Do you wake up suddenly in the night, sweating uncomfortably and your bed drenched with it? Along with it did you experience symptoms of a headache, nausea, accelerated heart beat, suffocation, feeling of fainting, hot flushes and blotches on the skin?
If you are over 40 years of age, this is probably a syndrome called menopausal night sweats which is caused by a complex interplay of hormones and other chemicals in the human body.

However, you need not worry about it as there are a number of simple ways by which you can relieve yourself. There are natural ways to control the syndrome failing which you can always go for medicinal therapies.

Lifestyle Remedies for Menopausal Night Sweats

Exercise Regularly

Stress of any kind is a significant contributory factor for night sweats. Emotional stress and anxiety go hand in hand in triggering and aggravating night sweating and other menopausal symptoms. Therefore, it is always recommended to keep yourself free of worry and negative emotions.  Here are certain things that you could do to cope with emotional stress:

Practice Deep Breathing

Simple breathing and rhythmic deep breathing are found to be effective in treating menopausal night sweats. Certain yogic breathing exercises like pranayama consist of different types of rhythmic breathing exercises and these are found to be truly beneficial in many women’s health issues including menopausal night sweats.

Learn Strategies to Cope with Negative Emotions

Along with breathing, you should learn to keep yourself free of negative emotions by consulting a life skills expert who will help you in altering  your line of thought to a positive one.  Also socializing with friends, playing outdoor games and spending time outdoors or taking a vacation in a place of scenic beauty are surely going to pep  up your spirits. You can also join meditation classes at good meditation centers around your place.

Identify and Avoid Consuming Items that Trigger Night Sweats

Generally consumption of spicy foods, hot drinks, smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol are common activities for triggering menopausal night sweats. . Try to avoid these items or use them moderately. At least, try to avoid them for dinner as they are going to show their adverse effect after a few hours when you are fast asleep.

Wear Cool and Comfortable Clothing

Do not wear synthetic and tight clothing which will make you perspire. Sleep in a room which is adequately ventilated. There should be good flow of air in that room.

Herbal Remedies for Menopausal Night Sweats

Phytoestrogenic and non-estrogenic herbs are used in the treatment of menopausal night sweats. Phytoestrogenic herbs like Black Cohosh contain phyoestrogens( plant estrogens) which tend to rectify the menopausal hormonal imbalance. However, this comes with a point of concern. Estrogen supplementation from outside tends to discourage the body from producing its own estrogen and therefore the levels of natural estrogens in the body reduces.

This is where non-estrogenic herbs like Macafem are used. Non-estrogenic herbs nourish the estrogen producing glands of the body so that their estrogen productivity increases. Treatment with non-estrogenic herbs is considered to be safer as estrogen from outside sources is not used. Moreover, the human body is encouraged to function better in order to produce more estrogen.

Drug Therapy

Hormone Replacement Therapy

As menopausal night sweats occur due to decreased levels of estrogen in menopausal ladies, increasing the estrogen level to that in the pre-menopausal period by Hormone Replacement Therapy is one way of addressing the issue.

However, HRT comes with risks like endometrial cancer, breast cancer, heart disease and blood clotting in the veins. However, HRT can be taken under expert medical supervision.

HRT is of 3 Types

Estrogen HRT- this is for women whose uterus has been removed.  Normally, if only estrogen is given to women who have the uterus, the hormone will thicken the lining of the uterus thus enhancing the risk of cancer of the womb.

Estrogen and Progesterone HRT- In this treatment Progesterone is given along with Estrogen to the patient. This is given to women who are in their menopause but are still having their menses.

Continuous HRT- this is given to women who are past menopause.

The patients are prescribed gels, creams, implants, or tablets. Usually patients are suggested a combination of approaches, i.e. lifestyle, alternative and drug therapies for night sweats.