--- title: Hot Flashes Menopause: Symptoms Affect Women Longer Than Thought description: Hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms of menopause can affect women much longer than previously thought, a median of 7.4 years. canonical: https://time.com/3711162/menopause-symptoms-7-years/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-16T19:03:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:27:31.565Z article:section: Health og:title: Hot Flashes Menopause: Symptoms Affect Women Longer Than Thought og:description: Hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms of menopause can affect women much longer than previously thought, a median of 7.4 years. og:url: https://time.com/3711162/menopause-symptoms-7-years/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hot Flashes Menopause: Symptoms Affect Women Longer Than Thought twitter:description: Hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms of menopause can affect women much longer than previously thought, a median of 7.4 years. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Most Women Experience Hot Flashes for Over 7 Years, Study Finds  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 16, 2015 7:03 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 16, 2015 7:03 PM UTC Hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms of menopause typically affect women much longer than previously thought, a median of 7.4 years, according to a new [study](http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2110996). The study, published in _JAMA Internal Medicine,_ looked at a group of nearly 1,500 women with frequent symptoms of the onset of menopause and found significant variations in duration of menopausal vasomotor symptoms (VMS) between ethnic groups. African-American women experience symptoms for a median of 10.1 years, more than any other ethnic group. On average, Chinese and Japanese women experienced the symptoms for the shortest duration—5.4 and 4.8 years, respectively. Women who experienced hot flashes and night sweats at a younger age tended to have them last longer, the study found, as did women with less education and greater levels of stress. **Read More**: [Do Married People Really Live Longer?](http://time.com/3706692/do-married-people-really-live-longer/) “These findings can help health care professionals counsel patients about expectations regarding VMS and assist women in making treatment decisions based on the probability of their VMS persisting,” said the study, which notes that 80% of women experience such symptoms. The study challenges the long-held notion that these experiences “minimally affect women’s health or quality of life and can be readily addressed by short-term approaches,” according to a [commentary](http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2110993) that accompanies the study. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3711162/menopause-symptoms-7-years/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3711162/menopause-symptoms-7-years/"},"headline":"Most Women Experience Hot Flashes for Over 7 Years, Study Finds","datePublished":"2015-02-16T19:03:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:27:31.565Z","description":"Symptoms of the menopause last longer than previously thought","url":"https://time.com/3711162/menopause-symptoms-7-years/","keywords":["Research","Health Care","Women's Health","Aging","menopause"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3711162/menopause-symptoms-7-years/","name":"Most Women Experience Hot Flashes for Over 7 Years, Study Finds"}}]}] ```