A new study finds that more than half of women experience these unpleasant change-of-life symptoms for seven years or more.

"Women should not be surprised if their hot flashes last a number of years," said lead researcher Nancy Avis, a professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Like Us on Facebook

Four out of five women experience hot flashes and night sweats in the years before their periods stop. This leaves some with almost 12 years of unpleasant symptoms. Women who could identify their final period reported symptoms persisting for an average of 4.5 years afterward.

Researchers followed 1,449 women with frequent vasomotor menopausal symptoms (VMS) between February 1996 and April 2013. The results demonstrated the median total VMS duration was 7.4 years.

Women who were premenopausal or early perimenopausal when they first reported their symptoms were found to have a median length of symptoms of a whopping 11.4 years. Women who were postmenopausal when their VMS began had the shortest durations at a median of 3.4 years.

According to the North American Menopause Society, menopause occurs most often between ages 45 and 55. The symptoms women experience are related to lower levels of estrogen and other hormones. Common among these symptoms are hot flashes or quick feelings of heat sometimes accompanied by sweating.

Other factors found to be linked to longer VMS durations are younger age, greater perceived stress, greater sensitivity to symptoms, lower educational attainment, and higher depressive symptoms and anxiety at first report of VMS.

The result of the study can aid healthcare professionals counsel patients regarding the expectations on VMS and support women in making treatment decisions based on the probability of their VMS persisting.

The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

TagsMenopausal period, menopause, women menopausal, menopausal women, VMS, hot flashes