Hot Flashes

The phenomenon of menopause affects the entire range of a woman's reproductive functioning from brain to skin and nearly every aspect of her body and life. Some men also struggle with hormone imbalances later in life. Fortunately, the reproductive endocrinologists at the Fertility Center can lessen the severity of these transitions for many patients.  

We offer hormone therapy for both men and women to help manage and sometimes eliminate mood swings, hot flashes, acne, weight gain or loss, changes in sex drive, insomnia, depression, bone loss and a variety of other symptoms and side effects. In addition to prescribing medications, Dr. Bird and Dr. Donesky also recommend lifestyle changes and homeopathic approaches.

Men's testes produce nearly all male testosterone. The balance is supplied by the adrenal glands, which also produce small amounts of estrogen. The brain signals the pituitary to trigger hormone production from the testes. As a man gets older, testosterone levels fall while estrogen levels tend to rise, affecting bone density, stamina, muscle strength, body composition, mental health and sex drive. Another imbalance can occur when testosterone is low in relation to estrogen and may contribute to prostate problems. Other side effects of male hormone imbalances can include poor concentration, decreased mental clarity, erectile dysfunction, decreased urine flow and increased urges to urinate. Like their female counterparts, men also can experience hot flashes, irritability, mood swings, night sweats and sleep disturbances.

The word menopause literally means the permanent physiological cessation of menstrual cycles and the end of the fertile phase of a woman's life. This typically midlife event is triggered by the faltering and shutting down of the ovaries. As part of the body's endocrine system of hormone production, the ovaries make sexual behavior and reproduction possible. As the ovaries begin to fail to be able to produce an egg every month, the regular pattern of the hormone cycles is interrupted and gradually leads to the somewhat chaotic and drawn out shutting down of the whole reproductive system. Additionally, the eggs in the ovaries are aging and degenerating through the natural process of atresia.

A break in the pattern of menstrual cycles not only causes reproductive hormone levels to drop over time, but also causes the hormones to fall out of phase with one another, which often leads to extreme and unpredictable fluctuations in the levels. After a number of years of erratic functioning, the ovaries almost completely stop producing hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. As the body adapts to the changing levels of natural hormones, women typically experience irregular menstrual periods along with a variety of other symptoms:

vasomotor – hot flashes or flushes, night sweats, palpitations and sleep disturbances

psychological – fatigue, depression, anxiety, irritability, mood changes, memory loss and 
lack of concentration

atrophic – vaginal dryness, itching, discharge, urgency of urination and incontinence

skeletal – joint pain, muscle pain, back pain and the onset of osteoporosis

epidermal – acne, excess facial or body hair, loss of scalp hair, thinning skin, soft tissue, breast tenderness, decreased elasticity and prickly sensations

sexual – decreased libido, painful intercourse and problems reaching orgasm

The average age of menopause is 51 years, and the normal age range for final period is between ages 45 and 55. Early menopause can begin at 40, and late menopause may continue until 60. Premature menopause occurs before the age of 40 in about one percent of women.

Perimenopause includes the transition years both before and after the last period. This precursor to menopause may begin as early as age 35 with symptoms of changing hormones and last ten years or longer. The actual duration and severity of perimenopause in any individual woman cannot be predicted in advance or during the process. Not every woman experiences symptoms during perimenopause. Approximately one third of all women get no noticeable symptoms other than their periods becoming erratic and then stopping. Another one third of women have moderate symptoms. The remaining one third of women have very strong symptoms which tend to have a longer duration.