Some women start to have night sweats — a hot flash that happens at night — in their 40s while their periods are still regular.
In this short video (3:08), Dr. Marcie Richardson, ObGyn and Director of the Menopause Clinic at Atrius Health, explains the cause of night sweats and talks about when they can start. Full transcript follows.
Transcript
Welcome to Interviews with experts, today we share a clip from our interview with Dr. Marcie Richardson, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist. Dr. Richardson is also the Director of The Menopause Center at Atrius Health and an Assistant Clinical Professor, Harvard Medical School.
Night sweats and hot flashes (also known as vasomotor symptoms)
In this clip, Dr. Richardson explains what causes night sweats and hot flashes she also talks about when night sweats begin for some women.
Let’s start by trying to just explain what we think – a night sweat is a hot flash at night – so what night sweats and hot flashes are. Each of us has an internal thermostat. And our internal thermostat is designed to keep us at the temperature so that the proteins that make up our body will not get disrupted. And if we get too cold proteins will freeze and we get too hot, our proteins will boil. So we got this thermostat, and if we get a little overheated, the way our body deals with that is by sweating, and if we get a little bit too cold, the way our body deals with that by trying to generate heat and shivering.
And in women who are having night sweats, or hot flashes, that thermoneutral zone is narrowed. So when women who are having night sweats get a little overheated, start to sweat or if they get a little cold, they’ll start to shiver. Whereas people who aren’t having these phenomena have wider thermoneutral zone.
When do night sweats start?
When do women get night sweats? Well actually the first time people get night sweats actually, is often associated with birth. Because after birth there is a big change in hormones and women will have a lot of sweats but at that point, there is so much else going on that no one pays attention.
From studies that we now have of women, night sweats can start during perimenopause. They can definitely start while you are still having regular periods. And they are more likely to happen just before your period. Or as you are experiencing your period because that’s when hormones shifts. We do believe that these are associated with the hormonal shifts that we see in menopause. And it’s interesting, African American women, in the studies we’ve done, often start having hot flashes and night sweats quite a bit earlier than white women. And we don’t really know why. But that is something we’ve been able to tease out of the long-term studies of women over the menopause transition.
Brought to you by Women Living Better. More at womenlivingbetter.org
Additional information on Night Sweats
To follow up on this video about the cause of night sweats, we asked Dr. Richardson about what women can do about night sweats. Hear what she has to say here.
And on night sweats (research and remedies) from WLB here.
