I have a question for any ladies here willing to help me out...

[battleknight24]

... I am a 22 year old guy... but I still don't know... seriously...


... What exactly are "hot flashes"?


Peace,

[Katherine2]

1. Apparently no one's jumping at the chance

to answer you, so here goes. It's when a women is going through menopause, out of the blue she gets really hot. I haven't gone through menopause yet myself, but a lot of the women in my office are always complaining of hot flashes and fanning themselves. I hope this helps. You'd think from the name, a "hot flash" would be something good, but I guess not.

[battleknight24]

4. I had a feeling it was not something good...

...

[Withywindle]

2. usually it's a menopause thing

When a woman's at the "change of life" and her reproductive hormones are starting to freak out, one of the symptoms some women experience is these flashes of heat. I don't know, not there yet, but I'm told it's like a very brief flash of fever. Can wake you up at night. Fairly unpleasant.


However I have also heard it used to mean, in younger women, a sudden and socially inconvenient attack of the random hornies.

[ashmanonar]

6. so they experience what it's like to be a guy?

:evilgrin:

cuz seriously...if that's a hot flash, i'd say most guys are in a volcano-meltdown stage.

[serryjw]

9. NOTHING pleasant about them

You drip with facial perspiration when it's 10 degrees outside!

[ashmanonar]

10. lol.

i know, it's not pleasant to have hot flashes. but neither is it pleasant to have an unwanted erection when you're trying to stand in front of a class, for example...especially when you're a single guy standing in front of a class full of cute cute girls...

[serryjw]

11. WOW!

Ididn't know they was EVER a time that an erection was unwanted :P

[ashmanonar]

20. only in public...only in public.

:evilgrin:

[huellewig]

16. Or on the bus.

They always occured right before my stop. I would have to wait and walk the blocks back to my house.

[marzipanni]

22. You mean it was hard, with a hard on, to get off? n/t

[RadicalMom]

18. It wouldn't be so noticeable if you'd just wear your kilte and carry

around a large pillow. Gosh, and you complain.

[ashmanonar]

21. i didn't know i had a kilt...i must be scottish!

:D

[Nite Owl]

3. Basically a hormonal

reaction that causes the heat to rise!

http://www.abc.net.au/science/menopause/hormones.htm

[neebob]

5. I don't know, either,

except that they're associated with menopause and I'm told they're really hot and I'm not looking forward to them.

[KitchenWitch]

7. hot flashes and night sweats, welcome to my world

I have to ask people if it is hot or is it me all the time.

[leftofthedial]

8. it's when someone really good looking, wearing an overcoat . . .

never mind

[tjdee]

12. Just another sucky woman issue.

When you think about it, women have the sucky end of the gender pool in so many ways. And on top of everything we have to deal with healthwise and bodywise, we are expected to look gorgeous all the time.

Eww.

[WhirlyGirl]

13. In my case...

... being in a warm place -- for example, stirring something on the stove -- would set them off. Then I'd walk into the living room, and it would go away.
~~ For some odd reason, it's only the front of the body that feels warm and perspires during hot flashes (the tops of the arms, but not the underside; under the chin, but not the back of the neck; kneecaps, but not the backs of the knees; etc.)
~~ Serious hot flashes cause middle-aged office managers to turn the AC up so high that everyone else has to have a space heater under his desk and dress like Dick Cheney dressed at Auschwitz.

[mrbassman03]

14. hahaha, what a great question...

I never though about asking, though I am amazed to learn the answer.

[Nicole]

15. They are not hot flashes

they are power surges.

[roguevalley]

17. Not everyone in menopause has them. I've not. Thank goodness.

It was fun watching my mom explode when she had them. :)

Hormonal changes. What a trip. By the way, 22 year old guys can ask nice questions anytime. Honest.

[SoCalDem]

19. Imagine a blowtorch inside your body.. Keep turning it UP and UP

and UP.. I once held one of those press on thermometers to my skin during a "bad one" and the thing lit up like a Chistmas Tree...

Clinically, it when the estrogen that women are used to having ,is all gone, and the temperature regulation part of the brain apparently NEEDS estrogen , so some women get them BAAAAAAD.. Mine lasted about SIX YEARS... I would wake up from a sound sleep soaking wet (and I was a person who could play tennis and not even sweat).. My sleep pattern completely changed and even now that they are gone, I sleep only for about 45 minutes at a stretch,. (hence the crankiness :)..)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

23. Man, you asked the right woman!

Hot flashes and night sweats are caused when a woman's hormonal levels start to shift during the time she is heading into menopause - that time in a woman's reproductive life when she has ceased having her period. (You are offically menopausal when you have not had a period for 12 months.) There is a pre-menopausal time called perimenopause which can start as early as ten years before reaching menopause, and includes hot flashes and night sweats.

The hormone estrogen plays a huge role in the hormone "soup" that makes up the brain's chemistry. When a woman's estrogen starts to fall, that complex "soup" is knocked out of whack -- and a part of the brain that is especially hard hit is the hypothalamus.

The hypothalamas is essentially the body's thermostat -- it tells the body when to heat up and and when to cool down based on chemical and sensory input. But since the "soup" is not quite seasoned right due to hormone fluxuations, the thermostat goes nuts and starts sending out erratic messages to the body: Heat the hell up, now! Opps! Too damn hot! Danger, danger! Cool down stat!.

And that can go on a few times a day, or all day, or just a couple of times a week, depending on the woman. A hot flash can cause sweating and flushing of the face and head or even the entire body. It can be mildly irritating or make you want to jump out a window (that's me!) Hot flashes can start pretty early in the perimenopause phase and can last well after menopause officially hits. Night sweats are just hot flashes that happen - surprise! -- at night. At night, the sweating can becoms so severe that a woman has to change her nightwear and bedding. Or she could just spritz delicately.

Here's more on the hypothalamas



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus links the nervous system to the endocrine system by synthesizing and secreting neurohormones often called releasing hormones because they function by stimulating the secretion of hormones from the anterior pituitary gland — among them, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). The neurons that secrete GnRH are linked to the limbic system, which is very involved in the control of emotions and sexual activity. The hypothalamus is also the area of the brain that controls body temperature, hunger and thirst, and circadian cycles.


http://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/hypoANS.html

The main function of the hypothalamus is homeostasis, or maintaining the body's status quo. Factors such as blood pressure, body temperature, fluid and electrolyte balance, and body weight are held to a precise value called the set-point. Although this set-point can migrate over time, from day to day it is remarkably fixed.