The myth: Perimenopause only causes overheating, sweating, and hot flashes.

The reality: The exact opposite happens too. Cold flashes — sudden waves of chill, shivering, and icy coldness — are common but rarely talked about. They come from the same faulty internal thermostat that causes hot flashes, just working in the other direction.

If you have been caught off guard by a sudden chill or an uncontrollable shiver when the room is perfectly warm, this is a recognised part of the transition, not something odd about you.

What a Cold Flash Feels Like

A cold flash is a sudden sensation of coldness that sweeps over the body or a part of it, often without any change in the actual temperature around you. Women describe:

  • A wave of chill that runs through the body.
  • Sudden shivering or goosebumps.
  • Feeling icy or unable to warm up for several minutes.
  • Chills that follow a hot flash — the body overheats, sweats, and then swings into feeling cold.
  • Waking at night feeling cold and clammy.

They can last a few seconds to several minutes and then pass, much like a hot flash.

Why Cold Flashes Happen

The body’s temperature is controlled by the hypothalamus, a small region of the brain that acts as your internal thermostat. Oestrogen helps keep this thermostat calibrated. As oestrogen fluctuates in perimenopause, the thermostat becomes unreliable and overreacts to small changes.

We usually hear about it overreacting toward heat — triggering a hot flash to cool the body down. But it can misfire in the other direction too:

Overcorrection after a hot flash. During a hot flash, blood vessels widen and you sweat to shed heat. Sometimes the body overshoots — losing too much heat through sweating and dilated vessels — and you are left suddenly cold and shivering.

A direct misfire toward cold. At other times the thermostat simply misreads and triggers a cold response — narrowing blood vessels and producing shivering — when there is no real reason to.

Either way, it is the same unstable thermostat behind hot flashes, just swinging the other way.

Why You Feel Suddenly Cold
Oestrogen fluctuatesThe hypothalamus, your temperature thermostat, loses its steady calibration
Overcorrection after a flashSweating and widened vessels shed too much heat, leaving you shivering and cold
Direct misfireThe thermostat can trigger a cold response with no real temperature change
Same cause as hot flashesCold flashes are the flip side of the same unstable thermostat — and just as real

What Helps

Dress in layers. Because your temperature can swing either way without warning, easily added or removed layers let you respond quickly to both hot and cold flashes.

Keep something warm within reach. A shawl, light blanket, or warm drink helps you ride out a cold flash, especially at night.

Steady the triggers. The same triggers that worsen hot flashes — caffeine, alcohol, stress, poor sleep, and blood sugar swings — destabilise the thermostat and can worsen cold flashes too.

Regular movement. Gentle, consistent activity supports circulation and temperature regulation.

Consider the hormonal angle. Because cold flashes share their cause with hot flashes, treatments that steady the thermostat, including HRT for some women, can ease both. Worth discussing with your gynaecologist if flashes of either kind are disrupting your life.

When This Is NOT Just Perimenopause — See a Doctor

Feeling cold or shivering can occasionally have other causes worth ruling out. See a doctor if:

  • The chills come with fever, body aches, or feeling unwell — this suggests an infection, not a hormonal flash.
  • You feel cold all the time, along with fatigue, weight gain, dry skin, or hair thinning — this can point to an underactive thyroid, which is common at this age and easily tested.
  • Chills come with a racing or pounding heart, sweating, and anxiety that feels out of proportion.
  • The cold sensation is in one specific limb and comes with colour change, numbness, or pain — which points to a circulation issue.

An underactive thyroid in particular mimics and overlaps with perimenopause, so if persistent coldness is a main feature, it is worth a simple blood test.

Cold flashes are one of perimenopause’s best-kept secrets — real, common, and simply the other face of the same unsteady thermostat. Layers, warmth within reach, and steadying your triggers go a long way.

The Second Spring is an information resource, not a medical provider. For personal advice, speak with your doctor or gynaecologist. Write to us at thesecondspringofficial@gmail.com