It’s estimated that around 30% of menopausal women will get some form of hot flashes. How affected you are will depend on several factors, including where you live and what you eat. Some lucky women never get them at all and they are certainly very much more common in the Western world. There is no word in Japanese for instance to cover this phenomenon because they do not seem to suffer from it – unless they have switched to a predominantly Western diet. If you are unlucky enough to suffer from hot flashes this article will help you learn why they occur. If you’re not yet a sufferer, then it will help you gauge whether or not you are likely to become one.

The Reasons Why
Although some lucky women escape completely, there are some very good reasons why we experience the heat that we associate with menopause:

1 – Blood Vessels
Hot flashes occur when the blood vessels below the skin dilate. This causes more blood to rush to the skin’s surface, and that is what makes you look red and flushed, and feel that tell-tale rise in temperature. The body’s normal response to this is to try and cool you down, and it does this by making you sweat. What is unique about hot flashes is that this mechanism kicks in when the outside temperature can be very low and you do not have any signs of fever.

2 – Fluctuating hormones
Well you know all about this during menopause, and in fact the changing levels of your hormones are the prime cause of hot flashes. When your hormone levels fluctuate they cause the temperature control mechanism in the body to be disturbed. The centre which controls this is in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus and it seems that it is changing levels of oestrogen and FSH (follicular stimulating hormone) that can upset this delicate balance and cause hot flashes.

Women having hot flashes usually have decreased oestrogen levels and increased FSH levels, but it is important to remember that it is the changes and fluctuations in the hormone levels – rather than the actual amount of hormone being produced – that produces hot flashes.

3 – Surgical menopause
It is to be expected that menopause symptoms come naturally when a woman’s childbearing years are coming to a close and the menopause or perimenopause is under way. However, women who have a hysterectomy or their ovaries removed at an age when they would not normally be going through menopause are more likely to experience more severe and frequent hot flashes after the surgery than in a natural menopause transition.

Even if the ovaries are retained it is no guarantee that an early menopause will not occur, as their effectiveness at producing progesterone will be affected and will diminish over time.

These are some of the reasons behind hot flashes. I hope it helps explain why you may be feeling hot and bothered. After all, knowledge is power, and some women do like to refer to their hot flashes as power surges!

Assessing this as a new risk factor was the study’s lead author, Miriam A. Bredella, M.D., a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.  Obesity in itself is of course a health problem worldwide, particularly in the West, with approximately 72 million American adults considered obese: this is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more.

Just as not all snow is the same when it comes to disrupting the trains, not all body fat is identical either. Subcutaneous fat lies just below the skin, and visceral or intra-abdominal fat is located deep under the muscle tissue in the abdominal cavity. Genetics, diet and exercise are all contributors to the level of visceral fat that is stored in the body and it is considered particularly dangerous, because in previous studies it has been associated with increased risk for heart disease.

I should say upfront that this is a small study as they only evaluated the abdominal subcutaneous, visceral and total fat, as well as bone marrow fat and bone mineral density, in 50 premenopausal women with a mean BMI of 30.   However, the imaging revealed that women with more visceral fat had increased bone marrow fat and decreased bone mineral density but there was no significant correlation between either subcutaneous fat or total fat and bone marrow fat or bone mineral density.

If you tend to put on your weight around your hips, as opposed to your belly, then aesthetically you may not like it, but it not as detrimental to bone health as having more superficial fat or fat around the hips.

While osteopororosis bone loss is more common in women, men are certainly not exempt and so the research team is currently conducting a study to determine whether belly fat is also a risk factor for bone loss in men.

Sadly, ‘the right time’ may not be something you are in control of and currently early menopause affects one in 20 UK women which of course reduces the number of available fertile years.  Lead scientist Dr Anna Murray, from the University of Exeter Peninsula Medical School, says, “It is estimated that a woman’s ability to conceive decreases on average ten years before she starts the menopause. Therefore, those who are destined to have an early menopause and delay childbearing until their 30s are more likely to have problems conceiving.”

The study Breakthrough Generations Study was done by scientists at the University of Exeter Peninsula Medical School and The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and funded by The Wellcome Trust.  They tested four genes associated with the menopause and then compared 2,000 women from the Breakthrough Generations Study who had experienced early menopause with a matched group of the same number. The four genes each affected risk of early menopause individually, but in combination they had a larger impact, which goes some way towards explaining why some women experience early menopause.

The Breakthrough Generations Study is a large and comprehensive study into the causes of breast cancer and will follow the 100,000 UK women participants for the next 40 years to unravel the lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors that cause the disease.

Although early menopause is associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer, women who experience early menopause are susceptible to other health problems including osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and a reduction in fertility.

It is hoped that the research could help women determine whether they have a genetic predisposition to early menopause, and therefore predict the time of the end of their reproductive life so they could then make informed family planning decisions on the basis of this knowledge.  These findings are the first stage in developing an easy and relatively inexpensive genetic test which could help the one in 20 UK women who may be affected by early menopause.

Women have been drinking it to help improve menopause symptoms and this specific blend, known as Tava Tea, also claims to promote well-being and soothe aches and pains.

The tea’s all natural ingredients increase the metabolism and reduce food cravings to fight weight gain, something which is common during times of heightened hormonal activity.

