Early Hot Flashes, Fewer Health Risks

No woman looks forward to hot flashes, but when it comes to your health sooner might be better than later.

I don't think any woman looks forward to hot flashes, treating them mainly as “one” of those things you just have to make it through. But a new long running government study has found that menopause has its own health benefits. As a matter of fact, women that had hot flashes at the beginning of their menopause, instead of later on, had a lower risk for both heart attacks and even early death. Those women that never had hot flashes, or even those whose symptoms persisted later on after menopause started, also ended up having more heart problems.

Although high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity were more common in women with late hot flashes, researchers say that only accounted for part of their findings. For some reason they can't quite pinpoint, early hot flashes themselves seem to help protect women from heart problems.