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[lubylou]

 Hello
I hope someone can relate to this or has some more information about it.

I have been struggling with the fact that for the last three years I have had what I have been calling hot flashes and nights sweats. The ones I get at night are not so much hot flushes that come on quickly and go quickly but rather I feel exceedingly hot and stay feeling hot, sometimes for hours at a time. I have been so hot at night that I cannot tolerate a duvet, even the lowest tog silk duvet. I do not sweat lots but I am just much too hot to be able to sleep. My whole body feels like a radiator on the highest temperature setting.

Reading this forum prompted me to try and find out why I was just hot and did not seem to have the night sweats I keep reading about. I do sweat but nothing like some of you good ladies do at night time. It is hard to describe and I have never felt I was having nights sweats - I have just been much too hot all over my body to sleep properly.

I get daytime hot flushes, but the night-time hot feeling which lasts for hours is a different feeling/experience.

So, after doing some research I came across the description of slow or ember flashes. From what I have read up so far “the ember flashes occur almost as quickly as standard flashes but are usually less intense and last for longer periods of time such as one hour or more. In addition to this, ember flashes may be felt for many years after the standard flashes have stopped taking place”.

This would explain to me why I am hot and stay hot for such a long time at night.

Please, does anyone else have these type of ember flashes; or recognise what I am saying? or have heard of these before?

Thanks
Loubylou

[ellie66]

Yes I am perimenoapusal and this is how I started out with those types of flushes (they are called flushes in the UK). HRT solved it   

[Rosebush]

LL I have had night sweats for many years now, I am 65 this year and sweats started when I was 49, horrible sweat running down my body every 45 mins this increased to every 20mins over 3yrs, with night one's all running into each other i.e staying hot all night, even after sweat had passed..then..i gave in to HRT, and everything changed, daytime sweats have all but stopped in the Winter, but I still get a few long one's in Summer when its humid, but not as bad as pre HRT, so I cope...have tried twice to stop HRT by cutting bits off my patch over 2mths, but once I get to a qrt patch after a week, sweats just hit me like a water hose, and with them come the over whelming panic of 'I cannot get my breath' know matter what I was doing brain went blank..so now just staying on the HRT patches unless of course GP stops them, and I will put up a big fit against that..so sorry to read your are going through this   i very naively thought no period for 2yrs, maybe 2yrs of sweats and that's it finished..and thank god it is for some, but not for all of us..xxxxx

[Taz2]

Yes I had the ember flashes for around two years before the real sweats kicked in. It is annoying and you should have your thyroid checked just in case this is causing you to overheat. This is a link for others experiencing prolonged hot flushes http://www.34-menopause-symptoms.com/hot-flashes/articles/prolonged-hot-flashes.htm

Taz x

[daisie]

 hi lubylou yes I suffer with the hotness at night been like it for a long time now I don't get the sweats like most of the woman do, my oh says I feel like a radiator he can feel the heat coming off me,i don't need to even wear gloves in the cold weather my hands are too warm ,iv had all the blood test not long ago and they came back ok x daisie

[Limpy]

I used to have ember flashes / flushes for years during the day and night, also I used to get night sweats during the pill free week when I used the pill.

I had no idea they were anything to do with the menopause, but thinking back they were. 

[lubylou]

Hi,
It seems like I am in a minority here, but not alone. It is good to know that others are experiencing the same thing (but obviously I don't want anyone to be suffering meno symptoms).

I have found no mention of this “ember” or “slow flash”/flush on UK websites, I picked it up from a USA sites. Thanks for the link Taz, it's one of them I came across in my web searches. I recently had a thyroid blood test (unrelated to meno) which was normal but many thanks for the suggestion.

I am going to see my GP in a couple of weeks and will make sure she understands I am not having night sweats but ember flushes which will go on for a long time, if only to ensure that nothing else could be causing them. But they only started when I came off HRT for a year, and although they are less severe on the low dose, if I reduce they get worse. Taz, I hope that these are not just the start and I also have night sweats to “look forward to” as you seem to have experienced, poor you! 

I wonder why this other type of hot flush isn't mentioned in any NHS patient sites here in UK, doesn't seem to be explained as a possible meno symptom. It is miserable to feel hot virtually all night long with no respite; I am worse at around 4am in the morning.

Lubylou

[Taz2]

It is strange that they are not mentioned on UK sites. I think it is your particular way of experiencing hot flushes and that maybe a higher dose of HRT would help you?

