Hot Flashes or the Flu? Can Hi-Tech Help?

Two million North American baby boomers enter menopause each year. That means there's a lot of hot flashes, night sweats, irritability, and insomnia going round. Those very same symptoms could be caused by any number of other medical problems. So how are you supposed to tell whether it's a hot flash or a hot fever?

A number of new menopause home testing kits are hitting the market. They appear to work much like home pregnancy tests, looking at the urine to see if there's an elevated level of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), which is generally secreted when estrogen levels begin to fall.

The Vielle Menopause Home Test Kit is a new entry to the market. The Ru25 Plus Home Menopause Kit is another. (Ru25 even comes as a gift pack with one test for you and two others for your friends.) Both companies claim their products help women understand whether symptoms such as hot flashes are part of the natural process leading up to menopause or possibly due to other causes.

According to Medicinenet, the tests are accurate (they'll detect FSH about nine out of 10 times), but lots of factors like drinking water, whether it's your first morning urine, whether you're taking hormones, and others will affect the outcome. At best, you'll be able to confirm your suspicions about what's happening in your body and rule out the flu. A good place to immerse yourself in this once "not discussed in mixed company issue" is at Menopause.org.