I had severe hot flashes starting at age 52. They affected my work and my sleep, hitting me every hour, 24/7. I was afraid to drive a car, since it almost felt like I was losing my consciousness when a hot flash hit. I consider myself very lucky to find a doctor who worked with me for a year to prescribe the best (for my body) set of compound biohormones. My mother, who still suffers from hot flashes (she is almost 80 years old), is a survivor of breast cancer. My father died from colon cancer. At 59, I consider myself a healthy person, only because I was able to find a doctor and a compound pharmacy which helped me to stay healthy. FDA-approved artificial hormones would not be available to me, because of cancer problems in the family. In fact, my previous doctor told me that no doctor, in the right mind, will prescribe hormones (FDA-approved) to me.