I started getting them on and off for 6 years before my periods stopped. They were some of my earliest meno signs along with heart  palpitations, fuzzy memory, sudden tears and sudden rage. Insomnia came  later, actually became increased wakefulness as found I only needed about  5-6 hours of sleep after all. 

         The hot flashes would come for a few months and then disappear for  a few months for these 6 years before my periods stopped.. I saw a  stress/angst pattern to them and came to regard them as stress-flushers. They got worse when the weather got hotter, but only in intensity, not in  frequency. 

        They got a lot worse after my periods stopped. But after about a  year and a half, they were waning in intensity again, but were still a  daily occurence, several times a day. (I never had perimeno night sweats,  although I always did the night before my period would start so I know  what they are like.) 

         I had a recent set back to the old intensity when I started drinking soy milk and now things are starting to wane again since I  stopped drinking it, almost two years post cessation of periods. I am 54. I  read in "The Menopause Industry" (Coney) that hot flashes are reported  more after periods cease than before.  Women report still getting them,  albeit infrequently, for a long time after post meno.
> Joan L

I'm still amazed by this.

I'm not at all - my mother did, I know a 76 yr old who's been on premarin for years who still does - to the extent that she's demanding an increase in dosage (my inner response to this is "duh!" ) and then of course there's me, a youthful 63....(but I don't care - most of the time;-0).

Oh! Hm. My mother didn't. My great-aunts didn't (that I know about). My grandmothers didn't (that I ever noticed/saw/heard about). I don't know that I've ever seen anyone have a hot flash, come to think about it. Surely I must have. Mustn't I?

The hot flushes are the most unpredictable aspect of menopause, and the one with the most research. Among the 150 women who answered the questionnaire I sent out, there were 43 who answered both beginning and ending ages for flushing, and had not had HRT intervention. Of these 43 women, there were only three that were still having flushes after the age of sixty. Of these three, the one woman had started at 47, one at 48 and the other at 55. Many women do not have any flushes, and some women having flushes get HAT, and that usually stops the flushing. I was surprised to see how many women were still on HRT into their 60’s. Most women had only been on HRT for a few months to two years during the time when they were peaking for their menopause. The women who did it that way were no longer having flushes.

The following chart gives the present ages of the women who have flushes, the ages they started flushing, and the ages they ended flushing I was pleased to note that those who had flushed for a long time, often did actually end their flushing. Many have flushes for a year or less, while others go on for as long as 15 years before they stop. As you can see, the so-called ‘NORMAL’ can be  anything from no flushes at all, to fifteen or twenty years of flushing, sometimes going on forever.