Hot Flashes Can Last for Up to 14 Years, New Study Reveals

According to a new study, one of the most common symptom of menopause, the hot flashes, can last for more than seven years in women who are experiencing the transition to menopause.

Hot flashes are part of the frequent menopausal vasomotor symptoms (VMS), along with night sweats and other symptoms.
VMS are very common in women who are experiencing menopausal transition and many women are affected by these symptoms.

Reports show that more than 80% of women experience VMS while transitioning to menopause, and despite the fact that these symptoms are pervasive, there are not many studies that show how long these symptoms can last.
Nancy E. Avis, PhD Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, analyzed the data collected from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation.

The study was a multiracial and multiethnic study on women who are experiencing the transition to menopause. The study was began in February 1996 and lasted until April 2013.

The researchers analyzed the data from more than 1,449 women who experienced VMS frequently, meaning that they experienced these symptoms at least six days in the next two weeks.

The study showed that the midpoint duration of VMS was approximately 7.4 years.
According to the study, the premenopausal women or the women who experienced early perimenopausal when they first reported frequent VMS, had the longest total duration of VMS, which was approximately 11.8 years.

Also, the study revealed that the persistence of frequent VMS after the last menstrual period was more than 9.4 years.

The women who happened to be postmenopausal at the starting point of the VMS experienced the shortest total duration of VMS, a median of 3.4 years, after the final menstrual period.
African women, compared to those of other ethnic or racial groups, had the longest total of VMS duration, with a median of 10.1 years.

The Chinese and the Japanese women had the shortest duration of VMS, with a median of 5.4 and 4.8 years.
According to the study’s results, Hispanic women reported a VMS median total of 6.5 years, while non-Hispanic white women experienced 8.9 years of such symptoms.
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