Cold hands
Cold Hands, Stiff Joints — Is This Perimenopause or Something Else?
If you’re trying to work out whether this is hormones, early arthritis, or just a cold snap — here’s how to actually tell the difference.
For about a year, I blamed the weather. My hands would go cold and stiff, I’d rub them together, put the heating on a bit higher, and think nothing more of it.
Except it kept happening in June.
Sign 1. It’s Not Your Whole Hand — It’s One Specific Spot
Cold from the weather tends to affect your whole hand fairly evenly. What I was feeling wasn’t that — it was concentrated at the base of my thumb, in one particular spot, every time. If you can point to almost the exact same joint each time it flares, that’s a meaningfully different pattern than general cold-related numbness.
Sign 2. Warming Up Helps — But It Doesn’t Fully Go Away
Ordinary cold hands warm up properly once you’re indoors. Mine eased, a bit, but never all the way — there was always a duller ache sitting underneath, even once my hands were properly warm. If the stiffness only ever partly lifts no matter how warm you get, that’s worth paying attention to.
Sign 3. It’s Worse Some Weeks Than Others — Regardless of the Weather
Weather-related stiffness tracks predictably with temperature. What I noticed was a pattern that didn’t line up with the weather at all. Some entirely mild weeks were awful. Some proper cold snaps barely registered. That kind of unpredictability, disconnected from the actual temperature outside, points somewhere else entirely.
Sign 4. Summer Doesn’t Make It Disappear — Just Quieter
If it really were just the cold, warm weather should solve it completely. Mine went quiet in summer. It didn’t go away. At the base of your thumb is a joint called the CMC — where your thumb meets your wrist. That joint is held in place by ligaments, and ligaments respond to oestrogen. As oestrogen drops through perimenopause, those ligaments lose collagen and get looser, and the joint that used to stay perfectly put starts to shift slightly under ordinary grip. One shift you’d never feel. But it happens constantly, all day, and a loose joint has nowhere to settle.
So What Can You Actually Do About It?
- Support the one joint that’s actually unstable, rather than keeping your whole hand generally warm
- Do it without locking the thumb, so you’re not trading one problem for another
- Be comfortable enough to wear through the parts of the day when it flares most
So a hand therapist who specialises in midlife joint changes set out to build one.
FlexHold: Support for the Joint That Was Never Just About the Weather
- A contoured pad supports the CMC joint at the base of your thumb, the exact one other braces miss
- Your thumb and all four fingers stay completely free, so you keep full use of your hand
- Soft, lightweight and breathable — comfortable enough to wear for hours, not just twenty minutes at a stretch
I left the link above if you want to have a look.
I still reach for a jumper when it’s cold. I just don’t need my hand to recover from it any more.
— Diane