I’m going to write this in the hopes that some of your followers may be helped from my experience. I suffered with hot flashes for ten years. I thought I was lucky because mine only occurred at night and wasn’t embarrassed by having to undress in front of strangers. My mother did that. She used to dress in a one-piece bathing suit underneath all her clothes so she could take everything off whenever she felt like it. She also had all the windows and doors open with the air conditioning on full blast. At first, I had no idea what was going on with me. I would wake up in the middle of the night and be wide awake. Just wide awake interrupting my very pleasant dream, and I had no idea why. THEN exactly three minutes later, I would feel warm. Just warm. Not sweating. Not hot. Just warm. And I couldn’t go back to sleep. But if I had wanted to, I bet I could have run five miles with all the energy I had. I would be awake for at least two hours and sometimes three or four. I’m sure I had other symptoms of menopause, but I couldn’t tell because I always had anxiety and low level depression, so nothing was new except for waking up and feeling warm.

I didn’t take anything for it — just the usual Klonopin twice daily for anxiety attacks that I had been taking for twelve years. Then I read somewhere that some antidepressants work on hormones and take away hot flashes. So I talked to my doctor and he prescribed one that didn’t work. Then another that didn’t work. And finally on the third try…. yay no more hot flashes! No more being awake in the middle of the night, and no more feeling warm.

I really don’t know which ones work on the hormones other than the one I’m taking, but with just 150 milligrams of Effexor XR I am free of it all. And I don’t even need Klonopin.