Neck tension, Neck pain and off balance

Posted , 19 users are following.

Hi ladies, I would like as many ladies as possible to let me know if they are or have experienced neck pain, tension, stiffness and feel they could fall over when standing up, worse when standing still or bending down

I'm getting really frustrated with doctors, nurses and other women I know in peri/Meno saying these symptoms are unrelated to the menopause

I'd like to hear from anyone who's having a similar experience

Thanks xx

1 like, 45 replies

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  • Posted

    Hello Brenda. Its crazy how we all have the same strange symptoms. I've been going through peri since the end of last year and the symptoms have pretty much been endless. I ended up at urgent care 2 months ago because I couldnt turn my head from left to right or tilt my head from side to side. The neck pain was almost unbearable. Well the doctor said it was simply colitis. Which if you google, is pretty much neck stiffness. So he gave me a shot of torodol and 2 days later I was fine. If it wasnt peri related, then the only other thing I could think of was that I used a different pillow that night. To be honest, I dont think it has anything to with anxiety. I dealt with anxiety since I was much younger off and on and never had neck problems. It certainly has something to do with hormones and thwir fluctuations. The first and second day of my period earlier this month, I had extreme lower back pain. I could barely walk. Its gotta be hormones. Anyway I hope you feel better. Oh and doctors dont know much peri/meno so they dont take into consideration its symptoms.

  • Posted

    Definitely have the stiff neck thing. I used to have the dizziness, but that stopped. Now I have the balance issue. It's not bad but, I 've noticed it.

  • Posted

    Yes, I have the same. For about the third year. I am convinced that it is allergies, I never had them before. I also have a lot of postnasal dri, but for some reason most of the phlegm gets stuck inside the head and next to ears causing vertigo and dizziness. Muscles in neck, head, and shoulders are tense and have trigger points in them. I press firmly on them and more phlegm flows from my sinuses. I take hot showers daily, dry my head wih blowdrier, direct the flow on the muscles as well, have a massager on a chair and massage the musles aily. Otherwise I would not be able to move my head at all, especially bend forward. Winters used to be better, spring on is bad. I never had that before I turned 48.  
  • Posted

    Dear brendababy

    Sinus problems can cause neck pressure and pain, are you suffering sinus problems at all? X

  • Posted

    Yep, neck tension-leads to headaches. Overall stiffness of joints. Often get dizzy after looking down but it could be just working in the heat (field biologist). 

    I think the neck tension could just be anxiety as I've felt so much of that in the last year. Night sweats ( for 6 months) kept me from sleeping and still, overall, I feel anxious, kinda crazy and irritated all the time. 

    I started on Mimvey (3 months ago), an estrogen replacement (?) which helped but I still have anxiety and tension.

  • Edited

    Ohhh, I hear you on the neck and shoulder thing...I get this off and on the past couple of years, and it seems to last for weeks when I do.  I have had it all spring this time.  The off balance thing is horrible.  We have a woodstove smack in the middle of our house that we have to walk around, and during winters I am so afraid I am going to fall on it and burn myself.  it is our main source of heat.

    This morning i am very off balance...and when i drink coffee I just get so frustrated because the "energy" it gives cannot be released in action, because my body does not really want to co-operate so I get this feeling of wanting to just run from myself.  I want to run away from myself a lot these days, lol!

    I was telling my husband this morning that if I could take off to the bahamas right now i would...but packing the bag and getting there seems like too much trouble.  Ugh!

    • Posted

      I can so identify with you indifferent! I also have no patience with the clients at my job. I want to run away too. I'm trying to put things in perspective though. This weekend me and a friend are going to visit a classmate who is in a nursing home because she was stricken with some type of muscular degeneration disease. She can't really speak, but her mind is still in tact. This girl was so smart in school, I mean Harvard, Yale, Vassar smart. Not that I'm saying we don't have our problems going through Hellapause(Lol), we have eather on this forum and that's why we're visting her and we're going to try and make it a regular thing. It will help me too by getting my mind off myself, because when I think about myself too mauh it's just bad!

    • Posted

      I think my biggest issue is that I am losing patience with myself.  And that just makes it harder to have patience with others.  So nice of you to spend time with your friend, she needs you right now and it is wonderful that you  and your friend are taking the time to visit.  It is terrible seeing someone get ill like that right out of the blue.

      I need to learn to silence myself around here...my husband really does not need the added stress of trying to understand my issues.  It makes me feel terrible when I start going on about how bad I feel when the worst symptoms hit.  We have had a lot of stress from other sources lately and it is not helping me at all.  i can't deal with stress and busyness at this point.

