I've been buying it at my local health food store, but I'm sure I can get the same thing online for less $. I intend to do a search today (when I have a bit more time) to see who's got the best price. Oh, and this was certainly no comfort to me -- my mom, who will be 70 years old next month -- says she still has a flash from time to time. :-/

Karen, Last summer my gyno put me on progesterone pills for 12 days to try and stop my bleeding. It didn't work, but I did break out in nasty hives all over my body while we were on vacation at the beach (went there 2 days after I started taking the pills). I went to the family doctor when we were home and he said it was sun poisoning (I've never had it in my life) since I'd been at the beach. Now I'm wondering if it really was an allergic reaction since the benadryl gave me some relief.

I was in the same boat as you are 12 years ago. I went to an herbal store and spoke to the worman who owned it. She suggested Dong Quai. I didn't find chewing on a Dong Quai leaf helped much. Then I tried Solaray's phytoestrogen and that helped quite a bit. I went down to about 6-8 hot flashes a day and waking up to about 1 night sweat/night, sometimes none. I also found that keeping a bottle of cold water in the refrigerator, or a small cooler when I went somewhere, helped a lot. When I felt a hot flash coming on, I would drink probably 6 oz. of the cold water and it seemed to cool me from the inside, making the hot flash less severe. Then I became a Melaleuca customer and tried their EstrAval (contains dried soy extract, dried Dong Quai extract, and Dried Black Cohosh extract). I went down to 1 and sometimes no hot flashes/day, and while I occasionally get hot at night, I rarely have a night sweat. There is nothing to say these products will work for everyone, but I'd try them before I went to a perscription. Both Solaray and Melaleuca have good reputations for safe, effective products. I know Melaleuca is a registered pharmaceutical company the same as Merck and Pfizer.

I don't know personally, but there is a very active and informative menopause website (message boards, tons of info & articles)...I don't have the link handy, but do a search for powersurge, that's the name of it. I'm sure you can find answers there.