How Hormone Replacement Therapy Helps With Hot Flashes

As estrogen circulates through your body, it binds to receptors on cells, triggering specific reactions. These estrogen receptors exist throughout your body, including in your brain. That’s where hot flashes begin.

A drop in estrogen levels (when they fluctuate before menopause and dramatically decline when menopause begins) affects the part of your brain that regulates body temperature (the hypothalamus).

The loss of estrogen makes the hypothalamus hypersensitive to slight changes in body temperature. As it perceives an increase in temperature (no matter how small), it tells the brain that the body is overheating.

Then, your brain sends instructions to help the body cool down. It signals blood vessels to expand, sending blood to the skin’s surface to release heat. It also activates sweat glands to help you cool down.

As blood rushes toward your skin, you experience a hot flash. Hot flashes cause an intense feeling of heat and a sudden rise in temperature, most often affecting the face, neck, and chest.

Your skin becomes hot, red, and flushed. You also sweat in your upper body. These sudden changes can quickly cool your internal body temperature, causing chills and shivering as your body tries to retain warmth.

Hot flashes may last only a minute or continue for up to five minutes. Though they’re brief, a severe hot flash feels like it lasts much longer.

What’s worse than how you feel is the way a hot flash can disrupt your day. When hot flashes occur at work, they can be embarrassing and undermine your hard-earned reputation.

If you have mild hot flashes, you can dress in layers or carry a handheld fan to use when the heat begins.

But if you’re like most women and have moderate to severe hot flashes, you need more than lifestyle options to stop your symptoms from disrupting your life.

Hormone replacement therapy eliminates hot flashes by restoring healthy estrogen levels. As you regain hormonal balance, estrogen once again does all its vital jobs, including supporting your brain.

We offer bioidentical hormone replacement therapy because these hormones are produced from natural plant-based estrogen and have the same chemical structure as your body’s natural hormones.

That means your body responds to bioidentical hormones just like it would to estrogen produced in your ovaries.

Don’t put up with hot flashes, especially if they’re severe. We understand your challenges and offer safe treatments that can end your discomfort. For more information, contact us or request an appointment online. We have convenient locations to serve you in Columbia, MD & Greenbelt, MD. We serve patients from Columbia MD, Greenbelt MD, Ellicott City MD, Jessup MD, Savage MD, New Carrollton MD, College Park MD, Beltsville MD, Bowie MD, and surrounding areas.