• Q. I'm getting hot flushes on a regular basis. What's the best NON-prescription relief for hot flushes?

  A. For the majority of women, menopause is accompanied by the infamous hot flush. It is a sudden episode of warmth, often with visible flushing or redness. Hot flushes typically begin in the face and spread down to the chest. They may be also be accompanied by nausea, dizziness, fast beatings of the heart, and sweating.

  Some women choose to treat these and other symptoms of menopause with estrogen, given to them by prescription by their doctor. Estrogen is the most reliably effective treatment for hot flushes. It also has the advantage of protecting against osteoporosis and has been shown to decrease the number of deaths from heart disease. Women who take estrogen for a long time often have to take it with a second hormone, progesterone. This will prevent the risk of cancer of the uterus associated with taking estrogen alone (referred to by doctors as unopposed estrogen). However, when progesterone is added, the decrease in heart disease is not as strong.

  More to your question however, for women who are troubled by hot flushes, but are not interested in taking estrogen, there are other options:
  

• Some women find relief with daily progesterone, which could also be given as a monthly injection. Either would require a prescription .
• Compounds such as Bellergal, containing belladonna (yes, the infamous deadly nightshade), ergotamine, and phenobarbital have been found to be slightly effective.
• Clonidine, more commonly used in high blood pressure, has also been found to be useful for some women (although this would also require a prescription from your doctor).
• Oil of primrose is sometimes used, but there have been no studies to determine its efficacy.
• The same is true for vitamin E.

  The only 100% safe and effective treatment for menopausal hot flushes seems to be TIME--the dose varies, but is usually less than a year.

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