Regular users claim it does help them lose weight, decrease their hot flushes and give a greater sense of well-being. Dr Tim Thurlings, who developed the tea’s unique blend, says that by simply drinking a few cups of the tea a day users can expect to lose between 2-4lbs week.  Sounds a little unlikely to me unless it’s also balanced with a sensible diet but he also claims that the tea helps reduce cholesterol, lower blood pressure and decrease the risk of developing some forms of lung cancer so you’re getting overall health benefits as well as a nice refreshing cuppa!  As it also contains polyphenols it theoretically could help fight the ageing process too but I wouldn’t want to guarantee that.

It is certainly a great deal more expensive than any ordinary tea, but as one teabag makes up to 8 pots (full instructions with each box) and you get all those health benefits it may well be worth it.  I know many women who can’t put a price on being able to reduce their hot flushes. If this interests you it can only be bought online so visit www.tavatea.co.uk

Research presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behaviour – which I suspect is something to do with food or at least what we put into our bodies – has recently reported that a diet rich in soy prevents weight gain in post-menopausal female rats.

Now I have nothing against soy, indeed it’s extremely helpful for many women during menopause and some find it particularly good for hot flashes, but it is the reasoning behind the claim that has puzzled me. They are saying that previous research suggests that reduced levels of the hormone oestrogen during menopause are responsible for the increased body weight and abdominal fat often experienced by postmenopausal women.

As oestrogen is the hormone responsible for adding to our womanly curves I am not quite following the logic here. They do admit that while oestrogen replacement therapies can reduce weight gain, they also have unwelcome side effects, prompting a search for alternative methods of treatment.

Now, as I understand it, women continue to make oestrogen during menopause to compensate for the lack of it from the ovaries. It is made from our adrenal glands and from fat cells, so that a small amount of weight gain at menopause is nature’s way of making up for any deficiency.

We’re back to balance, as menopause is the time when some weight gain will be helpful so dieting frantically is not the answer as being ultra-slim will not have health benefits in the long run. Of course being a seriously overweight isn’t healthy either and what these researchers have found (in postmenopausal rats) is decreased body weight and increased energy expenditure after adding soy phytoestrogens to their regular diet.

One of the researchers, Michelle Murphy from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, commented “These results have implications for the development of alternative natural treatments for obesity in post-menopausal women. The results of this study highlight the need for further research into the actions of phytoestrogens on food intake in humans to determine the more long-term effects of consuming a soy-rich diet. In this world of an ever-increasing obesity epidemic, finding natural dietary solutions and treatments to combat obesity are of the utmost importance both to worldwide health and the economy.”

Well, obesity is certainly not confined to postmenopausal women and concentrating solely on phytoestrogens is, I think, not really the answer. By all means add soy to your diet but remember that soy products themselves are not necessarily slimming and it might be better instead to focus on improving your overall diet and that old tried and true method of regular, enjoyable, exercise.

Unless of course you think that you and a menopausal rat have something in common.

The research was led by Dr Michael Cant, from the University of Exeter’s School of Biosciences, but I do wonder how much experience of menopausal women he has that drew him to do it?

However science goes bravely forward and has given us for the first time a plausible explanation as to why these species in particular are the only ones in which reproduction ends while there is still plenty of healthy and active life to look forward.  How much killer whales look forward to the future is not actually known but let’s be generous and assume that they too have dreams of holidays in Tahiti when the children have grown up.

What they have discovered is that despite very different social structures between the three species, the research shows that in each case females become increasingly genetically related to those they live with as they get older. Because of this, there is a motivation for older females to do what is best for the survival of those around them.

Or in other words, the female now takes on a ‘grandmother’ role, so that the success rate of breeding in the group can be helped by older females sharing parenting knowledge and stopping breeding to allow younger females easier access to resources.

Of course for us humans this theory has just flown out of the window with the development of IVF and the new menopause prediction tests as I mentioned in my previous articles. Women’s desire to control their fertility and continue having babies at a much older age – even into their 60s – is going to have quite an impact. Grandmothers are no longer going to be as available for baby sitting and are much more likely to be asking their children to do it for them.

Though I do think it could be very helpful when dealing with someone who is unhappy with your menopausal mood swings to remind them that you have a lot in common with killer whales!

Sadly, women with POF are also run a much higher risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, memory loss, and a higher risk of premature death. The usual treatment that is offered is replacement hormone treatment from either the contraceptive pill or HRT. Both of these medications carry a higher risk of risk of stroke, heart disease and breast cancer as well the unpleasant side effects many women suffer when taking them. .

Now a small study done in Scotland has found that young women with ovarian failure would benefit from taking natural bio-identical hormones rather than synthetic ones and certainly safer for them than taking the contraceptive pill to try and improve their condition.

The women in the study were given an oestradiol patch (a natural oestrogen) and either vaginal or oral progesterone, not a synthetic progestogen. The doses of progesterone (200mg) and oestradiol (0.10 mg) that were given daily are quite high, but it was found that on the natural hormone regime the women’s’ blood pressure went down and their kidney function improved significantly.

The Scottish study believe that the success of the treatment was down to the transdermal delivery of the hormones and the fact they did not have any of the side effects you would expect from using synthetic hormones.

One other benefit for women using natural progesterone for POF instead of being given either the contraceptive pill or HRT is that they get the bone-building benefit of natural progesterone and are so more protected from osteoporosis which does not occur when the synthetic hormones are given.