Hot Flashes and Heat Waves

It’s still over 100 degrees here every day, and the forecast doesn’t give me much hope for a cooling trend.

107? Really?

I can barely tell the difference between having a hot flash and just being too hot. I have a premonition that I’m not going to like the winter much better, however, because I’ll be wearing heavier clothing. At least if I’m wearing a loose summer dress and sandals, the red flush and the burst of sweat from a hot flash pretty much dissipates in a few minutes. What if I’m wearing jeans, a shirt and sweater, socks and boots? We will soon see.

I’ve gotten into the habit of wearing layers year-round, because of the unexpected weather here and the tendency for large buildings to be either over-heated or over-cooled. I also stopped wearing wool (itchy) and polyester (sweaty) soon after I moved to Arizona, and since then I’ve started moving away from tightly-woven silks (hot) and rayon (wrinkly). Of course that leaves me with mostly cotton and blends, and so I layer several items during the “cold” weather.

I know I’m in the early stages of this menopause business, because the hot flashes are the only symptom so far. I really have no new aches and pains, depression, or anxiety, all problems which are widely touted as being common or even unavoidable. Of course, everything from my musculo-skeletal system to my cognitive function has been deteriorating rapidly since my mid-30s, so maybe I haven’t noticed whatever incremental damage menopause has wrought.

My weight is a bit of a challenge. I gained ten pounds last winter, but this year I never experienced the loss that I’ve come to take for granted every summer. So I was stuck with the new weight, which did help my baggy pants fit better, but did not look all that great in its current locations – belly and upper arms. So I’ve been doing a little more exercise (and for me that means any exercise) and paying attention to what I eat. I got rid of five of the ten, and now will attempt to keep it within a five-pound range.

But the hot flashes are another story, and I think it will involve a lot of patience, ice water, and changes of clothes, until this hormonal transition is over.

Katrina