Could there be anything positive about having persistent and unbearable hot flashes? The answer is yes, according to a just-published study. Women who experienced hot flashes and night sweats were 40-50% less likely to develop breast cancer, the new research found.
Now this study was small – about 1500 women in total, 1000 of them who had breast cancer and 500 in the control group without the disease. And the results were based on women recollecting their experience of menopause in retrospect – that means no objective measuring of cause and effects were done.
Nevertheless, here's what the researchers found: postmenopausal women, aged 55-74, who had experienced any menopausal symptoms were less likely to develop two types of invasive breast cancer. And women who experienced the most intense hot flashes, had less risk of developing three types of breast cancer.
What's the theory? Since many types of breast cancer are fueled by estrogen, and since menopausal women suffering from hot flashes do so because of lowered estrogen, then it makes sense that those suffering the worst symptoms – i.e. those with lowest estrogen levels – would be less at risk.
More studies are needed, of course, and those done prospectively not retrospectively. But for now at least there's reason to be cheerful when your own personal heat wave comes on. And the more, the better, it seems. Fan, anyone?