Hot Flashes May Last Longer Than 7 Years For Some Women

Hot flashes may last a lot longer than previously thought in women going through menopause.

Recent findings published in JAMA Network Journals show that over half of women who experienced symptoms of menopause dealt with the problems for over seven years.

"Despite the high prevalence of VMS among midlife women, surprisingly little research has been done on the underlying etiology, individual differences in symptom presentation, sociodemographic and clinical correlates, or duration of symptoms," Gloria Richard-Davis of the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, and JoAnn E. Manson, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, via MedPage Today. "The present study by Avis et al is highly informative and allows for a more individualized approach to counseling women about VMS, including cultural and racial/ethnic differences,."

For the study, researchers followed 1,449 women with frequent menopausal vasomotor symptoms (VMS) duration between February 1996 and April 2013. Researchers found a median total VMS duration of about 7.4 years for many of the participants. Women who were also premenopausal or early perimenopausal had symptoms for about 11.4 years. Postmenopausal women who had their symptoms first occur later dealt with the shortest duration of 3.4 years.

Overall, researchers found that African American women dealt with the longest total VMS duration of about 10.1 years while Japanese and Chinese women dealt with shorter durations of 4.8 to 5.4 years, respectively. Non-Hispanic white women only dealt with the VMS symptoms for about 6.5 years.

However, other factors were associated with longer VMS duration, as well, including greater sensitivity to some symptoms, including depression, anxiety, lower educational status, etc.

"These findings can help health care professionals counsel patients about expectations regarding VMS and assist women in making treatment decisions based on the probability of their VMS persisting," the study authors concluded. "In addition, the median total VMS duration of 7.4 years highlights the limitations of guidance recommending short-term HT [hormone therapy] use and emphasizes the need to identify safe long-term therapies for the treatment of VMS."

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