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Hot Flashes: Phenomenology and Measurement

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Biological Measures of Human Experience across the Lifespan

Abstract

Hot flashes are a highly prevalent symptom experienced by women transitioning through menopause, as well as by men and women undergoing certain cancer-related treatments. Though many individuals do not find these symptoms troublesome, others suffer from severe and frequent symptoms and related decrements in sleep, psychological well-being, sexual health and overall quality of life. In order to develop a better understanding of the etiology and treatment options for hot flashes, accurate measurement is vital. This chapter provides an overview of hot flash measurement both physiologic, and via self-report measures. It critically evaluates the four categories of hot flash measurement tools: symptom scales based on retrospective reporting over weeks and months, daily diaries completed by end of day, daily diaries completed at the time of the hot flash, and physiologic measures of hot flashes. Further, the impact of psychological/emotional influences, ethnic differences, and body mass on hot flash reporting is discussed. Finally, this chapter provides recommendations for the future development and refinement of hot flash reporting tools and suggestions for best-practice hot flash measurement methodology.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported NIH grants R01HL105647 and K24123565 (Thurston) and T32HL083825 (Fisher/Orchard).

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  1. NSS Labs, Austin, TX, USA

    William I. Fisher

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Rebecca C. Thurston

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Correspondence to William I. Fisher .

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  1. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    Lynnette Leidy Sievert

  2. University of Hawaii, Hilo, Hawaii, USA

    Daniel E. Brown

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Fisher, W.I., Thurston, R.C. (2016). Hot Flashes: Phenomenology and Measurement. In: Sievert, L., Brown, D. (eds) Biological Measures of Human Experience across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44103-0_11

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