Please help me cope with horrendous night sweats!

[Fancycrab]

I’m 42 and starting to notice a couple of signs of peri menopause. My cycle has got a bit shorter and worst of all, I’m getting these awful night sweats every night starting a week or so before my period starts and not stopping till the middle of my period. I have to change PJs and put a towel down to sleep on 3 or 4 times every night cos I’m completely soaked in sweat, along with the sheets, pillow and sometimes the duvet too. I sometimes also feel a bit like I’m getting a cold (sneezing & chills etc) in the morning cos I’ve been lying in cold sweat for hours. I have done absolutely everything to try and help - I wear 100% cotton baggy t-shirt & shorts to bed, 100% cotton bedding, bamboo pillow, light, breathable duvet. I sleep with the windows open so the room stays cool all night. Nothing makes a difference though. I’m at my wits end with it! Does anyone have any tips that might help? Any medication or natural remedies I can try? Literally willing to do anything to stop this (except go on HRT - I feel like that might be a bit of a leap considering this is the one and only symptom that bothers me). Thank you

I'd try HRT if my sleep was being as disturbed as yours.

I had horrendous night-time hot flushes but not the sweating. GP put me on a low dose of Citalopram (half the smallest tablet, taken before bed) which sorted it. It doesn't work if you are taking it for depression.

I’m a few years older and in the same boat. I don’t want to go on hrt as tried it twice and piled weight on. There’s a new drug for hot flushes. I’ve made an appointment with my gp to see about it.

are you sure you dont have an infection?

otherwise buy a fan?

I was in your situation and I went for
HRT. I would never be without it now.

Nights sweats are horrendous. Mine were exactly as you described but not linked to my cycle - just endless nights waking up soaked. I hated it so much.

HRT

This is what it's for! It's not a 'leap' at all.

If this is happening at 42, it's on the early side and you need to maintain your estrogen levels to protect your bones and heart.

Lack of sleep is very detrimental to health.

Not being dramatic but this could carry on for 10+ years, so you need to tackle it.

you can buy cooling pillows,
wet your wrists before bed

Hrt was the only thing that helped me.

This is interesting - how does wetting your wrists before bed help?

Just take the HRT! I suffered for years with hot flushes and night sweats. Increased anxiety and insomnia. It was only when my hair started to fall out I gave in and asked my gp for HRT. Within days my hot flushes and night sweats stopped.

HRT. It's bloody life changing. I was waking up and having to change several times a night. I can sleep now. It is amazing

Drenching night sweats were the only peri menopausal symptom I had age 43. I was really concerned as night sweats are a signs of low oestrogen and I was worried about my future bone, brain and cardiovascular health if I had an early menopause. I went to my GP, got bloods which showed I was indeed in the throes of menopause and started HRT straight away. The night sweats stopped within a week. If we have an early menopause it’s important to start HRT to protect us from years and years of low oestrogen. No-one gives us a badge or award for resisting starting it!

HRT didn't work for me, but I was limited in what I was allowed to have. My experience of them was that there's nothing you can do outside of this or the herbal things some women have taken, black cohosh? To save my mattress I slept on top of things that were easier to wash.

no idea but it does

Houmous - or rather, chickpeas - is/are supposedly a great source of oestrogen if you can’t have HRT for whatever reason.

@JulietteHasAGun That new drug has only recently been approved by the NHS.. It does have some quite serious side effects in some women so it's not first line treatment.

Fezolinetant (also called Veoza and made by Astellas Pharma) is recommended to treat moderate to severe symptoms in final draft NICE guidance.

You need a liver function test before it and during treatment.

If you've not tried all types and doses of HRT it's perhaps worth going back down that route partly as you also get the benefit to your heart and bones which none of the other options provide.

You'd have to eat tonnes of them.
There are many vegetables that contain phytoestrogen but none of them are a replacement in day to day eating for HRT.

There are scientific research papers on alternatives to HRT (on the British Menopause Society website) and none of the alternatives are shown to work much.

It doesn't.

I remember my hot flashes. They felt like I was about to spontaneously human combust. And I have a fan by my bed to this day just in case. I’d wake in the early hours so sweaty.

Are you against trying HRT, op?

Mine was fixed with sage tablets. I read it on here and thought … yeah sure of course that will work ….insert sarcasm. But it did.

I tried a number of things but nothing worked until I got HRT. Bliss. Slept better than I had in years.

If I could go back to this stage again I would take the hrt.
I struggled through the hot flushes and night sweats for two years. Zero other symptoms but what I didn't know is how HRT protects your bones. I might still have got osteoporosis but I might not.

I tried:

bamboo bedding
bamboo pjs
sleeping on a towel so when I soaked it at least I didn’t have to change the sheets
fan
windows Open
special Japanese cooking blanket (still use this - bees knees)

hrt was the only thing that really worked.

Willing to try anything except the one thing that is most likely to get rid of this symptom for good? Come on now OP. Like others on here, my night sweats disappeared completely when I got stabilised on HRT.

At 42, this is highly likely to be your FIRST symptom of peri, not your ONLY symptom. There's nothing nuclear about HRT, anymore than managing diabetes by injecting insulin, or taking thyroxine tablets for hypothyroidism. There are long term as well as short term benefits - reduced risk of heart disease and osteoporosis. I can't recommend it enough