Cold flashes? Options

[MarieR]

I feel like I've been freezing on and off for the last week. I'll be ok and then feel a cold chill start in the center of my chest or back and radiate throughout my entire body...can't get warm! I don't have a fever...is this a cold flash?
MarieR

[SandraSmith]

Marie, are you still having cold flashes ?

I was getting chills before my hot flashes during my worst period. I haven't had them since Jan 23.

[MarieR]

Marie, are you still having cold flashes ?

I was getting chills before my hot flashes during my worst period. I haven't had them since Jan 23.

Sandra...I am still getting them...but not as much and now I wonder if they have more to do with my adrenals being stressed. Low cortisol makes you cold...like hands and feet. However, my chills started at the center of my chest and radiated out and down my body...really strange sensation. Maybe they are the beginning of the hot flashes....who knows..my body is like a visit to the amusement park anymore. Hold on for the ride. I am bracing myself for a hot flash...although I have felt flushes of heat and my face gets hot...or my legs feel warm. Never a dull moment. I'll see as my adrenals get better if they go away. I am diligantly charting my symptoms to see what repeats.

MarieR

[SandraSmith]

It makes sense to me that if estradiol helps to regulate temperature and a drop or a low level causes your body to overreact to small increases in core body temp, that the same would be true of small decreases which would then set off chills as your body thinks it needs to warm up a great deal. That's just my theory. :-)

I was getting chills before hot flashes. I keep my condo very cool, 62-64 degrees in the winter. I wonder if I got slightly chilled and my body overreacted, made me shiver to warm up, I also got in fetal position and pulled the comforter up over my head, and then my core temp went slightly above normal and my body overreacted in the opposite direction, brought on a hot flash. Does that make sense ?

[MarieR]

It makes sense to me that if estradiol helps to regulate temperature and a drop or a low level causes your body to overreact to small increases in core body temp, that the same would be true of small decreases which would then set off chills as your body thinks it needs to warm up a great deal. That's just my theory. :-)

I was getting chills before hot flashes. I keep my condo very cool, 62-64 degrees in the winter. I wonder if I got slightly chilled and my body overreacted, made me shiver to warm up, I also got in fetal position and pulled the comforter up over my head, and then my core temp went slightly above normal and my body overreacted in the opposite direction, brought on a hot flash. Does that make sense ?

Yeah....I seem to go extreme all the time....I'm cold so I cover, then I'm hot so I uncover. I don't know about the estradiol regulating body temp...I know the cortisol does and when it drops you get cold...but then again I think thyroid does that too.

There is just so much to figure out with all this stuff....and we have to do it while we feel yuck...makes it harder.

MarieR

[leedur]

Yeah....I seem to go extreme all the time....I'm cold so I cover, then I'm hot so I uncover. I don't know about the estradiol regulating body temp...I know the cortisol does and when it drops you get cold...but then again I think thyroid does that too.

There is just so much to figure out with all this stuff....and we have to do it while we feel yuck...makes it harder.

MarieR

Hi MarieR

I have experienced the cold thing and found it to be very strange. I'd always heard of hot flashes, but didn't know one could have a cold flash. I've only had a couple of these extreme ones, where I was shivering and shaking from such cold. Seemed as though the cold began inside the middle of me. It actually lasted quite a while. Nowadays I'm just either to cool, or to warm or some bizarre combination. At night now, I sleep with my own blanket and leave everything else to my husband. That way I can cover up some body parts and others I leave exposed.

[girlsmom]

I can't tell you how glad I am to of found this thread. I thought I was the only one. I have terrible bouts of cold about 4-5 days before my period. Cold to the bone and need to crawl under the blanket for a half hour at a time to get warm. I'll sweat at night and actually prefer that to the cold of the day.

