The diagnosis
The diagnosis is made mainly by means of a precise anamnesis (recording of the medical history). To do this, the treating physician specifically asks about symptoms and their frequency: “Do you have to change your clothes once or several times at night because you are soaked in sweat? Do you have to change your bedding at night?
Do you wake up from the feeling of heat?” It is important to know that the hot flushes themselves are only a symptom and not an illness. Therefore, it is not enough to diagnose hot flushes per se.
The treatment
The treatment of night-time hot flashes depends on the cause of the hot flashes. If hormonal fluctuations are the cause of the hot flushes, the therapy consists of replacing the missing hormones to correct the imbalance. If an infection is the cause, the pathogens must be successfully treated so that the symptoms subside.In the case of a tumor disease, the tumor must, if possible, be removed in a surgical procedure or reduced in size by radiation or chemotherapy.
As the tumor cells recede or disappear, the nightly hot flushes with pronounced night sweats will subside. In the case of chronic inflammatory diseases, a modulation of the immune system must be carried out by means of medication. Thus, there is ultimately no generally valid treatment option for hot flushes. It must always be decided in each individual case how the cause can be eliminated. However, all affected persons are advised to create optimal conditions in the sleeping room and to change their clothes at night when they are sweaty so that no reactive hypothermia due to the humidity and consequently an increased risk of infection occurs.
The duration
If it is a reversible cause of hot flashes, they should decrease in intensity and frequency as the healing process progresses. If night-time hot flushes occur for no apparent reason and last for more than two weeks, patients should consult a physician. It could be an indication of a serious illness which should be clarified. The severity of the hot flushes has very little significance for the prognosis for an underlying disease. It is not directly related to the severity of the underlying disease, but is merely a symptom of it.