      His mother (who I never liked much and who always had first place in his life) got ill last summer, just around the same time I started with the bigger more terrible peri symptoms.  The shame of it was that when my peri moods hit, I FINALLY after 20 years got through to him about how his mother treats me.  he finally saw it for what it was...and he was finally ready to start standing behind me on it when she took ill.  Now i am even further behind than I was then.  He needs to run for every appointment with her, help her with all her personal things...it has just been a never ending story and she is the topic of every conversation he has...on the phone or otherwise, outside of work.  For a while he was running for her multiple times a day.  And then I feel great guilt because I have no compassion towards her.  First off, peri took care of most of the compassion I might have had...and the rest she took care of herself over the years leading up to now.

      I really do want to take off and leave him to care for his mother.  She really does need him at this point and my moodiness/feeling ill and out of sorts just just gets in his way...or outright makes me look like a fool.

      I have tried to will myself to not let him know when I am not feeling well, but this last month I spend more time in bed than out.  i seem to have hit a real fatigue stage of this hormonal change.  Like a brick wall.  I'm just tired...my soul is tired.  Bahamas sounds great but I don't even know if I could take the heat...lol!

    • Posted

      Oh my Indifferent you are really going through it! Sometimes I'm glad I'm not married and going through this because you have to deal with another person's feelings, them being around, etc. It sounds like you really need a vacation. I'm not married, but I have a significant other, he lives about 3 hours away(which at this point is a good thing). But he wanted to come into town this weekend and I told him no because (sorry TMI) I have a anal fissure that's been giving me the blues and the thought of sex just turns me off. When your bum is messed up you just want to get well. But he got angry and hasn't called me. Men just don't get it! One of the menopause symptoms is if you have any kind of issue menopause makes it worse. I have been dealing with the bum problem off and on for about three months. I ordered some fissure meds(all natural) from Amazon and see if it works, if not I have to have my colonoscopy early. I'm due to have it in October. I don't want to have surgery for this because, I've heard such horror stories. To top if off I'm about to run out of Valium. I only take it when I really need it so I keep it a long time, but with the anal fissure problem stressing me out, I've been taking more, and I can't get any more until August when I go in for my six month physical.

      So far, I've been blessed and I've not had the crashing fatigue that most women mention. But at the same time, I don't want to do everday chores, not because I'm tired but because I just don't want to. I feel like there are other fun things I could be doing. But here's what's funny, when I'm out with friends or doing something fun, my bum doesn't bother me. I feel that for both of us stress, is our main problem. We really do need a vacation!

      I couldn't imagine going through what you have with his mother and all. Y You shouldn't have to suppress how you feel because it just makes it worse for you.  I just want my old self back!!!!

    • Posted

      Oh I feel your pain!  I had a hemmoroid once, thank goodness only once, that was so very painful...and I tell you...I didn't feel like having any realtions with my husband when it was there either.  I am not sure what a fissure is, but it is said they are even more painful.  I hope the natural remedies work for you.  I find with natural stuff you often have to be on it for a time to see results, but I also believe natural is better for the body.  It seems that most medications these days lead to more medications.  I do my best to stay away from them as well.

      I actually woke up very early this morning and had the best day in a month!  I actually got out and had a few errands to do and didn't even have to take any anxiety relief, lol!  Now that's a good day.  i really have been sleeping my days away the last few weeks...and it doesn't help anything to do that but man I was soooo tired!

      You are right about when out doing things, it does take away much of the pain that we feel when we sit at home and brood about it...and I am a terrible one to just stay home alone most of the time.  I have a very hard time being around groups of people...but at the same time, when I am it does light me up...I just go home utterly exhausted and still feel it the next day.  Crazy thing this perimenopause is.  I want my old self back too.

      Funny thing, yesterday MIL fell because she had a fall and needed hubby to help her back up.  We live 20 minutes away and she lives in an independant living facility with a call bell if she needs assistance.  There are people in the building that are there for emergencies.  But she called hubby to drive twenty minutes to go help her up off the floor instead of ringing the bell.  I really don't get it...but I am not her so who am I to say, right?  It is things like that though that really push my patience with her considering we visited with her four times this week! 

      I am taking notes for my later years though, on what not to do...lol!

    • Posted

      Dear Indifferent

      I understand completely what you going through with all these crazy symptoms and also the mother in law from hell...mine is 10 hours away and still she runs our life! Since I'm going through all the changes I have no patience for all the drama!!!

      I feel the same way I need a vacation alone!!!! No questions, no demands!!!

      I suffered for about 3 years with neck pain, headaches and body aches..it got better the past 6 months..

      Things will get bettersmile right now I'm dealing with dry throat and burning eyes..

