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Describe Your Hot Flashes

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Posted 5/29/2013 3:39 AM (GMT 0)
As I am proceeding along the flora highway enjoying the hormone deprivation therapy, I am reminded ever single day with hot flashes and wonder what others' hot flashes are like to see the commonality and the differences. And discuss the frequency and intensity of each hot flash.

For example, my hot flashes start around my abdomen. My skin goes from warm to hot and it continues to radiate up to the head. Beads of sweat build up on my forehead, behind the ears, neck and chest.Periodically they go down south and the get the brothers all sweated up. No pattern for when the start, how long they last and how intense they are. Most of mine are above the waist. Some get so intense that I would like to rip off my suit coat, tie and unbutton my shirt. Standing in front of a fan or a floor air conditioner provides relief.

I have had only One six month shout of Lupron and I anticipate the flashes to last through the end of treatments and for a few months afterward? Is that a correct assumption?
Posted 5/29/2013 3:55 AM (GMT 0)
The end of my six-month shot was in March. I am still having all the SEs full blown.

My flashes feel like someone puts a heating pad warmed up to ultra hot on the back of my neck, then it rolls down over my back. I turn fire-engine red. The "dripping sweat" versions happen, but not often.

 

Posted 5/29/2013 5:03 AM (GMT 0)
I have to admit that I am not sure if I get hot flashes or not. I do have warm spells after I eat and occasionally after mild exercise. The thing is, I had them before I went on HT only not as often (I think). I've always had a fan at my desk and I've always disliked still air. The main difference now that I am on ADT is that I worry about my warm spells whereas I didn't pay any attention to them before. I can't even be sure I am having more of them -- maybe I just notice them.
Posted 5/29/2013 6:15 AM (GMT 0)
Lessee,
You're in Las Vegas and feel just fine in the casino with the 75 degree settings and humidified air flowing. It's the end of July and you step outside just about an hour after a monsoon has passed by and the temps are 110 with 90% humidity.

I get reminders all the time living here. I always joked that hot flashes in Vegas don't require hormonal therapies in the summer...They were actually never made worse by our summer heat though sometimes I felt those monsoons even when I was in the house.

Tony
Posted 5/29/2013 10:45 AM (GMT 0)
I never had them for 2 years on HT but once I started Zytiga and am also still on HT Ive been having some.....I feel cool at first...the outside of my skin feels cool and clammy with sweat but inside I feel hot.....lasts for about 1 minute and goes away. Actually don't feel all that bad as I thought.
Posted 5/29/2013 11:15 AM (GMT 0)
Just beginning to notice them after 4 weeks on Lupron monotherapy before IGRT.

I'm probably not a good reference yet, but am sort of hyper-aware right now. A few times a day it feels like I'm suddenly warm more or less all over, about like I do after my 6 minute aerobic warmup at the rec center, with mild perspiration. It only lasts 2 or 3 minutes. My wife says, "Welcome to my world!". :)

Not bothersome at all, yet. I'm looking at it as evidence the treatment is actually doing something, so it's a good thing! (Fatigue/reduced endurance level has definitely already increased, too). Oh well, we're starving out those little buggers....

However, the soak-the-bed type of hot flashes seem like they'd really be troublesome. It's amazing we have such a variety of physical responses to the same basic chemical challenge.
Posted 5/29/2013 12:35 PM (GMT 0)

I try to describe it to my friends in this way. It is NOT at all like going in a suana or outside on a 100 degree day. The heat starts inside, like my blood is boiling, then emerges through the skin, finally causing sweats. Typically I will sweat so much that it actually drips off my nose and down my neck. I have to always carry paper napkins around to wipe off the sweat.... wait I feel one coming on now......, fan on, grab the ice chips... now sweat accumulating on my forehead, where's that napkin....

Lasts maybe 30-60 seconds, but sometime longer. happens at least a dozen time/day.  Must take the jacket off when it hits or  else I'd be swimming in my own persperation.

Posted 5/29/2013 12:46 PM (GMT 0)
My "flashes" last as long as 15 minutes. The time between them is shorter.
Posted 5/29/2013 1:29 PM (GMT 0)

I have now been on Lupron for 16 months. I’m still having 40+hot flashes/day. Being an engineer, I actually wrote down the times they occur and the duration. They typically last around 5 minutes and what is interesting is that normally I don’t have any from 8AM to 2PM. That time is when I’m at work, so I take issue with them potentially being stress related.

