The Wall Street Journal-20080122-Products to Help Deal With Night Sweats
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Products to Help Deal With Night Sweats
As more baby-boomer women near menopause, companies are marketing an array of cooling and moisture-wicking products to reduce the misery of hot flashes and night sweats. The items include special nightclothes, pillows and sheets, special bed fans and even cooling gel strips for the back of your neck. There isn't scientific proof these products work, but gynecologists say some appear to help their patients.
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Two-thirds of women experience hot flashes, an intense sensation of heat on the upper body, in the years leading up to menopause, according to the nonprofit North American Menopause Society. Half of the sufferers have severe symptoms, with flashes sometimes occurring as often as every 20 minutes. Often, the body's attempt to cool itself results in profuse sweating, called night sweats, followed by chills. Some women have such severe sweats that getting up in the middle of the night to change their sleepwear and bedding is a frequent ritual.
For anywhere from $4 for Be Koool gel strips to $160 for a set of Cool Sensations moisture-wicking bedding, companies say they can help keep you more comfortable. The bedding uses technology similar to workout clothes to draw moisture away from your skin and dry quickly; the strips also draw in moisture, and the skin cools as it evaporates. For $30, you can buy a pillow with a cooling gel pack, or you can pay $80 for a fan with a slim, horizontal blower placed under the sheets at the foot of the bed. From Canada's HotCool Wear Inc., there's the Hot Mama line of wicking sleepwear, plus a line for men, who can get hot flashes from medical conditions or as a side effect of medications.
There hasn't been much, if any, independent study of the products. Precision Fabrics Group Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., which makes the polyester-blend fabric used in Cool Sensations bedding, funded a 28- person unpublished study that it says found significantly improved sleep from use of the sheets over a two-month period. Like many of the products aimed at menopause sufferers, the company's DermaTherapy fabric has small channels that draw moisture away from the skin.
Some gynecologists are skeptical of the products, particularly given that hot flashes respond particularly well to placebo treatments. "There are so many products out there, and many of them sound logical, but there is no evidence they work," says Wulf H. Utian, founder and executive director of the Cleveland menopause society. "Buyer, beware."
Others say the products are at least worth a try. Mary Jane Minkin, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale University School of Medicine, says some products seem to ease her patients' discomfort. The moisture-wicking sheets and pajamas may not prevent hot flashes, she says, but they can eliminate the need to get up and change clothes after night sweats. "If they don't have to change all their clothes, it's less of a big deal. They can go right back to sleep," Dr. Minkin says.
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