When is a hot flush not a hot flush?

[ITrulyMoustache]

No, this isn't the start of a bad joke.

Before I start I should say I'm in a battle regarding getting my thyroid checked properly (as in at least by NICE guidelines which my GPs have so far failed to do ), so I get that this is possibly a cause of my problems.

I am cold. Constantly. Its like its in my bones. My toes and fingers are often painful, even in 2 pairs of socks (at least one thermal), slippers and hand warmers. And that's just in my house where my hubby and kids will happily walk around in flimsy pjs. Don't ask about the michelin man impression I have to pull off when going outside.

But if I do manage to get some heat into my fingers or toes, then they go completely the other way. They almost radiate heat and are painful in a completely different way. If I don't let them go back to cold (I'd let them go back to warm if I could obviously, I just don't appear to have this option), this heat radiates throughout my body and I overheat badly. This overheating will last until my fingers or toes are exposed to cold again, then will instantly stop and I'll go back to frozen out mode.

I had a GP tell me I was experiencing menopausal hot flushes. My experiences and knowledge of those sorts of hot flushes are they're not started by a specific action nor ended so quickly by a different specific one, and also they self limit and are more short acting than mine can be (I've had a few 6hr stints).

I suppose my question is if I'm not experiencing the more common form of hot flush then how the hell do I define my sort???

[pinkfrocks]

Have you looked into Raynauds syndrome?

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Raynauds-phenomenon/Pages/Introduction.aspx

This may sound silly but are they chilblains? They get hot and itchy and painful when your feet or hands warm up.

It doesn't sound anything like a hot flush- they last for 1- 5 minutes, start usually on the face, neck or chest area and spread over the body- or just stay on the face.

[ITrulyMoustache]

Hi pink

Thanks for posting. I do suspect I have raynauds. Though I did think no to the chilblains at first I caught my fingers going red and swelling when they were in superheat mode, so I suspect you may be right. I tried soaking my feet in epsom salts as that's recommended somewhere last night before bed and saw vast improvement. So tonight I'm going to try my hands too and see if that helps as well!