Frequency of Hot Flashes on Prostap

Best wishes,

Chris

Hello Decho

I am on ht and rt for 6 months.  On week 10 after my first of 2 zoladex injections which last 12 weeks each. Radiotherapy coming up soon.

In week 2 or 3 after my first zoladex injection in early Sept 22, I was thinking, 'well, this is not so bad' ... and I did not have any side effects as far as I could tell. Then the hot flashes hit me!  Like you, I seem to have them continuously. Similarly, they last only 3 or 4 mins. But annoyingly, wearing a zipped fleece I find sometimes I am taking it off and putting it back on again right afterwards because once the hot flash goes my body cools down again very quickly.

They are most annoying at night where they seem to wake me about every 2 hours. I sleep under a cotton sheet with a medium duvet on top. When the hot flash comes, I push down the duvet until it passes and then put the duvet back and hopefully get back to sleep quickly. The difficult one is where I cannot get back to sleep quickly and feel very tired the next day.

I am trying sage and evening primrose capsules but they don't seem to be making a lot of difference. I may investigate acupuncture.

Good luck with your treatment.

I find the flushes can be quite debillitating, draining me of energy and panting for breath, meaning I need to sit or lie down for a while. The accompanying pain is a strange one, sort of hot and tingly, like nothing I have ever experienced before. It's mainly in the back of my hands, wrists and arms but also more mildly over other areas of the body. It's at it's worst at night, waking me up four or five times by a combination of hot flushes and nocturia (the need to wee). Prior to HT I was getting up to wee a couple of times each night.

I find rubbing the backs of my hands eases the pain but sometimes I need to get up and walk about to distract myself from it. Painkillers don't seem to make much difference, although they do sometimes help me sleep better. Fortunately the pain eases after a few minutes along with the hot flush, and I usually get back to sleep fairly quickly. Except by around 4am, when I no longer feel tired enough for sleep.

I'm due for my next three-month injection dose in a couple of days time and not exactly looking forward to it! But given HT has already reduced my PSA from 17.5 right down to 0.07 I can but cling to the notion that it is extending my life, which despite everything, still has plenty of upsides!

Hi 

I'm on 3 monthly prostap3 injection and enzalutamide,my hot flushes are unnoticeable during the day this time of year(in the summer it was worse)but late evening and through the night I no one is coming and it comes with a sweating head and neck,but I'll certainly pay that price because I feel that if I'm still getting hot flushes the medication is still working.

Regards Phil.

Well that’s nearly 3 months taking Sage Leaf and have they made a difference? Not really sure TBH I had good days and bad days, sometimes still getting them every 30minutes until recently😟

However I have now had 3 sessions of acupuncture and the hot flashes have definitely decreased in frequency and intensity, they can still happen with change of temperature but are not every half hour as before which is quite debilitating! Also night sweats have greatly reduced….only happen when I put the electric blanket on then get into bed! I will have another 2 sessions of acupuncture at least I think.

I’ve been watching the Webinars about diet and the benefit of soya in your diet rather than dairy so I’ve started to introduce that and also drink green tea, which I’ve found quite pleasant. I’ve heard the Soya isoflavone supplement can help with hot flushes as well so have got some from H&B but am wondering whether I should be taking these as well as Sage. I’m starting my radiotherapy on 16th a January so don’t want to take anything which might upset my gut.

Anyone got any views on this?