This is no joke, I am have them about every half hour around the clock and this has been going on for months. back in feb. I did go to doctor and he put me on the harmones but i could not take them and after a few months of trying a few different ones and working with the doctor, gave up and got off the darn things. had a surprise tom in august and the hot flashes started back up with a vengence . Any sugestions on something I can buy over the counter to get some releaf and be able to sleep and think again would be great.

I think you are smart not to take the hormones the doctor prescribed. I almost had a nervous breakdown taking them. I've been having hot flashes for almost 9 years now. The best advice I can give you is to dress in layers so you can take off clothes when they hit. Keep your home cooler too..that seems to help me. I've tried all kinds of things over the counter and nothing seemed to help me...just made someone else richer. Oh, and coffee, tea and pop seems to make my hot flashes worse. Hope they ease soon.

9 years Wow, put me in the nut house. Yes the coffee does make them come on. plus sugar and artifical sweeteners, cause them too. Yes I live in t shirts and have a hoody handy after the hot flash when I get cold. I just wish they would stop. Golden years my butt LOL

I have been taking Estroven for a few years now. I swear it helps me a lot. Its over the counter and contains no hormones. I take the energy one in the moring and the PM one at night. I get it at my local health food store and also at drugstore.com.

Because its not drugs, it takes a few weeks at least, before you see any differences.
Have you given up caffeine and sweetners?

Have you tried Evening Primrose Oil and/or natural progesterone cream? I sure hope you can find some relief! How maddening!!

I had hot flushes like that when I first started the Big Change. It drove me nuts too. If its any comfort, they lessened in frequency after about three months, and then went away completely for six months or so. Then they came back, and I'm still having them a dozen times a day and night, five years later. Nothing I took, or abstained from, seemed to give any relief. Now I just accept them as part of my life, and get on with it. In fact, given that its currently winter where I live, it can be a positive thing; its much cheaper to have a hot flush than to turn up the central heating

Thanks so much for all the replies

Judy giving up the sweeteners and I try to limit my coffee to 3 cups when I wake up.

neo thats what I did 6 months hot flash free, then boom had a tom from hell, had not done that since feb. Now no toms again but the continuous hot flashes.

Going to the store to day and will read labels and start trying something.

I too have been struggling with hot flashes for almost 10 years.

Seems like LC diet and lots of exercise especially cardio seems to help me the most. Any kind of caffeine or alcohol makes them raise their ugly head with a vengeance.

Dressing in layers is a great suggestion. I am constantly taking my hoodie off throughout the day and then putting it back on. My house temp in the winter stays at 65 degrees and at night DH and I set the heater at 60. He likes to sleep under the big comforter with house temp very low......ME TOO THANK GOD!

HN

Well all I can say is who ever said menopose was the best years in a womens life, needs to be shot. I would much rather have tom once a month then deal with this. Am I bitter, Yep LOL Gee 9 years 10 years, So when Im 60 and getting to old to give a darn the maybe it will all go away. LOL Got to go out this morning and it is cold, well time it so when the flash hits I'll run and warm up my truck lol

I don't have them yet but if I do I intend to try the things recommended by Doctor McCleary in his book The Brain Trust Program that are supposed to help with menopause symptoms. He has a blog there at that site that talks about menopause, and other things.

I second the vote for bio-identical hormones! These are hormones that are made from plants, in the exact form your body manufactures on its own. They are NOT the synthetic hormones which are made from pregnant mares' urine and other artificial stuff to our bodies.

The hot flashes come because your body is responding to the sudden loss of hormones as we get close to menopause. Our bodies just can't keep making the hormones at the levels we have been used to all of our lives. But the bio-identicals helps to replace the lost hormones to a level where you are more comfortable and the hot flashing stops.

Once I am all the way through menopause, will I continue to take the bio-identicals? Probably! I just feel so much better now that I am on them, as I used to feel 10 or 15 years ago, before the tiredness and brain fog and all sorts of things began. Now I can sleep soundly at night, no hot flashes, I can think clearly, and I just have a feeling of well-being.

I have found that daily cardio exercise, jogging, power walking, or stationary biking, HUGELY deminishes them or eliminates them all together. When I stopped exercising, they CAME BACK with a vengeance, 3 to 4 times a day. Now, GONE.

I am just beginning to try natural progesterone cream. First application was last night, so it will be a while before i know if it's helping. I'm not having hot flashes, but I do get night sweats and my periods are about 4 months apart now, and I'm experiencing difficulty in maintaining/losing weight, even doing strictly what I know to do. I'm 50. I got interested in the cream after reading Dr Eades' latest 3-part blogs on why it seems to gets harder to lose the older we get. (Link to part one: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...ound/#more-2324 ) He mentions that some menopausal women may find it next to impossible to lose weight without hormonal balancing. (He's also very pro-bio-identicals and anti-horse urine.)

His article and information were very timely for me. In the discussion of one of these 3 articles, a commenter linked to a site that has progesterone cream she had had luck with, and on that site, there were a series of tests you could take to try and get an idea of what hormones you need based on your symptoms. Other than hot flashes, I didn't know what the symptoms of progesterone-deficiency/estrogen-dominance were, and I must have had 15 or more of the ones listed on the quiz. I don't know anything about the quality of the cream sold here, (I bought a different brand locally at a health food store yesterday) but I thought the quizzes were very helpful, so I will provide that link here http://johnleemd.com/ (scroll to bottom)

I tried some natural progesterone cream; it didn't do a thing to help my symptoms. Ditto Black Cohosh.

I've copied my summary of Dr McCleary's book section on hot flushes onto my googlepages if you are interested.
His suggestions include
Dr McCleary's Anti-Excitatory Cocktail To be taken twice daily.

400mg magnesium (malate or taurinate are the forms he suggests) 10mg Thiamin 75micrograms huperzine A 50mg GABA 5 mg vinpocetine 1gram taurine.

He also suggest Img melatonin at bedtime.

Dr McCleary's Ketogenic Cocktail.

1-2 tablespoons MCT oil 1tsp-1tablespoon flaxseed oil 50mg EPA

You may find it cheaper to use coconut oil in place of the MCT. perhaps a bit more as coconut oil is about 60% MCT.
The flax oil may also be tricky as it's very easy to oxidise if not kept chilled so you may want to substitute fresh ground linseed meal for the flax oil again you would need to increase the amount somewhat.