What Is the Best Underwear for Hot Flushes or Sweating?

Hot flushes and increased sweating are common symptoms of perimenopause. As such, what you wear against your skin can make a big difference to how comfortable you feel throughout the day.

Hot flushes are sudden feelings of heat, commonly affecting the face, neck and chest, and they can leave you sweating. Around 80% of women experience hot flushes during the menopause transition, although their frequency and severity vary enormously from person to person.

While underwear can't prevent a hot flush, choosing breathable fabrics, avoiding overly tight clothing and thinking about how your underwear handles moisture can help you feel more comfortable when things suddenly heat up.

Start With What Sits Against Your Skin

When you're feeling hotter than usual, fabric matters.

Australian Government menopause guidance recommends loose clothing made from natural fibres such as cotton to help you stay cooler during hot flushes and night sweats. The Australasian Menopause Society also recommends underwear made from natural fibres and limiting time spent in tight-fitting underwear or clothing, which can contribute to sweating and skin irritation.

This is one of the reasons every pair of Wicks is lined with soft, GOTS-certified organic cotton. Whatever else is happening in the fabrics of your outfits from day to day, rest assured the fabric sitting against the most intimate part of your body has been carefully considered.

Look for Moisture-Wicking Underwear

Sweating is a normal part of a hot flush, but sitting in damp underwear afterwards isn't particularly pleasant.

This is where moisture management becomes important. Moisture-wicking fabrics are designed to draw moisture away from the skin towards the outer surface of the fabric, where it can spread and dry more readily.

At Wicks, our underwear includes moisture-wicking fabrics and every pair has an organic cotton lining, to make everyday life more comfortable for the wearer. Depending on the style, we also have discreet waterproof absorbency for light bladder leaks as this too is a common experience for bodies that have lived a little.

However, our popular All Day Fresh range has been designed for everyday freshness rather than significant bladder leakage. There's no waterproof barrier, just a discreet absorbent layer designed to help manage everyday moisture while still feeling like beautiful underwear.

Don't Forget About Fit

When you're already feeling hot, underwear that digs, rubs or fits too tightly isn't going to help.

The Australasian Menopause Society specifically recommends limiting time in tight-fitting underwear, tights, jeans and trousers where vulvovaginal irritation is an issue, as tight fitted or non-breathable clothing can contribute to sweating and skin irritation.

Comfort doesn't necessarily mean "granny pants", either. Look instead for a fit that works with your body: waistbands that sit comfortably, leg openings that don't dig and enough coverage for underwear to stay where it's supposed to as you move through your day.

Think Beyond Hot Flushes

Perimenopause rarely restricts itself to one convenient symptom at a time.

Alongside hot flushes and night sweats, women can experience infrequent periods, vaginal and vulval dryness, changes in sleep and bladder function during the menopause transition.

All this can change what you want from your underwear. One day the priority might simply be staying comfortable when you're hot. On another, you might appreciate a little discreet absorbency or additional coverage.

In short, Wicks Intimates are designed to give the wearer a little more confidence during these years.

Choose Underwear for the Body You Have Now

One of the recurring themes we hear from women is that the underwear they happily wore for years simply stopped feeling right.

Bodies change. Skin changes. What feels comfortable changes. And during perimenopause and menopause, those changes sometimes seem to arrive all at once.

The best underwear for menopause isn't underwear that promises to make hot flushes disappear - no underwear can do that. Instead, look for breathable fabrics, thoughtful fits and intelligent moisture management that can help you feel more comfortable when your temperature becomes unpredictable.

At Wicks, that's part of a much bigger philosophy: underwear should evolve with your body, rather than expecting your body to fit the underwear.