Hot flashes can be incredibly disruptive, but there are now more treatment options available than ever.
During a trip to Europe the summer she was 48, Jodi Wheeler figured there must be a heat wave going on. What else could explain the wicked hot flashes she was experiencing?
When the hot flashes persisted after Jodi returned home to Toronto, she realized something else was at play.
“I’d wake up at night soaked in sweat,” she says. “At first it was just once or twice a week, then it turned into an everyday thing. I was running on empty, barely making it through my days. It reminded me of those sleepless newborn nights.”
“Waking up with soaked sheets was bad enough, but the hot flashes became even harder to manage when they started appearing during the daytime. “I wasn’t prepared for that,” says Jodi. “I couldn’t focus at work. I’d be in the middle of speaking to a client and I’d have to apologize and take a moment to regroup. I just didn’t feel in control of my body.”
Jodi wasn’t alone — about 80 per cent of women experience hot flashes during the transition to menopause — but she often felt that way.1
Understanding hot flashes
Hot flashes and night sweats, also known as vasomotor symptoms, last an average of 7 to 10 years. They occur during menopause when the body’s temperature regulation system gets disrupted.2 For women undergoing breast cancer treatment, menopause can come earlier and cause severe symptoms.3
I was running on empty, barely making it through my days.
“Up to 40 per cent of women in menopause have severe vasomotor symptoms,” says Dr. Wendy Wolfman, Director of the Menopause Clinic and the Premature Ovarian Insufficiency Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. “If these symptoms occur multiple times a day, they can impact a woman’s quality of life and her ability to work.”
Hot flashes can sometimes signal broader health risk, Dr. Wolfman adds. Early, severe vasomotor symptoms in some groups of women have been associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and even cognitive changes.4
Know your options
Menopause is often under-addressed and under-treated in routine care. Many women do not seek help for reasons including; the belief that therapies are not suitable, do not work, that symptoms will resolve on their own.5
At the same time, an estimated 41% of Canadian medical schools do not include menopause in their curriculum6. If doctors don’t receive the necessary training in medical school, they cannot be the partners women need to choose the best treatment options.
“Women should be aware that these symptoms are valid and should not be trivialized, and that we have multiple safe options to treat them,” says Dr. Wolfman.
While lifestyle measures may help some women, some find relief through cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), trigger reduction, cooling strategies, sleep support, stress management or acupuncture — however, there is limited evidence that these approaches reduce hot flashes and night sweats.7
For women who need more, prescription options are commonly available. Hormone therapy has long been a mainstay of prescription treatment for vasomotor symptoms and remains an option many women discuss with their doctor.
“Other approved therapies are the newer neurokinin-3 (NK-3) receptor antagonists — and, more recently, dual NK-1/NK-3 receptor antagonists — which block the overactive signaling in the brain’s temperature-control centre that triggers hot flashes. Non-hormonal therapies are especially helpful for women who cannot use standard hormone therapy,” says Dr. Wolfman. “Treatment options with some scientific validation include SSRIs, SNRIs, gabapentin and oxybutynin, but these don’t work as well as hormone therapy or the newer NK receptor antagonists, and they come with side effects”
Women experiencing hot flashes can speak with their doctor about which option might work best for them based on their symptoms, health history, and personal preference.
Visit menopausefoundationcanada.ca/findcare to learn more.
This article was made possible by the support of Bayer.
References
- Canadian Menopause Society. “Menopause Symptoms.” Accessed July 22, 2026. ↩︎
- Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada / Canadian Menopause Society. Guideline No. 422a: “Menopause: Vasomotor Symptoms, Prescription Therapeutic Agents, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Nutrition, and Lifestyle.” Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 2021. ↩︎
- Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada / Canadian Menopause Society. Guideline No. 422f: “Menopause and Breast Cancer.” 2021. ↩︎
- Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada / Canadian Menopause Society. Guideline No. 422e: “Menopause and Cardiovascular Disease”; and Guideline No. 422c: “Menopause: Mood, Sleep and Cognition.” 2021 ↩︎
- Menopause Foundation of Canada. “The Silence and the Stigma: Menopause in Canada.” 2022. ↩︎
- Bayer. “Case Study: Canada.” Impacts of Menopause. https://impactsofmenopause.com/bayer-fpa/case-study-canada/. Accessed July 28, 2026. ↩︎
- The North American Menopause Society. “The 2023 Nonhormone Therapy Position Statement of The North American Menopause Society.” Menopause, 2023. ↩︎