[perilisa]

Wow! And I thought I was the only one who was cold when others were hot! I usually encounter them in bed. I'll go to bed, get to sleep, and wake up freezing! My teeth actually chatter! I have to get extra blankets, put socks on, pull the blankets up over my head, etc. And of course, it won't be long before this is too much, and then the extra blanket goes flying over to my husband's side of the bed, the socks get pulled off and thrown across the room, and I lie there confused! I have also noticed that whenever I drink anything really cold, like a smoothie, ice cube drinks, etc. I get really cold afterward for about 10 - 15 minutes. I liked the comparison somebody made to our bodies being like an amusement park ride! It's definitely a roller coast ride into meno-hell - I just wish I could sell tickets and make some money off of all this!!!! Happy days, rainbows, and sunshine to all - Perilisa

[grace405]

I have had "cold flashes" off and on for over a year now. They seem to be more intense around my period time, but can occur anytime. At first it scared me--I was freezing and covered up with several blankets. I felt cold from the inside out and couldn't warm up. Mine gets worse in cold weather but I have experienced them in warmer weather. None of this peri makes sense!
I had my thyroid levels checked and they were normal. My sister who is older than me by a few years told me that she had them about my age and they gradually diminished when her hormone levels balanced out. Sometimes I feel like I'm freezing, pile up with blankets and 20 min later I'm too hot. Our hormone flunctuations affect every aspect of our body and I believe the adrenal flunctuations may play a role in the temp problems.
I hope you get to feeling better. It probably wouldn't hurt to have your thyroid level and antibodies checked just in case--but many times its just peri.
Good Luck!

[sdblue]

Well Ladies add me to this list but this is what I'm like one minute I'm burning up the next minute I'm freezing, I'm constantly put my jacket on and off.
But I have started a new natural cream called Phyto-prolief its is suppose to help with hot flashes, mood swings, and etc I have all been using since Sunday, people that I have used says it takes about 7 days to get the full effect of it.
It is mad by Arbonne.
I just hope it work for me, I'm also weaning of b.c. pills when you purchase this cream it comes with a brochure that shows you how to gradually wean yourself off any kind of hormone thereapies while using it.

[Gracie2006]

I used to have cold flashes, but they seem to have quieted down since the hot flashes invaded!

[Teasdale]

I used to have cold flashes, but they seem to have quieted down since the hot flashes invaded!

I've read that cold flashes can disappear when hotflashes start, and I'm hoping that's the case. I hate being cold.

I started taking a thyroid supplement from the health food store, and I haven't had cold flashes or ice-cold hands and feet in the three months since I started taking it.

[larrieta]

I feel like I've been freezing on and off for the last week. I'll be ok and then feel a cold chill start in the center of my chest or back and radiate throughout my entire body...can't get warm! I don't have a fever...is this a cold flash?
MarieR

I am new to this site. I am 45 and going through peri menopause. Fsh levels confirm it. Plus I have not had a period since March. I have terrible hot flashes all day, and end up cold half the day and night. I drip sweat and than am cold a few minutes later. I keep the temp at 80 and still sometimes end up with a sweater on. Half the night I am chilled,. I am trying progeterone cream now. Have been using it for a week will see if it helps. I have taken the soy and black cohash for a while does not seem to help. Will let you know if it helps. The brand is femgest 400mg per ounce. Rub in 1/2 tsp cream in palms of hands once a day. any way I am right there with you.
Lynne

[Rebek]

Hi MarieR

I have experienced the cold thing and found it to be very strange. I'd always heard of hot flashes, but didn't know one could have a cold flash. I've only had a couple of these extreme ones, where I was shivering and shaking from such cold. Seemed as though the cold began inside the middle of me. It actually lasted quite a while. Nowadays I'm just either to cool, or to warm or some bizarre combination. At night now, I sleep with my own blanket and leave everything else to my husband. That way I can cover up some body parts and others I leave exposed.

Hi Ladies,
I'm new to the site. I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am to find that I'm not the only one having "cold flashes". I've never heard of them before but have been having them for a couple months now. Everywhere I go, I bring a sweater and a fan. I have hot then cold flashes one after another with usually a few minutes of "normal" inbetween. Hard to get any sleep or concentrate on my job. I'll be perusing this wonderful website to find out any info I can.
Thank you all. Oops, there goes the sweater...

[mydarling]

hi girls, yes, this is a NEW symptom for me too, in fact, i just posted the same type of thread in the AM I STARTING PERI forum... yeah, it freaked me out too, at first. I've had many friends go through this, and yet, even still, when it happens to you, you think the worst. We're always led to believe that the HOT flashes are what we should expect, and yet, cold flashes can be just as bad. To begin to feel so darn cold, out of nowhere, stinks! I can't remember now, if it begins on the inside of me, and moves outward, or the opposite, i THINK, it starts on the outside, my hands and legs will get cold, and then, the "chill" starts, and i start to almost shiver! This is really freaky. I curl up on the couch, or my bed, with blankets, and my hair dryer, or a heating pad, and try to warm up, and no matter how warm you make it, you can't get warm, until finally, you seem to warm up, but then, i'm TO HOT! UGH! .. LOL ...what a ride!!!!!

