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I have seen various sources talking about the effects of oestrogen on temperature: all of them agree that it makes you cold but they seem to explain the reason differently. One states that oestrogen dilates vessels and improves blood flow to extremities which lowers body temperature but another stated that it reduces flow to the extremities by thickening the blood and a different source states that the hormone reduces flow by restricting vessels.

This leaves me to wonder two things: which of these is correct and do we feel cold because the nerves in our skin are cold (and our internal temp near constant), perhaps because blood flow to them is restricted, or because the hypothalamus is cold?

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Your „neurons in skin“ assumption is the right answer. There are receptors specialized on cold perception (McKemy 2013)

They can be activated by menthol (analogous to capsaicin from spicy food activating heat receptors), that‘s why mint chewing gum feels cold, it has menthol.

However, I don’t know how these receptors work biochemically, the mentioned paper talks about changed ion transport as a direct consequence of cold, causing receptor activation and calcium signaling.

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