Menopause is a natural process and it’s the stage when the monthly periods halt for consecutive twelve months and for the rest of a woman’s life.

A hot flash, most commonly are due to menopause, which is a sudden feeling of warmth in the upper body, and is usually most intense over the face, neck and chest. Your skin might redden and last for a few minutes. A hot flash can also cause intense sweating. Night sweats are hot flashes that happen at night, and they disrupt your sleep.

Your body temperature is controlled by an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. As women enter menopause, the depletion of the sex hormones, primarily estrogen, impacts how the hypothalamus regulates body temperature. Estrogen targets a variety of cellular groups in the hypothalamus that help it register and maintain body temperature. When estrogen can no longer target those cellular groups, the hypothalamus becomes extremely sensitive to even the slightest changes in temperature.;

When the hypothalamus senses the body is becoming too warm, it will increase heart rate and blood pressure, both of which raise the body temperature even more. These increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature cause the hypothalamus to send signals to the sweat glands in the skin. These glands then start to produce sweat in order to cool the surface of the skin and bring the body temperature back down.