According to a research in United States, 85% of women experience hot flashes as they come close to menopause and for the first year or after their period stop. Between 20 to 50% of women continue to have hot flash for many more years and as time goes by, the intensity decreases.

Hot flashes can follow the same pattern if a woman has a breast cancer. Others may be more intense and last longer particularly if menopause was premature or if she is taking tamoxifen and the body hasn’t adjusted to it. It is rare for a woman to have hot flashes until they stop taking tamoxifen. For these women, tamoxifen develops an unusual estrogen like the ability to combat hot flashes.

Actually, there is a considerable variation in time of onset, duration, frequency and the nature of hot flashes, either you’ve had breast cancer or not. An hot flash may last for a few seconds or a few minutes but it can take another half hour for you to feel yourself again.