When Does Menopause End?

Once you're suffering from menopause-related hot flashes, sleep disturbances and other hormone-driven indignities you're probably pretty ready for menopause to end, already.  But a new study finds that many women continue to experience some of the most annoying menopause symptoms—hot flashes and night sweats—as many as ten years after their last menstrual periods (and if you already know first hand that this is possible, you have my sympathies!).

The study examined more than 10,000 women between the ages of 54 and 65, who were mostly white, urban and financially comfortable.  54% of them continued to have hot flashes and/or night sweats even though their menopause had technically ended many years (in some cases more than ten years) earlier. Some of the factors that seemed to make women more likely to experience postmenopausal hot flashes included having had a hysterectomy, having smoked in the past, higher alcohol intake, less education, anxiety and depression. Women who were currently taking hormone therapy were less likely to experience hot flashes, but women who had taken it in the past and then stopped were more likely to.

Especially disturbing: the average frequency of hot flashes and night sweats among the study subjects was 33.5 times per week.  Yikes!

One happy thing to note if you're one of the seemingly unlucky ladies still sweating a decade after menopause: Women who get the most severe frequent hot flashes have a reduced risk of some of the most common kinds of breast cancer.  So there's that, at least.

More about Menopause and Hot Flashes:

A Natural Cure for Hot Flashes

Quick Tips to Handle Hot Flashes at Work

The Menopause Dilemma