benefit to early menopause hot flashes

Latest studies linked hot flashes with higher blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which could suggest a higher risk for heart problems, but the new research offers a more detailed look, Manson said.

Lead author Dr. Emily Szmuilowicz, an endocrinologist with Northwestern University’s medical school, said the results should reassure millions of women who experience hot flashes or night sweats, which are fundamentally hot flashes that can be bothersome enough to awaken women.

The study was released online Thursday in the journal Menopause. A small number of women developed hot flashes long after menopause began, and for at least some, previous use of hormone pills may have increased their risks for heart problems, Giardina said.

Menopause occurs when women discontinue having periods and estrogen levels dwindle. The majority women experience symptoms including hot flashes that can last for several years. Hot flashes aren’t well studied but are thought to result from blood vessels dilating in response to the normal hormone fluctuations of menopause, Manson said. The research involved 60,027 women from the ongoing Women’s Health Initiative observational study, examining disease risk factors and health outcomes and funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Over one-third, or almost 25,000 women, had early symptoms — hot flashes at the onset of menopause that had stopped before they enrolled. Just 1,391 had late symptoms — hot flashes at enrollment but not at the start of menopause.

In relation to 2.5 percent of women with early symptoms had heart attacks, compared with 3.4 percent of women with no symptoms and 5.5 percent of those with late symptoms. Also, about 6 percent of the early symptom women died, versus 11 percent of the late symptom group and 8 percent of the symptomless women. Women who had persistent hot flashes throughout menopause had risks similar to those without symptoms.

Giardina noted that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity — which all can contribute to heart problems — were more common among the late symptom women. But the researchers said they accounted for that and still found that timing of menopause symptoms played a role in later heart attacks and deaths.