My persistent cough was the sign my hot flushes weren't just the menopause... but something much more sinister

My persistent cough was the sign my hot flushes weren't just the menopause...

but something much more sinister By Jo Waters Published: 21:18 EDT, 5 August 2024 | Updated: 21:25 EDT, 5 August 2024 e-mail View comments Niki Ridge had been taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT), in the form of patches, for four years when she began experiencing hot flushes again — so she asked her GP about increasing her dose. ‘I’d had hot flushes in the run-up to the menopause but HRT had sorted them out,’ says Niki, 58, a former IT manager for a bank, who lives with her husband Steve, 57, and their sons Jamie, 21, and Ewan, 18, in Swindon, Wiltshire. ‘But this time I was also getting night sweats.

I’d wake every night drenched. It was unbearable. ‘At first, I thought it was down to my new pyjamas, which had polyester in the fabric, but the sweats carried on even when I changed them.

The sheets were soaked through every night — I had to lie on a towel I was so sweaty.’ Niki Ridge, 58, had been taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT), in the form of patches, for four years when she began experiencing hot flushes again After three months, thinking her menopause symptoms were returning, in January 2022 Niki saw her GP, who agreed to up her HRT dose. But just as she was about to leave the surgery, she mentioned a persistent cough she’d had over the same three months, and lower back ache.

‘They were just throwaway remarks — neither was really bothering me and I hadn’t co.