[honeydog]

Hi Ladies............me to!

I've been having his strange cold, goosebumpy feeling for about 6 months. It comes out of no-where and can be anywhere on my body except face and head. It's kind of like a wave. I've never had a hot flush to my knowledge or night sweats so maybe their on there way and this is just the beginning. It doesn't have to be cold out for me to feel this chill, infact sometimes if I walk into a warm room or cuddle up in bed it will start. There's no ryhme or reason bot what I have noticed is that the last few days I have had them alot and my period is due in 3 days...........just a thought.

[KYS]

hi girls, yes, this is a NEW symptom for me too, in fact, i just posted the same type of thread in the AM I STARTING PERI forum... yeah, it freaked me out too, at first. I've had many friends go through this, and yet, even still, when it happens to you, you think the worst. We're always led to believe that the HOT flashes are what we should expect, and yet, cold flashes can be just as bad. To begin to feel so darn cold, out of nowhere, stinks! I can't remember now, if it begins on the inside of me, and moves outward, or the opposite, i THINK, it starts on the outside, my hands and legs will get cold, and then, the "chill" starts, and i start to almost shiver! This is really freaky. I curl up on the couch, or my bed, with blankets, and my hair dryer, or a heating pad, and try to warm up, and no matter how warm you make it, you can't get warm, until finally, you seem to warm up, but then, i'm TO HOT! UGH! .. LOL ...what a ride!!!!!

Yes, and me!

I was on HRT until recently but the progesterone phase of it was driving me nuts as I was constantly anxious. Without the HRT, I am less of a nutbar, but of course, the rest of the symtoms have come back. Even on HRT (which was at a very low dose as I didn't want anything more) I was getting some cold flashes to an extent, but without the HRT I am either freezing cold or boiling hot.

If possible, I want to try to stay off the HRT as I figure I am just delaying the evil symptoms and I think I would rather deal with them now (I'm 48) rather than in 5-10 years time. However, if I have got several more years of this I will need to be locked up somewhere.

When I was talking to my doctor about the severity of the hot flashes (I don't seem to get drenched in sweat like some ladies do as I have a low core body temperature, but I still get that "internal incinerator" feeling and feel generally awful), he asked me how many I was getting a day. "At worst," I replied, "I tend to lose count around two dozen." "Hmm... 10 a day is a lot," came back the answer. Good as he is, I could have strangled him.....

I also get this strange "fizzing" feeling in my body that a number of you have also reported. That can go with the cold feelings, but what seems to happen is that I go cold first and then my body gives me a hot flash to compensate for it. - or at other times it happens the other way around!

Jeez, I am joining the queue for "those that want to come back as a man next time".

[lindymac]

I feel like I've been freezing on and off for the last week. I'll be ok and then feel a cold chill start in the center of my chest or back and radiate throughout my entire body...can't get warm! I don't have a fever...is this a cold flash?
MarieR

i have had the same thing latley i am sure it is a stupid symptom. lol good luck. i get into a hot bath or the hot tub and it helps. try that if you can. lindy

[Floater]

I read that cold flashes are symptoms of low testosterone. I have had a few of them myself, the cold flashes and I hate them so much. They give me the creeps. I haven't started supplementing testosterone, but I have been considering doing so for quite some time now. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[peri1961]

Just had a few cold flashes a couple of days ago. I was teaching piano in a freezing room and bingo. I felt like a corpse. They passed kind of quick but are no fun AT ALL! Scary, as a matter of fact. If I didnt have heads up on peri syptoms, I would have thought I was dying

[Lady V]

I started using progest cream a year ago (FSH 18), and all went well (I had had terrible, terrible anxiety, palpitations, etc.) until a couple of months ago. I am still ovulating and having a period. In early December, after a particularly stressful and upsetting day midcycle, I feel suddenly very cold and tired, and then that weird creeping, fizzy feeling in my arms. Then had to go to the bathroom, had diarrhea, my jaw got very tense, and then I started trembling and shaking in my arms and legs uncontrollably. Sort of like what happens if you've ever had a really serious trauma. That went on for half an hour, and then my face went hot, and then it was over.

