Hot flashes beware: Embr Wave is here

When I discovered Embr Wave on Instagram last year, it was magnificent timing. By my best guess, I’m about 18 months into perimenopause and I’m still sorting out my symptoms, which include sudden hot flashes. 

My adventures in perimenopause started with summertime night sweats that I couldn’t quite pin down. I got my first waking hot flash one afternoon about nine months later while strolling a convention floor in Seattle. I’d been meeting with book publishers and editors all morning and felt pretty great about life. 

Then I realized sweat was running down my forehead and temples like I’d just run a mile in gym class. I hadn’t just hoofed up a bunch of stairs or had a stressful encounter. It wasn’t any hotter or steamier than it was five minutes before. I had no other reason to endure a flop sweat other than my dang hormones having a party. 

Why hot flashes suck (and why women get them)

Hot flashes (or hot flushes, as they’re also called) are medically known as “vasomotor symptoms,” and despite existing forever, doctors still don’t fully understand them. What they do know, according to docs at The Mayo Clinic, is that hot flashes affect nearly 80% of women and nearly a third of them will have “severe” hot flash symptoms. When hot flashes happen while we’re sleeping, they’re referred to as night sweats. 

Hot flashes lead to the body’s internal temperature rising 1 to 3 degrees before cooling itself down again, and can last up to 30 minutes! And before you go “well, that doesn’t seem so bad,” note that hot flashes involve your body going into survival mode as your hypothalamus turns on the sweat glands to dial down the heat, as well as increasing your heart rate, and upping your anxiety level. 

According to the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), hot flashes are still not fully understood by the medical community but they do know that symptoms vary widely from person to person. NAMS notes that while “some hot flashes are easily tolerated, some can be annoying or embarrassing, and others can be debilitating.” 

Hot flashes can be triggered by external stimuli as simple as eating spicy foods or wearing constricting clothing. Or they can simply just happen (ah, the joys of being a woman). My hot flashes seemed to come on more randomly than I could plan for during the day (though having an alcoholic drink or two almost always guaranteed night sweats later that evening). So I spent a good portion of the past year searching for ways to deal with hot flashes as elegantly as possible, including wearing sweat absorbing headbands, loose linen clothing, and going without a coat in situations where I might overheat.

Embr Wave brings chill to your over-stimulated menopause bod 

Enter Embr Wave: the world’s first personal thermostat. The most advanced generation of the device, the Embr Wave 2, is a relatively simple-looking smart wearable that you strap to the inside of your wrist. At the press of a button, it emits a cooling sensation (or warming sensation) that you can customize in terms of length and intensity.

A convenient smartphone app accompanies the device, so you can easily make adjustments, check your usage history, and even assign various tasks like “all night cooling” cycles. This is perfect for me as I tend to “run hot” nowadays and can use as many options to cool myself down as possible. 

I can utilize the device as a cooling mechanism so I don’t get queasy on a hot plane during a trip, or during my commute in the winter as I try to balance the polar vortex with impossibly hot office building temps. I really “dialed in” my Embr Wave experience by programming an extra cold blast option on one of the two buttons and “just a lil bit cool” session on another. Someone else might be desperate for a warm-up (I see you, office-blanket friend) and the device can also be used to warm you up with just a click. 

My first impressions of the Embr Wave for hot flash prevention

A little larger than an Apple Watch, my Embr Wave arrived with a magnetic metallic band and the optional “comfort case” that slips over the round exterior (great for preventing bumps or scrapes on the device itself) and an optional “comfort band” made of similar material to the sporty, velcro Apple watch bands you might have. I opted for the rose gold color, but it also comes in a sleek black. 

I first wore my Embr Wave on the inside of my right wrist because I tend to wear my regular watch on my left (but it works easily on either). It’s easy to adjust the original band to my wrist size and to play with where the device itself “lands” on my wrist. (The Embr instructions suggest playing around with the exact placement of the device, as everyone has slightly varying reactions in different parts of their inner wrists. You might have better luck with the Embr Wave placed a smidge further out from your wrist, or closer in toward your hand. See what works best for you!)

