does being healthy really minimise the effects of the menopause?

oops. Only 7% of menopausal Japanese women have hot flushes. In the USA it is 55%. I dont know the UK figure.

In short, I am highly sceptical of that 7% claim.

Ah. Thanks. What I thought then. A cultural difference, not a biological one, US women being more likely to complain of hot flushes than Japanese women, I guess.

I am very healthy for my age (68) but am unable to function without HRT. I had a hysterectomy when I was in my early 40s (ovaries removed too) and have been on HRT most of the time since. Every time I try to come off it I have to beg to go back on. I have just been shopping to Liverpool this morning. I could not have done that without HRT because of the extreme sweating which makes me need to take some of my clothes off.

I am on a minimum dose and manage well during the day but still wake up several times in the night.

I think the latter too. From what I have read fewer Japanese women report symptoms of the menopause. I suspect there may be cultural factors here.

USA women may well be more open about it than Japenese women. But I doubt that that would account for all of the difference.
Asian women in general seem to have less hot flushes.

Liz. I wonder whether we have more hot flushes at night is because we are not awake to alter our clothing according to our heat.

I went through the menopause quite easily.
Vegetarian for over 30 years, eat lots of tofu and organic food. Drink lots of herb teas and use aromatherapy.
Didn't have hot flushes, but did have a lot more bleeding, so took agnus castus, which regulates hormones, and the bleeding reduced after a couple of months on it.

Indeed loopy - my life was blighted by my menstrual cycle. I fainted during the first one as I was in such pain, and went on to have heavy painful periods that each lasted 10 days for the whole of my life - and the PMT was grim too, so over half my life was spent in pain or feeling grim. Now you know why I do not rate "natural" as something positive!

I always say that having the hysterectomy was the best thing I ever did.

I'd take the statistics on Japanese women with a big pinch of salt.

A few years ago the health authorities there investigated some supposedly very aged people who were said to be 100, 113 or some great ages - turned out that most of them had been dead for decades but the families continued to collect their pensions.

I suspect it's all a matter of how statistics are collected and verified.

I don't know... I found that the one thing I had to omit completely was cream, which I love. so then I looked at greek yoghourt, and cut that out and my hot flushes stopped. I started to think about how much fat I was eating because of it, and cut down pretty drastically, I think it was needed at the time. I rarely touch cream now, never have very fatty meats. I am back on the yoghourt, but have cut it down a lot.

I have never had milk in my drinks so that wasn't an issue, but cheese also was cut right back. I came to realise just how much dairy I was eating, and the Japanese, don't. Neither do the people in the Mediterranean, another area with low menopausal problems.

Janerowena I really must challenge you!

Where is the evidence that Mediterranean women have few menopausal problems?

Don't agree about the dairy either. The French and Italians certainly love their cheeses.

In my early to mid 40s - I was physically fit, an emotional mess and had the easiest possible menopause. Don't think there's any correlation really. Now I come to think about it, it was about that time I decided to adopt a meat-free diet.

That's two of us, anno, meat free and easy menopause.
Any more?

I too had a very easy time leading to menopause. My periods remained regular apart from one which started normally but forgot to stop! I bled for six weeks then the next one started on time and I continued being regular for several years until my last aged 54. Occasionally I felt a little warm and wondered if I was having a flush, this still happens from time to time (now 61). My mother, on the other hand, apparently had a completely horrendous time.

I have never had any real gynaecological problems though, apart from one miscarriage I had very easy pregnancies and deliveries. I do consider myself to have been very fortunate, I've been pretty healthy throughout my life but have no idea if that made a difference to how I experienced menopause.

In what way don't you feel fine OP?

Well, if anno only gave up meat at around the time of her menopause, I don't really see how it can have had any effect on how easy it was.

I had an almost completely trouble-free menopause and I can only put that down to good luck (or genes?) as in my twenties, thirties and forties I smoked, enjoyed more than the odd tipple or two and ate meat regularly!

Being the only female for three generations who has not had a hysterectomy, I cannot tell whether it's genetic or not.
Of course giving up meat can have an effect on it. Once the effects of meat eating are out of your body it changes everything. How long do you think it takes, Ana?

Why do people go on fasts?

No idea, but unless anno can remember when exactly she gave up eating meat, it's a moot point.

riverwalk my mother always maintained it, I have read it since several times, and there is this as one example.

www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/us-fruit-mediterranean-idUSBRE93N11A20130424

We have always eaten lots of those things. Made no difference to me, in fact aioli and other dishes with raw garlic were the one thing I could say with certainty would give me hot flushes!
I never get this "mediterranean" diet either. Fried doughnuts, fried potatoes and hot chocolate as in Spain? Pasta with rich sauces? Baklava?

I should think that the op from mn is now totally befuddled!

Well this is a fascinating thread as I have often wondered why some people sail through menopause whilst others go through hell.

I had hoped that, because my mum and sisters had no problems, I would be the same, although one of my sisters had an early menopause due to chemotherapy.

I had normal periods until I was 55 and then, on Christmas Day, had my last one, after which no problems at all.

I have not eaten meat for over eleven years, am slightly underweight for my height, and eat a fairly healthy diet. A bit hit and miss with the exercise. I had four easy pregnancies and normal deliveries and count myself extremely fortunate. I am not smug about it though, just very relieved, but sad for those for whom it has been a difficult journey

Just for the record, menopausal American women have hot flashes not flushes.

I am surprised that some people seem to have been menopausal for so long. I thought the rule of thumb was that if you haven't had a period for two years, the menopause is complete and you become post-menopausal.

Hard to judge when you haven't had a period for ten years before the flushes start, absent!