What causes hot flushes if it’s not menopause?
Usually a trigger: heat, alcohol, spicy food, stress or a medicine. But flushes with a racing heart and weight loss can point to your thyroid. A blood test can often tell.
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What else causes hot flushes?
Most often, something sets it off. A flush is a wave of redness and warmth in your face and neck, sometimes your chest.
Most are harmless. UK skin doctors’ guidance says most people with flushing need no tests.
| Cause | Clue | First step |
|---|---|---|
| Heat, hot drinks or exercise | It comes as you warm up. | Take off a layer and drink water. |
| Alcohol | Red face after a drink. Some people flush after very little. | Cut down and see if it stops. |
| Spicy, sour or hot food | It comes as you eat or just after. | Note which foods do it. |
| Stress, anxiety or panic | Racing heart, sweating or chills. | Ask your GP about talking therapy. |
| A medicine | Flushing is listed in its side effects. | Ask your pharmacist or GP. |
| Rosacea | Red cheeks and nose that come and go, sometimes with spots. | See a GP. Treatment can help. |
| Overactive thyroid | Heat bothers you, plus sweating, a fast heartbeat or weight loss. | Ask a GP about a blood test. |
| Low blood sugar | Sweating, shaking and a fast heartbeat. Rare without diabetes. | See a GP if you don’t have diabetes. |
Sources: PCDS; NHS: blushing; NHS: panic; NHS: rosacea; NHS: thyroid; NHS: low blood sugar
In your early 40s? Menopause usually comes between 45 and 55, but it can happen earlier. See hot flushes and menopause for that side.
Next time you flush, note what you’d just eaten, drunk or done.
Why do I get hot flushes after eating?
Food can flush your face through a nerve reflex. UK skin guidance names spicy or sour food, hot food and drinks, and food additives called sulfites and nitrites.
Alcohol does it too. Some Asian people with certain genes flush a lot after small amounts.
Had stomach or weight loss surgery? Flushing and sweating after meals can be dumping syndrome, where food moves into your gut too fast. Tell your surgical team or GP.
Very rarely, food or alcohol sets off flushing from a hormone-making tumour (carcinoid syndrome). UK skin guidance puts these tumours at about 1.5 new cases per 100,000 people a year, and 80 in 100 also have diarrhoea.
Feel well apart from the flushing? The NHS says to skip spicy food, alcohol or hot drinks if they make you blush.
Can your thyroid cause hot flushes?
Yes, if it’s overactive. The NHS lists sensitivity to heat, warm skin and sweating a lot among its signs.
Other clues are a fast or uneven heartbeat, trembling, weight loss despite eating more, and a swelling in your neck.
It’s about 10 times more common in women than men, and it usually starts between 20 and 40. That’s often well before menopause.
That blood test is a thyroid function test. It checks three hormones.
| Line | What it is | Overactive thyroid usually shows |
|---|---|---|
| TSH | A hormone from a gland at the base of your brain. It tells your thyroid how hard to work. | Low |
| T4 (free T4) | One of the two main thyroid hormones. | High (T3, T4 or both) |
| T3 (free T3) | The other main thyroid hormone. | High (T3, T4 or both) |
Source: NHS: thyroid diagnosis
Normal levels vary with your age and the lab. So read yours against the range on your results.
Got these signs? The NHS says see a GP. More in overactive thyroid symptoms and menopause or thyroid.
Why do I get hot flushes at night?
Sweating in a hot room is normal. Night sweats are when you soak your bedding even though where you sleep is cool.
| Cause | What to know |
|---|---|
| Anxiety | Panic can bring hot flushes, chills and a racing heart. |
| Medicines | Some antidepressants, steroids and painkillers. Your GP may offer a different one. |
| Low blood sugar | Usually in people with diabetes on insulin or some other diabetes medicines. |
| Alcohol or drugs | Drinking or drug use can bring on sweats at night. |
| Hyperhidrosis | A harmless condition where you sweat too much all the time. |
Sources: NHS: night sweats; NHS: panic; NHS: low blood sugar
Sometimes no cause is found. Note how often it happens and whether you feel unwell. See night sweats and blood tests for more.
How can I stop hot flushes that aren’t menopause?
Find the trigger first. UK skin guidance says to cut out known triggers like food and alcohol.
Six steps to find and cut your flush triggers
- Note each flush: the time, and what you’d just eaten, drunk or done.
- Skip spicy food, alcohol and hot drinks if they make you flush.
- Keep cool: take off a layer and drink water.
- Check the leaflet of any medicine you take for flushing or blushing.
- If you think it’s rosacea, see a GP and wear sunscreen of SPF 30 or more every day.
- If stress or anxiety sets it off, ask your GP about talking therapy (CBT).
Sources: NHS: blushing; NHS: rosacea; PCDS
Many medicines can cause flushing. They include some blood pressure tablets (calcium channel blockers) and the erection tablet sildenafil. Strong painkillers like morphine and the breast cancer medicine tamoxifen can too.
Men get hot flushes too. Hormone treatment for prostate cancer stops or blocks testosterone, and it can bring menopause-like flushes.
Never stop or change a prescribed medicine without your prescriber. Ask whether a different one could suit you.
When to speak to a GP
Book an appointment if:
- Night sweats wake you regularly or worry you, or you’re losing weight for no reason.
- Night sweats come with a very high temperature (or feeling hot, cold or shivery), a cough or diarrhoea.
- You have signs of an overactive thyroid, such as a fast heartbeat, trembling or weight loss.
- You don’t have diabetes but get shaking, sweating, a fast heartbeat and feeling confused.
- Flushing comes with other symptoms such as diarrhoea, wheezing, headache, an itchy raised rash (hives), a racing heart or a swollen face. UK skin guidance treats these as warning signs.
Have rosacea and a painful or red eye, blurred vision, eyes that hurt in light or an eye that feels gritty? Ask for an urgent GP appointment or call 111.
Worried about anxiety? See anxiety and blood tests.