# Do hot flashes stop after menopause? · Midlife Nights > Source: https://midlifenights.com/articles/do-hot-flashes-stop-after-menopause Hot flashes at night ## Do hot flashes stop after menopause? For most women they do stop, but usually some years after the last period: the largest US study found frequent hot flashes and night sweats lasted a median of 4.5 years after it, and 7.4 years in all. A third or more still have bothersome flashes a decade on, and sleep can stay broken even after they fade. By Claire Holloway, 3 November 2026 Menopause is a single date: the last period, counted once a full year has gone by without another. Hot flashes keep no such calendar. This page sets out what the long studies found about how many years they carry on after that date, who tends to have them longest, and what else keeps waking women once the heat has gone quiet. ### How long hot flashes last after menopause The [NHS](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/menopause-and-perimenopause/symptoms/) says menopause symptoms usually last 7 to 9 years and can go on longer, changing as they go. That figure covers the whole stretch, from the first irregular cycles to well after periods have stopped. The most detailed numbers come from the [Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4433164/), which followed 3,302 women at seven US sites for up to 17 years and published its duration results in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2015\. It counted hot flashes or night sweats as frequent when they came on at least 6 days in a fortnight. For half the women with frequent symptoms, they lasted more than 7.4 years in total. Among the 881 women whose final period could be dated, the median time they carried on afterwards was 4.5 years. Timing of onset made the biggest difference. Women whose frequent flashes began while their periods were still regular, or only just changing, had them longest: more than 11.8 years in all, and a median of 9.4 years after menopause. Women whose flashes only began after their periods had stopped had them for a median of 3.4 years. If yours started early, plan on a long run and a slow fade. ### Hot flashes years after menopause A smaller study tracked the tail end. The Penn Ovarian Aging Study followed 255 women through natural menopause over 16 years, and its [2014 results in the journal Menopause](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/491726) found that 80% had moderate or severe hot flashes at some point. Those flashes went on for nearly five years after menopause on average, and more than a third of the women observed for ten years or more still had flashes of that strength. Age alone does not end them either. An Australian survey of 2,000 women aged 40 to 65, [published in Menopause in 2015](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150302123347.htm), found hot flashes in 42% of women aged 60 to 65\. For most in that age group they were occasional and mild. The share who rated them moderately to severely bothersome fell with age: about 28% of postmenopausal women under 55, 15% at 55 to 59 and 6% at 60 to 65. So the honest answer to "will they stop?" is that the number of women having them falls year by year, and the flashes that remain are usually milder. A small group carries on with troublesome ones into their sixties. ### Why some women have them longer SWAN found the longest duration in African American women, a median of 10.1 years in total, and the shortest among the Japanese and Chinese women in the study. The NHS says Black women are more likely to have severe hot flushes that last longer, and the Penn team also found a higher risk in African American women whether or not they were obese. Nobody has a full explanation. The Penn authors note that differences in how symptoms are noticed and reported may play a part, and say more evidence is needed. SWAN listed other things that went with a longer run: being younger when the flashes started, less formal education, more perceived stress, being more sensitive to bodily symptoms, and higher anxiety or depressive symptoms at the first report. These are associations from an observational study. They describe who tended to have flashes longer and do not show that lowering stress will shorten yours. ### Postmenopausal night sweats The studies count hot flashes and night sweats together, so there is no separate figure for how long the night ones last. What the sleep lab adds is why they feel like the last to leave. In a [study of 34 women in a sleep lab](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4252627/), 69.4% of night flashes came with an awakening, and women recalled fewer flashes and wakings than the sensors recorded. A flash in the afternoon is over in minutes. One at 3am can cost an hour of sleep, and the [article on waking at 3am](/articles/menopause-waking-up-at-3am) explains why the early hours bring the most. One kind of night sweat needs a different response. Sweats that begin for the first time years after your last period, that soak the bed night after night, or that come with a fever, weight loss you did not try for, or a lump, are a reason to see a GP rather than to wait them out. The [night sweats warning-signs checker](/articles/night-sweats-should-i-see-a-doctor-a-warning-signs-checker) walks through the signs the NHS and blood cancer charities list. ### Sleep after menopause, once the flashes ease Many women expect sleep to come back when the heat goes, and some are disappointed. SWAN's sleep analysis of more than 12,000 women found that [trouble sleeping stayed higher once periods had ended](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3185248/), even in women who had no hot flashes. Several things can be behind it: * Sleep apnoea, which becomes more common after menopause and often shows up in women as tiredness, morning headaches or insomnia more than loud snoring. The [signs women tend to miss](/articles/sleep-apnea-menopause) are set out on their own page. * Getting up to pass urine, which the NHS counts among the usual reasons for broken nights with age and which the [overview of menopause sleep problems](/articles/menopause-and-sleep-problems) covers. * Restless legs, which are more common in women from middle age and worse at night. The [restless legs page](/articles/restless-legs-menopause) lists the other causes a GP checks for. * Insomnia that has become a habit of its own. Years of nights spent waiting for the next flash can leave a pattern of lying awake that outlasts the flashes. [Menopause insomnia](/articles/insomnia-in-menopause) describes what the trials found helps with that. If you have stopped having flashes and still wake most nights, tell your GP that the flashes have gone. It changes what they are likely to look for. ### Keeping a record of the last years Because flashes fade slowly, it is hard to tell from memory whether this year is better than last. Two weeks of notes, repeated every few months, give you something to compare. The [printable night diary](/articles/printable-night-diary-for-hot-flashes-night-sweats-and-sleep) has a row for each night, with each flash marked mild, moderate or severe and the wakings beside it. Bring the latest sheet to any appointment about sleep or sweats. Treatment choices, including whether one suits you this far past menopause, belong with your doctor, and this site does not advise on them. ### My take I'd judge your own outlook by the stage you were at when the heat first came, because in SWAN that predicted their length better than anything else. If they began while your periods were still regular, several more years past menopause is what the study found for women in your position. If they are new long after menopause, or the sweats come with other changes, I'd book the GP appointment first and leave the hormone explanation until the checks are done. And if the flashes have eased but the nights have not, I'd start with apnoea and insomnia before blaming the heat. The [hot flashes at night](/topics/hot-flashes-at-night) section has the rest of what helps in the meantime. ### Questions about hot flashes after menopause Is it normal to still have hot flashes 10 years after menopause? Yes, for a sizeable minority. In a Penn study that followed 255 women for 16 years, more than a third of those watched for a decade after their last period still had bothersome flashes. Do night sweats last longer than daytime hot flashes? The big studies count the two together, so there is no reliable figure for each one. What a sleep lab can show is that flashes at night often come with a waking, which is why the night ones tend to be remembered longest. Can hot flashes start for the first time after menopause? They can. SWAN found that women whose frequent flashes began after their periods had already stopped had them for the shortest time, a median of 3.4 years. Sweats that are new years later, or come with fever or weight loss, should be seen by a GP. Why do I sleep badly now that the hot flashes have gone? Broken sleep has more than one cause in these years. Sleep apnoea becomes more common after menopause, waking to pass urine increases with age, and habits built over years of bad nights can keep insomnia going on their own. --- [ ](/) The night side of perimenopause and menopause: hot flashes, night sweats and 3am waking, with every health fact linked to its source. 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