Hot Flashes and High Cholesterol

Hot flashes are the most common symptom of menopause. Around three-quarters of woman get hot flashes. They can be so mild you hardly notice them but also so frequent and severe that you can barely get through the day.

Until recently, doctors thought hot flashes were nothing more than an inconvenience. But lately, researchers have been finding that they may hint at the risk of heart disease or breast cancer. Now, a new study suggests that there may be a link between hot flashes and high cholesterol.

Researchers followed more than 3,000 women for seven years as they went through menopause. High frequency was defined as hot flashes six days a week in a two-week period. The researchers found that the more hot flashes a woman had, the higher her levels of both HDL cholesterol (the good kind that sweeps away plaque from your arteries) and LDL (the bad kind that clogs your arteries).

The fact that both levels of cholesterol are higher in women who have lots of hot flashes is confusing. Does this mean a woman's risk is higher or lower? That will undoubtedly be the subject of future research. But what this does show is the importance of paying attention to symptoms experienced by so many women. There's a lot we can learn by really listening to our bodies.

The study is being presented this week at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society. That's always a good source of information for the latest news about menopause research, as I found when writing The Menopause Book. If there's anything else that's important, I'll post it here.