Chapter 11
Hot Flashes: Phenomenology
and Measurement
William I. Fisher and Rebecca C. Thurston
Hotflashes are the most commonly reported symptom of the menopausal transition.
Hotflashes (also known as hotflushes, night sweats, and vasomotor symptoms)
have been described as a transient but recurrent experience of heat,flushing, pal-
pitations, chills, clamminess, and sweating of the face, head, neck and chest
(Kronenberg 1990 ; Freedman 2001 ). Hotflashes can occur day or night (commonly
termed“night sweats”), with varying frequency, lasting 3–10 min, on average, per
episode (Kronenberg 2010 ).
Approximately 70% of women living in the USA experience hotflashes at
some point during the menopausal transition (Gold et al. 2006 ). The lowest
prevalence of hotflashes is among Asian women and highest among African
American women in the USA (Freeman and Sherif 2007 ; Gold et al. 2000 ). One
meta-analysis found a median global prevalence of 41.5% of hotflashes among
postmenopausal women, though there was significant variation between countries
(Freeman and Sherif 2007 ). How long a woman can experience hotflashes is still
under investigation, although it is likely longer than previously thought. Two
large cohort studies suggest that women experience frequent or moderate/severe
hotflashes for a median duration of 9–10 years, varying significantly by ethnicity
and age of menopausal onset (Freeman et al.2011b; Avis et al. 2013 ).
W.I. Fisher (&)
NSS Labs, Austin, TX, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
R.C. Thurston
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
L.L. Sievert and D.E. Brown (eds.),Biological Measures of Human
Experience across the Lifespan: Making Visible the Invisible,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44103-0_11
233