What causes hot flushes on zoladex ECG

I am no Doctor, but I believe Hot Flashes are your bodoes reaction to the loss of Testosterone - same as a female going through menopause and losing estrogen. They are not related to blood pressure or anything dangerous. I assume your body eventually adjusts and they go away - if you stay on the HT long enough.

 Hot flushes drugs:  megace, megestrol, cyproterone acetate, gabapentin, zoloft, effexor, soy products.  Any estrogenic drug will also ditch those side effects. 

 

Post Edited (zufus) : 8/4/2011 4:09:45 PM (GMT-6)

leeanglo said...
What causes hot flushes on zoladex ECG

Are the flushes caused by increases in Blood pressure ???

You've already gotten a partial answer to the question of "what causes hot flushes" from both Tim and Steve.  They both said that it's a reaction/symptom of the LHRH (Zoladex) reducing your testosterone (T) level.  This is correct, but in case you are interested in a little bit more detailed explanation...

Most of the T in a man's body is secreted from the testes (or the ovaries of a woman), but a typically small percentage is also made from the adrenal glands.  As a natural reaction, when the body senses a shortage of T from the effect of the LHRH, it tells the adrenal glands to send a surge of T to try to compensate.  This is what "causes" the hot flush. 

Many men are given an antiandrogen (bicalutamide-generic, or Casodex-brand) for a week or two before starting an LHRH to help prevent the surge.  Your profile says "now taking 50mg cosadex daily also."  Have you taken that long enough to see whether that helps?

 

Casodex by itself can contribute to hot flushes. Medical literature reports them as side effects of Casodex plus a LHRH (Lupron, Zoladex, Trelstar etc.) or even from triple Casodex (150 mg) therapy. See:

tinyurl.com/3peo892

There is no clear action mechanism to the cause of hot flushes. A more accepted version in men is that hot flushes are mostly caused by a diminished level of testosterone induced by a LHRH agonist or antagonist that has a direct effect on the hypothalamus gland (that is responsible for controlling your appetite, sleep cycles, sex hormones, and body temperature). The low level of testosterone confuses the hypothalamus gland— which regulates body temperature— and makes it to wrongly consider excessive body temperature an alert to cool off.

The brain then responds to the high body temperature by alerting the heart, blood vessels, and nervous system to get rid of the excessive temperature. The message is transmitted by the nervous system's chemical messengers (epinephrine, serotonin,norepinephrine, prostaglandin). This action is immediate with the heart pumping faster, the blood vessels dilating to circulate more blood to dissipate heat and the sweat glands releasing sweat to effectively cool off the body as much as possible. BTW, this is the normal action mechanism by which a normal person avoids overheating in warm weather. But when this action is triggered instead by a sensed reduction in testosterone, your brain's confused response can be very uncomfortable and even debilitating. More so when it can happen often. I should know...I still get them after almost 20 years.

RalphV

Leeanglo,
The Zoladex plus Casodex regimen can cause an elevated blood pressure. A beta-blocker medication would help in controlling the blood pressure. What is your PSA now? If your cardiovascular health is good adding an estradiol patch of 0.1 mg per week would also be helpful to control the hot flushes.

RalphV