I am off HRT at the moment and getting a drenching sweat three times an hour day and night. I am going to see if I can be prescribed it again when I see the doc in a couple of weeks time. Can't cope with it!

Taz x

[lubylou]

Taz, sorry to hear that things so miserable for you off HRT, it sounds wretched. I am going to give coming off HRT another go, but much more slowly this time in the hope that when the hot nights return it will be a more gradual process for me to adjust to. Well that's the plan - but of course it may make no difference at all and I will have to try and cope with continued hot nights and little sleep.

Good luck to you, I do hope that things get better whatever option you take, stay off or go back on HRT. 

[Taz2]

Thanks lubylou. I have tried both ways - taking around six months to come off last time. I had the same outcome. The hot sweats began to come back during the last eight weeks of a small dose of HRT and this time, when I just stopped using it, the hot flushes took around six weeks to begin. By the fourth month of no HRT I felt just the same using both methods. Not sure which is the best way. We are advised to come off slowly but it didn't make any difference to me.

Taz x

[Hurdity]

Hi lubylou

I also had these but I didn't know they had a name. Yes I used to get very hot at night but they weren't night sweats - they came later when menopause really hit me. Like Limpy said - I had no idea at the time they were what preceded night sweats. I was like this in the day too - just getting very hot sometimes and staying hot for a while. Mine didn't last for 3 years though - after a few months they progressed to flushes proper, but HRT has dealt with the the main. I sometimes get muild flishes and feel a bit hot but nothing at all to worry about.

Have you considered HRT?

re thyroid - just as a matter of prinicple I would ask for the actual reading of your thyroid test - because sometimes doctors have a different idea of normal and I understand from what I read recently that the reference range for normal has changed in recent years.  I have read that some still go by the old (wider)range. Just a thought.

Hurdity x

[lubylou]

Hurdity, I have mentioned that I  am on HRT (have been for a some years) but I came off HRT for a year, then I went onto a low dose but I still have these ember flushes even on the low dose. After two years on this low dose, I am trying to get off HRT completely. I was just interested in who else had this type of hot flush.
Thanks for pointer about thyroid results.

[Rosebush]

Taz so sorry to hear you are back to 3 sweats an hour  I remember how exhausted & frustrated I felt during my sweats every 20mins, it was the sick dark glooming feeling, I got about 10 seconds before sweat hit me, that made me panic, as I knew it was on its way, I was working at the time, and would try to get outside if I could, but not always possible, so ended up changing clothes at work at least twice, always took 4pairs panties into work with me as well, still don't know how I coped with the situation for yrs before trying HRT...so  hope GP comes up with some type of HRT to help you, as I know you are still at work....

[lubylou]

Taz,
I echo what Rosebush has said (the “sick dark glooming feeling” is a spot on description) and I also hope that when you see your GP you will get something to help you. I am also going to see my GP soon with a plan to reduce very very slowly which will take me to just over 60. I am sure my GP will be OK with this – I hope so as I sometimes I cannot cope, even on the low dose I am on. Some people seem to have better results coming off slowly but it all seems to be a bit of a lottery. As have been given the go ahead to stay on HRT until I am 60 but to reduce to none by then (by a gynaecologist) I am going to use all that time to reduce slowly so I will be getting the benefit of HRT for as long as I can.

Good luck.
lubylou

[Taz2]

I will be 60 next month and decided to come off in August to see what happened. I would say stay on it as long as you can and then when you reach 60 and maybe have to come off then start reducing then. There is little point in feeling awful any sooner than you have to. Once I came off I had a post-sex bleed which was going to be investigated by my doc but I then got an upper urinary tract infection which made me quite ill and was very difficult to get rid of (GP agreed the infection was due to coming off HRT) so I couldn't have the exam for the bleed. The long course of antibiotics really upset my whole system and I'm still suffering stomach effects almost four months later. I then got a  stomach bug followed by a horrible flu type virus and then a root canal infection. Now I have another cough starting up. Doc agrees that HRT strengthens the immune system which is why I am now getting everything whereas, before, I had only two colds in four years!

I am due to have the examination re the bleed in the next week or so, when I can get a double appointment with her, and if that looks ok then it will be up to me whether to restart HRT. She is even more against it now as I have been off for four months and the risk of stroke is always highest in the first twelve months of HRT. Apparently, because I have been off for a while, it will be like starting again.

I'll let you know what happens!!

Taz x