Prostate Cancer :: Hot Flushes - Hormone Therapy

 Here are my own observations at week five into LH hormone therapy.

> After a faltering start I settled into three or so mild hot flushes a day with some at night.

> The worst part for me is that shortly after the onset of a flush my memory is impaired and logical thought becomes confused. I could live with the fuzzy feeling in my head if that was all. This impairment lasts about one hour after the flush subsides. So I cannot do much sensible work or play the piano without making a hash of it and frequently forgetting how to continue the piece I am playing.

> I have found the advice to keep cool helpful. So I wear lighter clothes than formerly and try to keep a feeling of being slightly cold. I don't like that but it is better than a flush.

> I have accepted the advice of many that exercise is helpful. Amongst other benefits it is held to assist in limiting hot flushes. So in addition to my afternoon stroll with my wife (I.5 to 2 mph) I now take two brisk walks a week on my own. (3 to 3.5 mph - I used to manage over 4 mph). Again picking up on advice relating to hormone treatment I have added home devised power exercises with chest expander spring and hurrying up and down the stairs six times in succession. Plus, pelvic floor exercises in anticipation of radiotherapy.

> I found that stress, warming exercise excluded, frequently brings on a flush. 

DISCOVERY or just something I had missed.

> I have found that if during a flush if I do some exercise that I know from experience will be enough to warm me, when I stop I cool down normally and so cut short the flush. (I must cool down. If I stay warm the flush takes off again within a few minutes.) My flushes normally last about 90 minutes. For me the effective exercising is

>> six  times rapidly up and down stairs.

>> five minutes brisk walking

> If I do this exercising within about 60 seconds of the start of the flush I avoid the memory and logic problems. (Any delay and the problems last the usual hour after the end of the exercising / flush. )

Does anyone use a similar "cure" for a flush? Does it work for anyone else?