Wearing the device never seems to make anyone stop to stare. In fact, while wearing it out and about, no one’s asked me about it. Even at the gym, nobody blinked (or at least they never overtly questioned it). I imagine in this day and age of smart wearables, it passes as a watch or fun accessory. 

Why does the Embr Wave offer warming and cooling?

Oh hey, feeling a little stressed? The Embr Wave can help. 

While cooling sensations on skin can help fight sweaty, nauseous, and otherwise life-altering feelings we all get from time to time, a little warm-up can also be beneficial. Sometimes slipping into a warm bath or a cozy sweater can bring on calming sensations at the end of a long day. But we’re also very responsive to small things like human touch or even a hug, when it comes to lowering our anxiety or stress levels.

“Some studies suggest that physical warmth may be an effective substitute if there is no warm hand to hold, at least in some cases,” notes Mithu Storoni MD, Ph.D., in Psychology Today in an article about helping the mental health of older adults. “Making a person feel physically warm may sometimes trick them into feeling emotionally warm.”

In this way, the warm sensations from the Embr Wave on the skin of our very temperature-sensitive inner wrists are handy (and possibly more sanitary in our post-Covid timeline). Heck, even if you’re an office worker forced back into an icy maze of cubicles, this device could discreetly give your body much-needed warm-ups throughout the workday. And it can help you combat the sweaty anxiety of everyday life as a human, too.

Does the Embr Wave work for hot flashes?

Plain and simple: the Embr Wave works! When I get a flash feeling coming on, I hit the button and start to cool down before I go “full sweat.” It’s like a quick ice cube to the wrist — an emergency personal digital iceberg! When I’m out and about, I don’t have any trouble finding the little button without looking, pressing it, and getting relief. 

On evenings when I have a cocktail and anticipate night sweats popping up, I use the app to start an eight-hour cooling cycle as I go to bed. I’ll feel the slightest cooling sensation as I drift off to sleep, and never wake up with a sensation that I am drowning in my own tears or with sticky limbs. 

Pre–Embr Wave, I’d wake up when sweat literally rolled from my hairline into my eye sockets (gross, right?). 

If I do want an additional cool blast during the night, I can use one of the buttons to provide that on-demand. Or, if I want a little warm wrist hug to fall asleep, I could use the programmable warming session to help drift off to sleep or as a quick warm-up.

A few critiques of Embr Wave 

I experienced some very specific hurdles with my device, and later learned that Embr Labs is already aware of them and is working on fixes and improvements:

• The fiddliness of changing the watch bands.
  Unlike Apple watches, which click and slide out with relative ease, you have to use a small watch tool to remove the Embr Wave band’s pins and swap in a new band. I sent half of the tiny pins flying across my living room before finding the sweet spot where they lock into place. 
• Getting used to an inner wrist wearable while typing.
  Because it sits on the same spot where I tend to rest my wrists as I type, I need to adjust the device out of position sometimes while at my desk or while in a long typing session. This is just the nature of where this particular device is worn, but I also found that I could loosen the strap, and send the device up to the top of my wrist for a bit, or to the crook of my elbow, or even place it on my temple if I felt a flash coming on. 

My overall feelings on Embr Wave and fighting hot flashes

Almost all women will experience hot flashes at some point during their menopause (ungh) journey (barf, I’ll stop). We’re all looking to get through what could be decades of our midlife with as much of our dignity intact as possible. 

The Embr Wave, while not cheap, retails for $299. If you buy it through Embr Labs, you can utilize the company’s payment options including a $20-per-month “rental” plan, or you can pay for it via your FSA or HSA funds. You can even return it within 60 days for free. 

While this may seem spendy, it’s more of an upfront investment that easily pays for itself over time in (literal) sweat saved and mental health supported. I say, what do you have to lose, except a few hot flashes?

Where to buy Embr Wave

• Online from Embr Labs
• Amazon
• Best Buy
• The FSA Store or The HSA Store 
• In the U.K., it’s available at Boots

Read more on hot flashes and perimenopause

How to manage hot flashes: common triggers and sweat treatments

What is perimenopause? Common symptoms, age, duration, and treatment options