Hot flashes and sweating are typical symptoms of menopause: more than 90 percent of women have these symptoms when they become menopausal. The same thing is with early menopause, but in this case hot flashes and sweating are even more common.

Early menopausal women describe hot flashes as prickly, sharp and hot feelings somewhere in the middle of the back. The pulse jumps up and the temperature rises up to several degrees. The heat spreads over the body and envelops the back, chest, neck, face and scalp. The skin feels hot like you’ve been sunbathing for a long time. Your body starts sweating trying to cool itself down. The face, neck and chest may turn pink or even red. The heat is often subsequently interchanged by chill and shivering. Hot flashes and sweating occur during the days time and at night, what causes a woman even more trouble and discomfort.

But there are certain methods to cope with these typical early menopause symptoms. They can be reduced by herbs, vitamins, natural supplements and other traditional methods. There are also some simple tips that you can take into account while striving against hot flashes and sweating. Here they are:

- Reduce the amount of caffeine, alcohol and spicery that you consume;
- Wear clothes of natural fibers, loose-fittings and that are well-layered;
- Try to cope with stress by relaxation and meditation;
- Do physical exercises;
- It is highly recommended to have cold water by your bed in order to be ready to drink it at the first sign of hot flashes and sweating. You can also splash cold water on your face or wrists. You should stay cool. It’s good to use cotton sheets and cotton nightclothes.
- Cover yourself with layers while sleeping, so that you can kick off extra bed layers when you start flashing and sweating. You should also be prepared to replace moist covers when chill and shivering start.

Irregular periods are also considered to be one of the basic early menopause symptoms. They occur because your hormones are erratic in the initial phases of early menopause. Here several typical cases are possible:

1) they may come more frequently (for example, every twenty-four days instead of twenty-eight)
2) or more rarely than;
3) you may skip a month or two, then go back to normal pattern for several months;
4) you may have a heavy period with bad bleeding , then the next month you may have quite a slight period;
5) your period may last like eternity, or be quite short and relatively smooth a shorter amount of time.

You may continue this list with more examples as you never know how your period will react to hormonal instability. But according to the type of instability or irregularity you can determine what’s actually happening within your body. For example, periods coming more frequently usually signal that you are producing lower levels of estrogen during your preovulatory stage. Light and smooth periods usually mean that your body doesn’t make enough estrogen to build up your uterine lining. Heavy periods with bad bleeding often signify that your periods are anovulatory, i.e. that your estrogen builds up the uterine lining and at the same time your body doesn’t produce enough progesterone. Rare or skipped periods usually mean that your ovaries continue declining. But generally, when you come closer to menopause your periods become less frequent and your menopausal cycle becomes longer. Then you may start to skip periods. And after all you will stop having periods at all.

But every woman should bear in mind that irregular periods are not necessarily an early menopause symptom as they may be related to some other disease or abnormality like polyps, cancer, fibroids, tumors, etc. So the first thing you should do about irregular periods is to get diagnosed and determine what the real cause is and what you should be treated for.

Infertility or inability to conceive a child is considered to be one of the major symptoms of early menopause and its most deplorable cause at the same time. Menopausal women are infertile because their ovaries don’t produce eggs anymore. Though a woman may have her periods and everything may seem to be perfect, she can’t can’t get pregnant anyway. That is why a great many women learn that they are entering early menopause only when they go to the doctor to determine why they’re not getting pregnant. So their infertility turns out to be an early menopause symptom. When it comes to infertility problems your doctor gives you a special test to determine the levels of FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone).

What can you do about infertility? Well, it’s a very difficult question to answer. No one can be certain whether in this or that particular case the natural ability to conceive and bear children can be restored or it cannot. But what we can be certain about is that in some cases infertility may be prevented. Here are some pieces of advise:

- avoid alcohol,
- avoid smoking,
- reduce caffeine consumption,
- keep fit to control normal weight,
- but avoid excessive exercise,
- control diseases such as diabetes,
- start treating sexually transmitted diseases as soon as possible,
- and alcohol intake,
- use birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancy and abortions.

These are non-medical ways of infertility treatment. “Prevention is better than cure” is a very strong saying, surely. But when you are already infertile you will need something stronger. Ask your doctor whether you can use fertility medications that stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs. There is always hope.