the.com/hot flash
Your thermostat gets a vote now, and it always votes lava.
means A sudden, intense wave of body heat, often with sweating and flushed skin, caused by hormonal shifts (most commonly during menopause).
from Straightforward compound English, not borrowed from elsewhere — 'hot' plus 'flash,' the latter in its sense of a brief, sudden burst, like a flash of light or a flash flood. The term rose in medical and everyday use alongside the 20th century's growing frankness about menopause, naming a sensation women had endured and described informally for centuries but which medicine only gradually began to study and name with any precision.
- actual cause
- brain's temperature sensor misfires, thinks you're overheating
- duration
- usually under five minutes, feels like forty
- timeline
- can persist for over a decade, not just menopause itself
- triggers
- caffeine, alcohol, stress, spicy food, existing