Menopause and Night Sweats

You wake suddenly in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat. Do you assume that the air conditioner went out? Perhaps, but then you hear it click on, so maybe you assume that you had a bad dream; something so awful that it drenched you in sweat, and yet not bad enough that you can remember any of it, of course it’s not though. While that may be the case, there is another reason why you might wake in the dead of night drenched in sweat. A reason that most of us women would at times rather avoid, and other times are glad to see it is finally here. Depending on your outlook, if you wake in the middle of the night drenched in sweat it could be the first sign of menopause, or at least the first sign that brings you wide awake when you are used to being asleep.

While it is true that there are many symptoms that start to tell you of the approach of menopause, irregular period, hot flashes, to name a few; the night time ones can be the most disconcerting. After all who wants to be woken up from a sound sleep to be soaked in sweat? If you have been looking forward to an end of your period and ready for this next step in life you might not mind so much the other symptoms but chances are the night sweats will still bother you a little bit.

The reason that night sweats can bother you more than the other symptoms is because they can cause two of the more uncomfortable symptoms to come about or be more pronounced. Insomnia or sleeplessness, and irritability are both inadvertently caused by night sweats. These two symptoms make up the vicious trifecta of symptoms that most women would be glad to just avoid as they go into menopause. Yet they three are tied together in such a way that it makes it hard to avoid them.

Seventy-five percent of women who go through menopause will be affected by night sweats at some point during the process. However, just like the other symptoms of menopause there is no guarantee that you will experience it. At the same time there is no reason to worry if you do not experience night sweats, chock it up to being lucky. While almost all women experience hot flashes, and all women will experience some irregularity in their period, the other symptoms are not as easy to predict. Just like some of the more uncomfortable symptoms of pregnancy, changes in your body associated with menopause can vary with every woman. When it comes to fully understanding the causes, symptoms and complications of menopause we still have a lot to learn and understand.

Whether you are dealing with hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, irritability, or any of the other symptoms there are options. Talk with your doctor, talk with your friends and loved ones, and let them know what is going on. Sometimes just having the support of your family can be enough to help get you through and if it is not there are other medical options available to help you.