I have been going through menopause for around 3 years now. It started with occasional hot flashes which progressed to becoming more frequent as my period "faded" away. I've been period free for nearly two full years now and up until a month ago the hot flashes and night sweats were unbearable. They'd last at least two minutes and I'd be [literally] dripping with sweat.
I started taking the black cohosh supplements and they worked minimally.
A month ago I decided to cut out ALL coffee and replaced that with sipping hot water with lemon. The only reason there was 'replacement' is because I find sipping something hot comforting. I always have. I used to drink quite a bit of coffee daily. Easily I could consume a 12 cup pot on my own. That's a lot of coffee.
Anyway, since sipping the water instead, I haven't had hot flashes (or night sweats) in two weeks or so. Well, the few I had you can count on one hand and they were so mild and over with fast, it was not really a problem. I treated myself to a couple of cups of coffee over last weekend and yesterday and I'm sweating like a pig as I'm typing this. Needless to say, I'm NOT sipping coffee right now!
Could the caffeine in the coffee be triggering the hot flashes (and night sweats)? And could the caffeine in the coffee make them intensify? I've never had any issues with jitters or staying awake from too much caffeine, so could it be something in coffee itself other than caffeine?