The hot flashes usually start “inside “my neck area and then move upward until my head feels like it is on fire. I turn bright red and sweat profusely starting with my head moving downward and it stops about the waist. After the hot flash I get the chills due to the sweating. Nothing I have tried stops them or minimizes the effects. It’s just grin and bear it. Thankfully, it does last only 5 minutes or so. No doubt the hot flashes are a big contributor to my insomnia.

Posted 5/29/2013 1:34 PM (GMT 0)
Gentlemen, not to make light of what you're going through but reading your descriptions of hot flashes takes me back a few years when I began menopause. I remember talking to my OB/GYN about them and saying that I felt like my blood pressure was 200/100...that if I looked in a mirror I'd see smoke coming out of my ears. He laughed and told me that the heat is not coming from inside the body but rather through the skin (something to do with nerve endings and regulating body temperature).

My husband would joke when we'd be sitting on the sofa watching TV (and it would be winter and I'd have a turtleneck on), he could feel the heat coming off me (yuck!). In the middle of winter, I'd want to sleep with a window open (and we're in the Northeast). I was rather lucky with my flashes as they pretty much only affected my head (would get beads of sweat along the hairline and on the back of my neck) but my closest friend would get them to the point where her blouse would be drenched and sticking to her skin (double yuck).

Man, I don't miss those days, and I feel for all you guys going through it.
Posted 5/29/2013 3:03 PM (GMT 0)
My hot flashes are mainly neck and above. They start inside and seem to radiate out through my forehead and I start sweating. Occasionally they affect my entire torso. I'd say I average one per hour and they last about five minutes.

Interestingly, I have learned that I don't get them when I'm cold. I have sat through through cold-ish outdoor sporting events for hours just wishing I could get a hot flash and they don't come. Then I get into the car to drive home, start to warm up and WHAM...major hot flash.

To that end, I've taken to sleeping with no covers under the theory that I'd rather be cold than have a hot flash. Of course, I eventually end up getting too cold and putting a sheet over me and then...yep, hot flash time again.
Posted 5/29/2013 6:03 PM (GMT 0)
Sephie, don't worry about making light of our "manopause" symptoms. I've been on Lupron for 6 years and I guess the frequency and severity have slowly dropped by 50% over that time. My flash begins at the back of my neck, up my head, around to the face and then down the entire body. Outside heat affects me greatly as does strenuous physical activity. Then I get really bad dripping sweats to where I can't see out of my glasses. That's how it is now, at first it was really bad . . . Q
Posted 5/30/2013 4:33 AM (GMT 0)
Very fascinating to hear how different most of our hot flashes are. Last night i was blessed with three intense ones from 11-1. Needless to say, I was tired and grumpy this morning.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and Tony' just living in Vegas qualifies you for hot flashes from July -October
Posted 5/30/2013 7:23 AM (GMT 0)
I've never had HT and never had a hot flash. But I still have something to contribute here.

When my wife first started getting them, just like you, she was curious to know how many and how often she had them. Rather than leave it up to chance I taped a small data logger (the size of 5 dimes) to the inside of her bicep. I used the Maxim iButton DS1921H and programmed it to record time and temperature every minute. It also recorded the time the when the temperature exceeded a certain value. The unit is waterproof so she could wear it all day and it stored about 2000 minutes of data (~30 hours) before needing to be erased. It worked great.

I forget. Did I say my wife was a saint?
J
Posted 5/30/2013 11:12 AM (GMT 0)
I was on Lupron several years ago and had hot flashes, am now on Trelstar and expected them again but my dr. put me on Estradiol patches and the one's I have now are so minor I hardly notice them.I don't know if Trelstar made the difference or if Estradiol did.Just passing this on in case someone else wants to ask there Dr.


Trap
Posted 5/30/2013 11:31 AM (GMT 0)
Worried Guy, I expected no less from you.. Yes she must be saint. You and I have to get together someday. I thought I was bad for things like that.

I've been lucky so far. Hot flashes are mild and infrequent. I think they are a combination of being too warm and stress. If I can keep those under control I generally fair quite well. People just think I'm embarrassed, red face and ears. That's OK with me.

