A cold flush is a wave of chill that seems to come from nowhere. Goosebumps rise, your hands go icy, and a shiver settles in that a jumper can't quite reach, often just minutes after you threw the doona off because you were burning up.

The Royal Women's Hospital notes that some women feel chills after a hot flush, and some feel them in place of one. Most of the conversation stays on the heat, though. There's a tidy bit of physiology behind the cold side, and once it clicks, warming up gets a lot easier.

What a cold flush feels like, and why it's easy to miss

For most women it arrives in the minutes after a flush. The heat fades, the sweat on your chest and back starts to cool, and suddenly you're reaching for a hoodie or jumper in a room that felt stifling a moment ago. Hands and feet often go cold first.

Some women notice the chill with no obvious flush before it, which makes it harder to connect to menopause. If you've been blaming the office air conditioning or your partner's love of an open window, try jotting down when the shivers hit and what came just before. A week of notes can show a pattern you'd never spot in the moment.

Your inner thermostat has lost its wiggle room

Your brain keeps your core temperature inside a narrow band. Rise above the top of it and you sweat. Drop below the bottom and you shiver.

Researchers call the space in between the thermoneutral zone. Inside it, small shifts in blood flow to your skin keep you comfortable without either response. The Australasian Menopause Society describes women with lower oestrogen as having a narrower thermoneutral zone, which helps explain why a tiny rise in core temperature can feel like a furnace.

How narrow can it get? In Robert Freedman's laboratory studies, the gap between the sweating and shivering thresholds measured about 0.4°C in women without hot flushes. In women with frequent flushes, it measured close to zero.

That's almost no buffer at all.

Why the shivers show up after the sweat

A hot flush is your body dumping heat it thinks it doesn't need. Blood vessels near the skin widen, you flush and sweat, and the Australasian Menopause Society notes that your core temperature then drops.

With a roomy comfort zone, that dip would barely register. With a narrow one, the same dip can carry you straight past the shivering threshold. Your body swings into heat-making mode, and you get goosebumps and a shiver that seems to start in your bones.

Damp skin and clothing make it worse, because sweat keeps pulling heat away as it dries. So a cold flush is often the second half of the hot flush, arriving a few minutes late.

Where the chill usually starts

Because so many cold flushes trail a hot one, the heat is worth paying attention to as well. Cutting back on common triggers such as alcohol and spicy food may help some women, and our guide to managing hot flushes naturally goes deeper on the heat side.

Foundation is our everyday base blend, and it may help relieve hot flushes and night sweats associated with menopause. It's designed to sit alongside the habits below. If flushes are disrupting your days or nights, your GP can talk you through the options that suit you.

ALWAYS READ THE LABEL AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FOR USE.

When a chill isn't a cold flush

Cold flushes tend to be brief, and they ease once you're warm and dry. Chills that come with a fever, or keep returning with no flush in sight, are worth raising with your GP.

Other things can cause chills too, and the Australasian Menopause Society lists thyroid problems among the conditions doctors may check when symptoms look like menopause. Asking early is part of looking after yourself.

Once you know the shiver is the tail end of the flush, it stops feeling so random. Your body is recalibrating, and you can meet it halfway with a spare layer and a little patience.

This article is general information only and isn't a substitute for advice from your doctor or health professional. If symptoms persist, talk to your health professional.