I'm reading "Hormone Replacement Therapy" by Linda Laucella, and it says:

Under early signs of menopause:
Hot flashes may occur initially at night . . . may also be accompanied by sweating and heart palpitations as well as leg cramping at night.
Sleep disturbances are usually caused by hot flashes, night sweating and leg cramping.

Under Long-Term Effects of Menopause:
Circulatory changes that may be evident in varicise veins or feelings of heaviness and cramping in the legs.


Okay, so I feel like I'm grasping at straws. Most books don't mention ice cold feet and leg cramps, so when I find one that does, I take notice. So far, I haven't seen much about what to do about it, though. If it's fluctuating hormones, is it relieved by more estrogen? More progesterone? And how do you find out?

If I find anything else about cold feet/leg cramps in my growing collection of perimenopause/thyroid/magnesium books, I'll post it here in this thread.

I don't know if this helps or not, but my mother had cold feet problem most of her life.....I got cold feet and cold hands with a low thyroid problem...wouldn't be surprised if it is a meno symptom as well as all these hormones are part of the endocrine system and what effects one effects the other.....I am having the opposite problem now....HOT feet.....I think it IS hormonal...even if most do not have it does not mean that in your case it isn't related to meno...probably is....we are probAbly all exception to the rule once in a whiel as we go through this.....Joan

Yes, I'm pretty certain that it's fluctuating hormones playing around with thyroid levels.

Speaking of hot feet - yesterday I had an episode of ice cold feet for a couple hours, followed by hot, tingling feet! I think I can definitely blame a circulation issue - which sounds like thyroid levels out of whack because of fluctuating hormones.

In addition to magnesium citrate, progesterone and quinine, I'm going to try a lot of soy to balance estrogen levels, Vitamin E, dong quai, licorice root, and St. John's Wort for the panic/anxiety that accompanies these episodes.

if you are thryoid sensitive watch out for the "loｔ　of soy stuff.....can mess with the thyroid....

Just an update - the cold flashes/icy feet seem to be helped with thyroid supplements, but all the supplements and herbs don't seem to be helping the leg cramps. I have a prescription for quinine, and I think that is helping. I'll just take it when I'm having serious problems - usually during hormone changes (which are less predictable than they used to be!)

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Yes, I saw that, but there seems to be conflicting information regarding soy and thyroid. I'll certainly keep that in mind and discontinue the soy if I notice thyroid-ish symptoms worsening!

Do anyones toenails start to darken or turn bluish from being so cold? The only thing that is cold is my feet.