Now if I can only get the emotions under control!
Posted 5/30/2013 7:00 PM (GMT 0)
The is a story of my first severe flash. I have always been interested in RC flying.   I bought a kit, put the plane together, installed the RC equipment and had arranged to meet a RC flying instructor at a local RC Club airstrip.   This training occurred one week after my first Lupron shot.   Everything went well as the instructor checked the equipment and then I was asked if I was ready.   Sure, let’s do it. He had the control xmtr, the plane took off, and he handed it to me after a few words of what to do.   For the next 5 minutes, I attempted to keep it from nose-diving into the ground.   Suddenly I felt like that Spring day went from 75 degrees to 150.   I needed shade quickly, and after throwing the controller to the instructor, I started for a cool spot, but didn’t make it.   When I opened my eyes, I was looking at an EMS crew, who wanted to haul my stupid butt to the hospital.   After a quick IV in the ER for dehydration, I went home.   The plane never flew again and is now parked on a shelf.   Maybe someday soon?   It’s only been 9 years ago. For the next couple of years I could have been the SE poster boy for Lupron.   I experienced each and every one of them.   However, I would have never survived as long as I have without ADT. Didn’t mean to ramble, but I’m a believer, in spite of Luprons bad reputation………..
Posted 6/2/2013 2:18 AM (GMT 0)
My flashes seem to sometimes start at the groin and work up. I have 5 or 8 a day. At night I either throw all the covers off or I bundle up, because sometimes I am freezing. My drug is Eligard 3 month.
my 2nd shot is coming up. I told the doc I find this stuff awful.But he has convinced me to go 6 months. I think they call this co-therapy. or trimodal. 6 months including 2 months before and 2 months after a 9 week course of radiation (protons and photons) in addition to hot flashes is gastric upset, direah, and extreme nervous jitters. all very rare most guys arn't having any problems I talk to. after 4 weeks of protons I have no prostate discomfort and no back pain? which may or may not be mets? no way to know except at the 6 months psa test.
Posted 6/2/2013 4:13 AM (GMT 0)
I started Casodex on March 6 and Lupron 2 weeks later (4-month shot). Hot flashes started about 2-3 weeks after the Lupron shot.

I get about 25 a day. They last a few minutes. Basically, I just start sweating, usually from the waist up. It feels like I am working out. I would rather not have them, of course, but so far I don't mind. I can pretty much ignore them

Mel

Posted 6/2/2013 3:24 PM (GMT 0)
Mel,

I applaud your ability to ignore your hot flashes. I suspect there is a certain mental toughness involved in doing that. When I first got mine, I found them amusing but after a while they really started to grate on me. They're not debilitating in any way, but I sure have grown to detest them.

I think I need to learn from you and simply ignore them...I think the fact that I focus on them probably makes them more difficult to deal with.

Michael
Posted 6/2/2013 4:14 PM (GMT 0)
I have gone through two cycles of Lupron. Six months in 2011 and again 6 months in 2012. Right now I'm waiting to see if my PSA goes back up. I had all the SE's but noticed that drinking Red Wine of any sort, made the hot flashes worse. So even though I love a good Merlot, I have switched to Moscato or a Pinot G.

The second six month period ended as of 1/1/2013. I still have SE's.

Posted 6/3/2013 4:02 PM (GMT 0)
I am surprised that so few patients seem to be offered medication to reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes. I have read that megestrol acetate and estradiol patches can help -- and there are probably other meds too. Do patients minimize the QOL impact of hot flashes when talking with their docs, so they docs don't think meds are necessary? Or do the docs not know about these options? Have any of you been offered medications to lessen the hot flashes? If I am right that there are effective medications out there, it would be good for people to know about them.
Posted 6/3/2013 4:10 PM (GMT 0)
I was prescribed, and took, Megestrol. But that stuff is also used for those who are not eating, wasting away. It had quite the impact on me - got to the point I would eat almost anything, and in massive quantities. I had to rethink that med -
Posted 6/3/2013 5:02 PM (GMT 0)
I discussed estradiol with my oncologist. He said there is a very small chance that it might have a negative effect on the tumors (promote tumor growth). Its a small chance he said, but he suggested I rededicate myself to my diet and weight loss program first (I have gained 12 lbs while on HT)
Posted 6/3/2013 5:48 PM (GMT 0)
After being diagnosed with PCa and Gleason 10/9 to boot, you could say I was a little depressed.
Both my Medical Oncologist and Radiation Oncologist recommended that I take Effexor for my depression. They also mentioned that it might help with my hot flashes.
Actually, it has helped with both. I very seldom get hot flashes and have never experienced any night sweets. The few hot flashes I’ve had have been very light and didn’t last over a few seconds.
I have been on Lurpron and Casadox for over two years now and have never had any bad SE’s. Knock on wood now…
Some may say that having hot flashes and night sweets makes them feel like the meds are working.
Me, I go my by dropping PSA numbers.
I can’t say for sure it’s the Effexor or just my body make-up. But, I’m staying on it as long as I can.
This isn't a recommedation for taking it, but my answer to this thread.
bertb
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