Ask Dr. K: Treatment alternatives for hot flashes – Thu, 04 Sep 2014 PST

Anthony L. Komaroff Universal Uclick

DEAR DOCTOR K: I have terrible hot flashes. My doctor no longer recommends hormone replacement therapy because he says it has heart risks. Is there anything else I cantake?

DEAR READER: Hot flashes are a common symptom of menopause. My patients describe them as a sudden, intensely uncomfortable onslaught of heat. They are often accompanied by a rapid heartbeat, headache, nausea ordizziness.

For years, women took hormone replacement therapy to ease hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. Indeed, many women continued to take HRT after the hot flashes had gone, in order to achieve improved heart health

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DEAR DOCTOR K: I have terrible hot flashes. My doctor no longer recommends hormone replacement therapy because he says it has heart risks. Is there anything else I cantake?

DEAR READER: Hot flashes are a common symptom of menopause. My patients describe them as a sudden, intensely uncomfortable onslaught of heat. They are often accompanied by a rapid heartbeat, headache, nausea ordizziness.

For years, women took hormone replacement therapy to ease hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. Indeed, many women continued to take HRT after the hot flashes had gone, in order to achieve improved heart health. Then, studies showed that long-term use of HRT in women older than their late 50s (or more than 10 years out from menopause) actually increased the risk of heartdisease.

However, you asked about treatments for hot flashes other than HRT. One effective alternative may be antidepressant drugs. The antidepressant drugs change brain chemistry, and the changes they cause seem also to reduce hotflashes.

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Ask Dr. K: Treatment alternatives for hot flashes - Thu, 04 Sep 2014 PST