What do hot flushes feel like?

[Feelinghothothot1]

I’ll be 45 next month and in the past week I’ve started having a feeling of warmth around my neck, and I’m almost a bit sweaty. Or it feels like I get sweaty more easily but I don’t actually perspire. I’m otherwise healthy so don’t reckon it’s anything sinister. Could this be the beginning of hot flushes?

A colleague had a preventative removal of her ovaries in her 30s and I remember her turning bright red and sweating bullets, but I’m not sure whether that’s an extreme case?

I think it's different for everyone. Mine feels like my ears are on fire, and I have a slight feeling of anxiety wash over me. They only last a few seconds, thank goodness, and I'm experiencing them less and less now.

also I have a Mirena coil so absolutely no idea what’s going on with my periods. But have a feeling of warmth on the back of my neck and shoulders and my temples feels a bit sweaty.

Following - 42 and keep getting a sweaty neck and bursts of feeling hot - although only when I have an alcoholic drink but this is new for me

I was just hot all the time. As a person who has been permanently cold until now, it came as a surprise. DM had no heat symptoms, MiL had classic turn red and suddenly start sweating hot flushes. It varies a lot.

Mine would begin with a weird skin crawling sensation, which is apparently your capillaries opening up to try to shift the heat.
Sweating down my back & neck then followed. Thank goodness I'm a long way the far side of menopause now, but can still recall the grisly detail.
Good luck if you're just embarking on the journey.

I had my ovaries removed too but didn’t really have hot flushes until later . It was a feeling of extreme heat washing over and suddenly they’re gone. Mine weren’t very severe but I still get them 10 years post menopause particularly when drinking alcohol or stressed .

I don’t think I’ve ever had one, but I have been on HRT for five years (am late 40s). All the other perimenopause symptoms? Oh yeah, in spades.

For me it’s a sudden feeling of my face being really really hot, comes completely out of nowhere. Thankfully since starting HRT it’s much better and I get them far less.

Same as @Seagulldancing I felt hot all the time, like my internal thermostat had been rewired. I'd also break into a sweat at the slightest exertion, like doing the hoovering, but I didn't get severe hot flushes. I'm out the other side now, but still run hot most of the time.

@Feelinghothothot1 if you feel the need for HRT, you already have a Mirena so could just add oestrogen gel to that. See your GP if it becomes unbearably bothersome.

For me it was like a feeling of heat radiating right up my upper body into my face. And my face would go noticeably red.

That’s how it felt for me but don’t think I had a red face. Like the central heating was turned on on a summers day or next to a gas fire but inside my upper body. Lasted about half n hour, go away for half n hour then comeback 🙄

For me, it's not just the heat but the little surge in cortisol or adrenaline beforehand, like a mini anxiety attack, wondering what's wrong, then oh yeah, there it comes... 🥵 But only lasts a few minutes.

It's different at different times for me. Sometimes it's just a rising tide of feeling too hot and knowing that I need to start shedding layers pronto.
Sometimes, I get a tingling sensation in my legs and lower body. This is usually at night, in bed and then an all over feeling of being too hot. These can also be a tiny bit sweaty - somewhat like prickly heat - and seem related to waking up, as if suddenly my system goes live.
I don't think I go red in the face and they pass pretty quickly.

@DramaAlpaca thank you, yes, it’s that sort of feeling like I get sweaty easily, so rt of like being ill, but I’m not ill? Just getting up to put the kettle on I feel a bit squeezed and hot. (I exercise loads so I’m not worried it’s a heart attack or something!)

Feeling hot internally but not sweating. And feeling the heat rising through my body and upto my skull. Sometimes feel like a pressure cooker and the valve needs releasing!
My skin can even feel cool when it's happening although I can't beat wearing long sleeves the last year or so.

. I've been on hrt patches since April . I didn't have loads of hot flushes before that but the few I did have I'd end up soaking through the back of my shirt/top. Night sweats were worse, I thought I'd wet the bed a couple of nights but nope, just the human radiator in action again. They've stopped since starting hrt

When I'm having a hot flush I also feel like I can't think properly or concentrate. A woman I worked with used to have to pause her sentence for a moment to collect herself if she got a flush.

a hot flush is like a rising tide of heat but not sweating. The night sweats were worse for me absolutely drenched with sweat dripping off you. HRT fixed both in a week

Mine are horrible - I get a sudden feeling of adrenaline thump and something being “wrong” then the heat just ramps up SO fast and SO hot it literally radiates off me, my skin gets really clammy all over. Lasts about 30 seconds to a minute. It’s such a gross feeling. And I’m also generally just hot and clammy. I’ve never been hot, I never sweated even on holiday so I am not happy that is over forever 🤣

Mine were more heat intolerance and sticking my leg out the bed to cool down. I'm on HRT now and have been for 10 years but still don't like getting too hot but that seems to be just my body anyway.
Interestingly my husband was recently diagnosed with an overactive thyroid recently and is more sympathetic of my plight especially when I caught him with a leg out the bed.

Mine are like that feeling when you suddenly realise that you've been standing over the heater for too long and you just have to get away.
I don't go red nor sweat heaps.

Like you need to rip off all your clothes immediately or you’re going to self combust.
Thank god for HRT.

Mine are:

1. Feeling of impending doom (this is by far the worst part of it).
2. Heat starts somewhere around the chest.
3. Heat radiates out and spreads all over, finally coming out in a mini explosion of warmth around the cheeks and head.
4. Two minutes later, all over.
5. I should mention these have been going on for me since about 2017. Anyone any idea when they might stop?

Like a flame making its way up to your eyeballs through your toes.

They are mild at first. When you are sitting somewhere where you'd normally wear a coat, like a heated cafe or train, and you realise you just have to get the coat off that second. Then it's every time you walk somewhere with a gradient, walk into a patch of bright sunlight even in winter, stand over a sink filled with hot water...hateful things.

From what I remember, mine were worse at night, absolutely dripping in sweat, I had bedroom window wide open in January and snow was blowing in through the curtains! I was always cold even in the summer prior to them beginning. Saved a lot on heating costs that winter! And I remember feeling itchy a lot, down below. Never took hrt. Lasted about a year before last period, then all back to normal afterwards.

I'm 67. Obvs been through the menopause. (And presumably the perimenopause, although it hadn't been invented back then.)

Never had a hot flush. Occasionally used to turn to my boyfriend in bed and say "I'm feeling really hot. Is this a hot flush?" and he'd say "No, CrystalSingerFan. I'm hot too. We live in a badly designed house and it's the height of summer."

Not every woman gets them.