Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
In stark contrast to long-held theories that the symptoms of menopause are short-lived, a new study has found that hot flashes and night sweats have an average duration of more than seven years, and in some cases can last for up to 14 years.
The study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, monitored over 3,000 women of various racial and ethnic backgrounds as they went through their menopausal transition periods from February 1996 to April 2013. They found that the more than 50 percent of women that had frequent symptoms in mid-life experienced those symptoms for a median of 7.4 years.
Furthermore, according to Bloomberg News, symptoms can go on much longer for black women and Hispanic women. Black women experienced symptoms the longest (a median of 10.1 years), followed by Hispanic women (8.9 years) and non-Hispanic white women (6.5 years). Chinese women (5.4 years) and Japanese (4.8 years) women had the shortest period of symptoms.
“The duration of the symptoms is much longer than traditionally thought,” said JoAnn Manson, chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the author of an accompanying editorial. “Many women have moderate-to-severe hot flashes, night sweats that interrupt sleep and adversely affect their ability to function and work and their social life. This is a real problem for many women.”
Ways to help
Approximately 80 percent of women experience menopausal symptoms, and many of them say that their hot flashes and night sweats are moderate to severe, according to the study. Additional research is needed to better understand why some women have to endure menopausal symptoms than others, according to lead author and Wake Forest professor Nancy Avis.
Avis added that possible alternative treatments for women who experience such long-lasting symptoms is also required, and that she and her colleagues planned to continue monitoring the women. Manson advised women who experience night sweats and hot flashes to lower their thermostats, avoid spicy foods and hot drinks, do yoga and hypnosis and quit smoking.
More discouraging news (sorry again, ladies)
The study also found that women who began experiencing hot flashes when they were still having regular periods, or were in early perimenopause, experienced symptoms for a median of 11.8 years, the New York Times said. Approximately nine of those years occurred after the start of menopause, roughly three times the median of women who did not experience hot flashes until after their periods stopped, the newspaper added.
“If you don’t have hot flashes until you’ve stopped menses, then you won’t have them as long,” Avis explained. “If you start later, it’s a shorter total duration and it’s shorter from the last period on.”
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, menopause is the end of menstruation to follows the loss of ovarian activity. The average age of menopause in North America is 51, and previous estimates indicated that the symptoms of menopause lasted just six months to two years, the group claimed in a January 2014 Practice Bulletin, Bloomberg said.
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