Managing Hot Flashes & Night Sweats After Menopause: Treatment Options

Menopause is the time in a woman's life when her body produces less progesterone and estrogen. Her ovaries stop creating eggs, and menstruation eventually stops completely. Along with psychological effects like irritability and anxiety, many post-menopausal women experience severe vasomotor symptoms.

Vasomotor Symptoms

• Vasomotor symptoms include hot flashes and palpitations. A hot flash is a sudden, intense, hot feeling on the face and upper body, and a palpitation is an unpleasant sensation of an abnormal heartbeat, whether too slow or too fast.

Effects

• Because they can disrupt life completely, these symptoms often lead to depression and insomnia.

Treatments

• Various treatments are available for these symptoms. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants and the serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) are treatments that work for post-menopausal women.

SNRI

• Cymbalta is a well-known example of an SNRI. It is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antidepressant commonly prescribed for vasomotor symptoms. Women who suffer from narrow-angle glaucoma (an eye disease) or have recently taken another antidepressant should not take Cymbalta.

SSRI

• Zoloft is a type of SSRI. It is also FDA approved and is prescribed for depression and certain types of anxiety conditions in post-menopausal women.