Moreover, I believe it was all this talk about menopause that made me recall the day I felt my very first hot flash. I had other things on my mind, like the hot fluster I couldn’t shake and my panic about whether or not I’d turned off the iron. I felt extremely hot on the way back home on the bus, bundled in my Maxi coat that I suddenly regretted having worn that day. These days when a woman asks me what a hot flash really feels like, I tell her to think about the surge of heat on your cheeks that sometimes accompanies an embarrassing moment, and then multiply that intensity by 10. That, in my opinion, best describes a rip-roaring hot flash!