

Estrogen is a fascinating hormone. From the part it plays in puberty to the help it gives in creating life, it is an amazing substance to study. Menopause hot flashes are related to this interesting hormone.

It is hard to believe, but the hot flashes that you experience during menopause are the result of the estrogen in your body being depleted. Estrogen is mostly produced by developing follicles in the ovaries, the corpus luteum, and when you are pregnant, your placenta. Follicle-stimulating hormone (also called FSH) and luteinizing hormone (also called LH) stimulate the production of estrogen in your ovaries.

If you don’t have enough FSH or LH or if you produce too much, that can throw off the balance of your estrogen and cause you many reproductive problems. Minimal amounts of estrogen are also produced by other tissues such as your liver, adrenal glands, and even your breasts.

When a woman is born her ovaries contain between 200,000 and 400,000 follicles that will become the tiny eggs her ovaries will produce each month. Estrogen plays a mighty part in the process of ovulation. That is why as a women ages and her supply of eggs declines, she will stop having menses and experience menopause. When menopause occurs, her ovaries stop secreting estrogen and as a result, her body will go through several changes. Menopause hot flashes are just one of these changes she will experience.

Menopause hot flashes occur because the loss of estrogen affects the part of your brain that controls your body’s temperature. When your body isn’t producing enough estrogen, this part of your brain turns the heat up, causing you to experience a menopause hot flash. In response, your body tries to rapidly cool itself down by sweating and circulating blood through your body at a rapid speed. This causes things like hot flushes, night sweats, and erratic temperatures.

Most women start to lose estrogen up to two years before they actually stop having menses, so it is very possible to experience menopause hot flashes before you actually experience menopause. When you are finished with menopause, you will still have estrogen in your system, just not as much as you once did. This causes hot flashes in some women for up to five years after they stop having a period.

Because the severity and length of hot flashes varies from woman to woman, they are treated in many different ways including:

  • Effexor for hot flashes
  • Neurontin hot flashes
  • Herbal remedy for hot flashes

If you get hot flashes it may comfort you to know that they won’t last forever. As the diminishing estrogen in your body balances out, menopause hot flashes do come to an end. Until that happens, taking an all natural product, such as Hot Flash Freedom can compensate for your body’s loss of estrogen.