      Xxxx

    • Posted

      Oh gosh I have dry throat and burning eyes to look forward to?  I think I would rather the neck pain, and headaches and body aches.  Oh that would drive me crazy!  I hope you get over that part soon.

      Mil's are fun aren't they?  Mine own mother is such a calm relaxed and warm person.  She has never ever tried to give advice but has always just quietly listened when I tell her my woes.  She is the best, honestly.  And when hubby and I fight, she sends me right back to him with a better attidtude somehow.  I don't know how she does it.  lol!  But she will always point out the best in him in little ways.  And he is a good guy.

      If mil ever knew we had a fight I am sure she would try to get right in the middle of it...which is why neither of us would ever tell her or admit we ever do...and honestly we don't very often.

      A vacation alone...I do take them periodically when I go visit my sister.  We have a blast...and don't really go anywhere, lol!  

       

    • Posted

      I rather have the neck pain then the constant feeling of dry shore throat!! This morning woke up having stuffy nose that's another thing I never had to deal before allergies and sinus infections!!!

      You lucky that you can get away by yourself! My husband the older he gets the more time he wants to spend together! He hardly does anything alone anymore he even comes to the grocery store with mesmile and all the questions and the talks sometimes just want to be alone and not to talk and if I tell him he gets upset! So I let him talk and try to follow the conversation but it's hard at times smile

      My mom was so sweet also, never said anything or try to start trouble! My MIL she goes out of her way to start trouble!!! and my husband if I say something he will say that I'm not being nice! She is an old helpless woman!!! She is do for a visit soon! I'm trying to think what excuse I can find not to be there!

      My husband when she visits will tell her all of our business he acts like he is 5 years old and pretty much I'm there for cooking and cleaningsmile thank you for letting me vant!!!!!

      Have a wonderful weekend!

      Xxxx

    • Posted

      I cannot believe she laid there for 20 minutes waiting for him. Besides the fact she could have gotten help sooner, you know she had to be uncomfortable!!

      I'm glad you're getting out more. I know it's a struggle but we have to be kind to ourselves.

      After seeing my classmate in the nursing home today, I feel a little silly about my minor complaints(though they don't seem minor to us). Her mind is sharp as a tack(she was reading the paper when we walked in), but she is trapped in her body. I feel better about a lot of things and I want to live life to the fullest!

    • Posted

      I don't understand this off balance feeling indifferent, have you any idea what causes it exactly

      I've had so many different diagnoses such as a relapse in ME which I suffered from a few years ago, chronic stress/anxiety, vistibular migraine. I'm totally puzzled with it all it's really affecting my quality of life

      My neck is really stiff and painful and I don't know if I've caused this by holding my neck rigid so I don't get dizzy. When I'm standing still I feel my legs won't hold me and I'm going to fall over

      Thanks for posting and letting me know that others have this weird sensation as well

      Take care and a big hug for you x

    • Posted

      I suspect it is anxiety perhaps, or a middle ear issue (the crystals in the middle ear dislodge and cause all kinds of issues).  There is a  treatment called the epley maneuver that sometimes helps, but not always these days. It just seems to come and go at will.  My neck also gets really stiff and sore, along with my shoulders.  It sometimes leads to back of the head headaches.  I find spending a lot of time on the computer or reading makes it mush worse.  I recently bought a vibrating/pulsing massage stick that seems to help...it sure relaxes everything before bed!  Feels like a load taken off my shoulders  lol!  Hope you feel better soon.  I went through a whole summer a few years back that the dizziness and balance were unbearable.  The sun and heat are not welcoming for that condition.  I used to hate winters but almost look forward to it these days.
    • Posted

      My husband has always sided with his mother, until recently...he is seeing her much more for what she is in the past year.  Game playing and attention seeking....extremely needy.  He is very tired.  Thankfully my husband has always been a very private person, he does not talk to her about anythihg to do with our homelife really...

      She always wants to know what he has on his agenda for the week so she can make sure she gets him to visit her often.  You are more than welcome to vent...I sure do feel like it often enough!!  lol!  Venting makes it more bearable.

    • Posted

      Thanks for your reply. ENT checked if it may be crystals in my ears being dislodged but he said the procedure he did was negative. I had to lay on a surgical bed with my head hanging over the end of it supported by a male nurse, I had to turn my head right and left, the consultant said he can tell by eye movements if this is the problem and apparently that's not what's causing it

      Good job I've not to go through this now asI feel I wouldn't be able to move my head as my neck is so rigid lol

      Hope you've had a good day wherever you are, I'm in UK

      Xx

    • Posted

      Yeah... Been told late life variant migraine. I suspect fibro?Seems increase in muscle issues and dizziness accompanies a new cycle of period changes for me. Just want it to go away.

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