Then at the end of December a few days before my period, on vacation (!), after having a few cups of caffeinated tea during the day (which I never do anymore) and just after finishing a particularly lovely, rich, chestnut sage pasta meal (yum), I realized I was very cold and...wham... it all happened again. My husband and I got up to our hotel room and the shaking started and lasted for nearly 3 hours. Three days later (day before my period), at home after driving all day, same thing again, which lasted half an hour. During each episode, I watch my breathing, say calm things to myself, my husband strokes my hair and tries to relax me.

Now I'm approaching my period again in 7 days or so, and I'm starting to have the weird creeping, fizzy feeling in my arms today and yesterday, and I'm starting to get suddenly cold. I'm trying not to panic and to remain calm when this happens--fortunately, no shaking yet. I went to my holistic nurse practitioner who said it could be low blood sugar or low estrogen, and to eat protein when I feel it coming on, which seems to help, so far, in that it is not progressing to the shaking, which is AWFUL--my muscles are so sore after. I'm going for blood tests in 2 weeks when I'm day 4-7 of my cycle.

Anyone else had all this? I've found bits and pieces of it various places on the site, but not all at once.

[alexsmom]

It makes sense to me that if estradiol helps to regulate temperature and a drop or a low level causes your body to overreact to small increases in core body temp, that the same would be true of small decreases which would then set off chills as your body thinks it needs to warm up a great deal. That's just my theory. :-)

I was getting chills before hot flashes. I keep my condo very cool, 62-64 degrees in the winter. I wonder if I got slightly chilled and my body overreacted, made me shiver to warm up, I also got in fetal position and pulled the comforter up over my head, and then my core temp went slightly above normal and my body overreacted in the opposite direction, brought on a hot flash. Does that make sense ?

I get that too...I will be freezing when I get in bed I cover up...and before I know it I am burning up. Its the craziest thing.

[alexsmom]

I started using progest cream a year ago (FSH 18), and all went well (I had had terrible, terrible anxiety, palpitations, etc.) until a couple of months ago. I am still ovulating and having a period. In early December, after a particularly stressful and upsetting day midcycle, I feel suddenly very cold and tired, and then that weird creeping, fizzy feeling in my arms. Then had to go to the bathroom, had diarrhea, my jaw got very tense, and then I started trembling and shaking in my arms and legs uncontrollably. Sort of like what happens if you've ever had a really serious trauma. That went on for half an hour, and then my face went hot, and then it was over.

Then at the end of December a few days before my period, on vacation (!), after having a few cups of caffeinated tea during the day (which I never do anymore) and just after finishing a particularly lovely, rich, chestnut sage pasta meal (yum), I realized I was very cold and...wham... it all happened again. My husband and I got up to our hotel room and the shaking started and lasted for nearly 3 hours. Three days later (day before my period), at home after driving all day, same thing again, which lasted half an hour. During each episode, I watch my breathing, say calm things to myself, my husband strokes my hair and tries to relax me.

Now I'm approaching my period again in 7 days or so, and I'm starting to have the weird creeping, fizzy feeling in my arms today and yesterday, and I'm starting to get suddenly cold. I'm trying not to panic and to remain calm when this happens--fortunately, no shaking yet. I went to my holistic nurse practitioner who said it could be low blood sugar or low estrogen, and to eat protein when I feel it coming on, which seems to help, so far, in that it is not progressing to the shaking, which is AWFUL--my muscles are so sore after. I'm going for blood tests in 2 weeks when I'm day 4-7 of my cycle.

Anyone else had all this? I've found bits and pieces of it various places on the site, but not all at once.

I had an incident similar to this monday night....I was shaking uncontrollable and felt extremely cold. I was in bed and had to get up...I finally calmed down after about a half hour.

[Lady V]

Update: I've had one more such incident which lasted about half an hour, just after ovulation this time. Wow, this stuff is hard to deal with! I got my blood tests on day 6 and everything appeared perfectly normal, including thyroid. My FSH was 12 (one year ago, it was 18 on day 6!).

Anybody else have this?

[Lady V]

I have not had another bad cold attack (tight jaw and shivering, trembling, jerking limbs) in a month, but I've had several evenings and early mornings where I get utterly freezing cold, my jaw tightens, and then I take a calcium/magnesium and eat a handful of walnuts or some other protein and it goes away in about 5 minutes. This happens in the morning on days 7-12 and in the evenings around ovulation and just before my period. NO FUN...