menopausal hot flashes vs heat intolerance?

[Buela]

A couple of years ago I had a year of killer hot flashes as I bid adieu to my years of bleeding, but then they mostly stopped. I had several summers of just feeling fatigued half the time but I never really associated it with anything. In the past few months I've had real issues if I get in the least bit too warm, though I've been writing it off as another "gift" of menopause, but now that my doc thinks that I might have MS, I'm wondering.

My question is, what does it feel like to you to have a hot flash verses to have an issue with heat intolerance? I'm trying to figure out what's going on with my body, and I know what these things feel like to me but want to know what it's like for others so that I can compare my experiences.

[techie]

I was 49 and on low dose hormones when the symptoms started for the first attack. I also had splinter hemorages under my finger nails. ( a sign of heart problems) So my PCP pulled me off the 'PILL' suddenly and I got hot flashes.
Hot flash: It's suddenly getting so sweaty that your PJs are soaked along with your sheets. I started laying out a 2nd set of PJs by the bed so I could put them on and would pull up the bed spread to cover the sheets until morning.
In the morning I would pull all covers off the bed and spread them out on the floor.
I would also hang up my PJs where they could dry during the day.
Don't remember if I had more than one hot flash in a night.
That was 11 years ago.
Heat intolerance:
Getting double vision and almost falling over when I am out walking.
Tends to go away after I cool down.
techie

[Joy1955]

Hot flashes made me sweat, Heat Intolorences make me feel like I'm an oven on low heat.

Joy (:

[Buela]

That's pretty much the difference I'm experiencing. When I was going through hot flashes, it felt like a furnace was blasting inside of me, and I sweated like crazy. Now, it doesn't take much heat at all to make me feel both physically and mentally lethargic, to make me feel this almost desperate need to get out of the heat, and in intense or prolonged heat, to make me feel lightheaded, shaky, and weak. I had been still attributing it to menopause, now I'm not so sure...

[kikiblue]

I had night sweats, hot flashes or as a friend says "energy surges" and heat intolerance. dI am 54. The night sweats and hot flashes stopped with HRT but the heat intolerance is still going strong. Not a good thing in Dallas, Tx. It is HOT!

I can't go out to lunch during the summer because I walk outside and can feel my skin burning before I even get to the car. I sunburn through the tinted windows in the car and have gotten blisters on my face this year. I was so exhausted from it all that I tried to go out on medical leave in August. I finally went out on 8/15 and won't go back until November 1st. I think next year I will try for leave June-August or July-Sept. The heat just zaps me!

[JudySz]

They are pretty much the same for me. I sweat when I am sitting watching tv....The only difference is that MS heat intolerance does not come on as fast as mmy hot flashes did and never bad enough to wake me up........

Funny story, I caught my teen age daughter coming in very late 3:00 one night cause I was up with a hot flash, otherwise I never would have caught her cause I used to be able to sleep through anything. I think that morning she hated my hot flashes more than i did.

JudySz

[anthony2]

I'm 55 years old and have already gone through menopause and hot flashes/night sweats. The hot flashes I get now are not the same and I sometimes think they're from medication. I can't tolerate heat the way I used to and am looking forward to the cold weather. I will be starting Avonex sometime in November and I can't say I'm looking forward to that, but I'm tired (literally) of feeling the way I do. I have just recently been diagnosed and it scares me to death, but I'll get through this like I get through anything else that's difficult. Just gotta keep cool!

[Milhous]

I went in to early menopause at 45 because of a med--had hot flashes ect with it I elected to go without estrogen and just increased my soy intake.

flash forward to now at 54--I still have hot flashes just not like they were at first (no soy pills) but I know of women in their 70'a that still have a hot flash every now and then. but my tolerance to heat and for that matter cold has changed over the years --I have little tolerance for over like 75 Degrees or under 40 degrees

Menopause affects everyone differently
and many of us with MS have heat intolerance to go along with Menopause.

[lemstar]

Hot flashes are like a burning furnace inside me, with heat emanating out from my core, as sweat pours off me. However, hot flashes only last a few minutes for me, while heat intolerance is bad as long as it is hot where I am. Actually, I handle the outside heat just fine, its the inner burn that kills....
Also, hot flashes can occur in a well air conditioned room. The ambient temperature has nothing to do with my hot flashes. And boy, are they hot!
Now, is it MS, or still hormonal? I went thru menopause 5 years ago. (Cannot do HRT for other health reasons).

[Mattie]

One way I alway's know the difference is when I take a bath or shower. When I am finished bathing I am so hot that I cannot function. Everyone of my symptoms get worse and I have to lay under a fan for 1-2 hours untill my body core temp goes back down. I donot take really hot baths.showers due to this but, that does not matter.
Now a hot flash is quick to come and quick to go and mostly felt from the chest up. MS heat is felt all over.
Hope this helps.

[MSW1963]

I had heat intolerance that affected my strength and balance=wall walking, vision, speech and other neuro functions.

I'm not sure a hot flash affected me the same way heat intolerance did/does.

I hit puberty early, 9yoa and menopause later than most my friends.

[asiel1]

hotflash- feel very warm, sweaty, for no apparent reason at all. does not last long, and "cooling off" does not help at all. does not cause fatigue, so I know they are not caused by MS.

heat intolerance- fatigue so severe I feel as If I have the flu. Before I knew what this was, I had the "flu" all the time. LOL. Goes away once I cool off, and comes on with extreme temps, too much exercise. I am so sensitive that I can tell when the air goes off in my home in the summer.

[MBC3mom]

Hot flash - waking up feeling like you are on fire, that if someone else touched you, they would burst into flames...This feeling comes and goes throughout the day and night and is not constant for me. I am hot and everyone else around me is cold.

Heat intolerance - being afraid to go out in the summer by myself, in case I am unable to get back home due to exhaustion. Getting so confused when I try to shop that I am afraid I will leave my checkbook or credit card in my haste to get back to my car and blast the air conditioning until I recover.