Postmenopausal flashes: studies of chronological organisation.

The times of occurrence of climacteric flashes were recorded by three women over a period of one month. The mean intervals between flashes were 130 +/- 5, 142 +/- 6 and 67 +/- 3 min (mean +/- S.E.) for the three women. The flashes did not occur simply randomly in time. Following a flash, a period of suppression of the ability to flash again was apparent. No mathematical model was derived which satisfactorily described the incidence of flashing in all three women. However, models assuming suppression of the ability to flash immediately following a flash gave the best fits to our data. This suggest that there is an inhibitory feedback mechanism mediating partial suppression of flashing for at least 30 min after a flash.