One of the key factors that is overlooked when dealing with hot flashes is your attitude to it. The minute you start worrying about having a flush you somehow magically conjure one up. Except it isn’t magic but your stress hormones responding to the anxiety you feel and causing a surge of adrenaline.

When dealing with stress your attitude to it is crucial as that will make all the difference between managing your flushes and having them overwhelm you. Menopause is a huge transition in a woman’s life as it sees the end to fertility and many women do also view it as a signal that it is the end of their being seen as sexually desirable. It is true there is no going back to reclaim our lost youth and potency but for many this is a time of freedom and liberation.

Leslie Kenton made a very good case in her book Passage to Power for using the menopause as a time of creativity and discovery. She called hot flashes power surges and this sounds more positive as a new step forward rather than looking back at what has been lost. If you can take positive measures to tackle stress and see menopause not as an end but as an entirely natural transition, then you can view it more positively. It is not something to be fought against, or avoided – though many cosmetic surgeons will say differently!

Celebrate the fact that you have earned the wisdom and experience to see yourself clearly and acknowledge how much you have learned and can pass on to your daughters and other young women. If you can accept this natural phase of life you will reduce your stress levels and then you will find your symptoms can be much more easily dealt with.

My two personal top tips for flushes? Carry a fan at all times and wave it dramatically and proudly and keep a cooling balancing smoothie on hand to help even out those surging hormones. This recipe is ideal for Wimbledon finals – after all you must have some strawberries around!

The Wimbledon Hot Flash Final Smoothie

Prepare by putting a small ripe banana into the freezer together with two handfuls of strawberries washed, dried and hulled. When frozen, put in a blender with a mug of soy milk and a small carton or organic strawberry yoghurt. Blend to the thickness your prefer – add more yoghurt for body or soy milk for a thinner drink. Pour into two glasses and share with an overheated friend!