1. Community
  2. Women's health
  3. Menopause

Odd sensation

Posted , 8 users are following.

sharcerv52408
sharcerv52408

Hello Ladies!

I was wondering if any of you ever get this sensation in the upper part of your chest above your breast right below the collar bone? It sort of twitches sometimes and can feel like a build up of gas in my chest. The feeling can also shift to my shoulder or shoulder blade or even down my arm. I have a doctors appointment today and I will mention it to him but I just wondered if maybe this was yet another peri symptom.

1 like, 64 replies

64 Replies

Prev Next
  • nancy0925
    nancy0925 sharcerv52408

    Posted

    Sharcerv52408

    I have had that on occasion but not enough for it to be an issue. However I have suffered from bad indigestion for a couple of years now where I feel like my tummy is full of air. I will belch for hours. I went to my gastro doc yesterday and am scheduled to have an endoscopy down to rule anything major out but it seems like it started when my periods really started to change. I'm 53 and still getting my period sad anyone else have this issue?

    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 nancy0925

      Posted

      Yes I get that full of air feeling too. It's hard to know what to eat or what not to.
  • lennie45832
    lennie45832 sharcerv52408

    Posted

    Oh my heavens, I get this EVERY Day it started about 4 months ago right when the hot flashes were horrible all the time, mine has spread to my chest too. Its horrible and yes exact;ly it fills like a buildup of gas. I am very confident that its related to peri I am getting it checked out too.  But, its ironic that it started at the same time
  • lennie45832
    lennie45832 sharcerv52408

    Edited

    Hi Ladies regarding this issue of the tendonitis, chest swelling, air feeling its a very, very common issue during meno especially for women who were very active and lifted weights, I was a major free weight user for about 9 months, there is a website that has nothing but women who are enduring this, many of them thought they had a dreaded disease, breast cancer, and other ailments and it was this it is very, very clear to me that many of us are not being told about the multiplicity of problems that this hormonal rollercoaster brings. I had no idea that this was related to peri either except that it started shortly after perimenopause, I dont think most doctors realize it either, this is not to say we should not get tested and go to seek medical care, but the reality is that many of the problems we are dealing with are linked to menopause and this hormonal shift which as more repercussions than we ever thought. I will say this as far as the swelling, and the tightness, when I dont eat sugar or simple carbs or coffee its not as bad, I still feel it but its MUCH worse when I eat sugar or potatoes. I have even done expirments ate a candy bar and had french fries or something like that and it was HORRIBLE. The days I dont eat that I still feel it but its much milder and if I go very organc eating veggies and a little fruit its almost nonexistent.   Sorry for the long post but I wanted to offer my observations/ 
    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 lennie45832

      Posted

      No don't apologize. All comments, thoughts and observations are welcomed. This something that we need to know. Incidentally I did use to do a bit of weight lifting when I was in my 20's so it's ironic that you mentioned that.
    • Sochima822
      Sochima822 lennie45832

      Edited

      Hi Lennie, thanks for the heads up on this odd sensation. Funny you mention weights since I still do kettle weights for exercise but as of recently 2 weeks ago, I had to stop for this very reason, not knowing it was a part of the process. Yes, I almost thought it was breast cancer with pain under my arm too. But it has gone away since I babied the area with gentle massage and talking to my twins to calm down that everything's going to be alright. I got the symptoms for a week with soreness which is abnormal since I do weights 2-3 times a week except that sometimes I feel short winded after doing them but I then stop and lie down for an hour to recuperate. My body's reminding me of the pain & weird sensation such that I guess I won't do any weights today. Have a nice day.
    • metamorphed
      metamorphed lennie45832

      Edited

      Hi Lennie

      Yes It is 100% peri related despite what the doctors say. They insisted I must have injured myself which made me more frustrated with them.  When you have this eating anything with sugar, caffeine all trigger awful pain.  thanks for posting this

    • metamorphed
      metamorphed lennie45832

      Posted

      also, it is awful how peri menopause can give symptoms that imitate the worst conditions that women can get, yet the doctors know so little about it, that they can't reassure women by saying something like 'well,this is a common symptom of the dreaded peri menopause, but we'll rule out other conditions first, but I am sure it is this transition' or words to that effect.  INSTEAD, they scare you by not knowing themselves and when all comes back normal, they try to give you anti -depressants. crazy
    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 metamorphed

      Posted

      Yes when I went to the doctor yesterday she asked me if I had some kind of trauma!!! Can you believe that?!
    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 metamorphed

      Edited

      That's all they know to do. The symptoms of menopause are so vague and there are so many of them most of which do not follow any anatomical order. They can be random and happen all over the body. Menopause symptoms are so abstract and doctors don't deal with the abstract. They relate more to concrete evidence. You know stuff like, if it looks like a duck and quacks it must be duck. But with peri it can look like a duck but bark like a dog. Lol! Doctors are confused by this. For example, if you come to them with these symptoms and you've stopped seeing your periods, it's a lot easier for them to say you're in peri or menopause. But if you are having these symptoms like me and are still seeing your periods that's when they can't figure things out. That's just my theory.
    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 metamorphed

      Posted

      I insist that these doctors be "re-schooled" in the area of peri and menopause.

    • metamorphed
      metamorphed sharcerv52408

      Posted

      lol.   Yes but if you go into them with symptoms other than the usual textbook ones, they know NOTHING about them.  All I heard was 'I have never heard of being anything to do with peri/menopause... basically saying,'you've lost the plot, woman'   (I like your 'look like a duck, bark like a dog'  lol
    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 metamorphed

      Posted

      Yes you're absolutely right. They seem to only know about the classic symptoms, i.e., heat flashes and mood swings. But the others they are completely clueless about. I have had them look at with that, "she's lost the plot" look. Lol! Even the female ones. I remember when I first started noticing these major symptoms hitting me. I had just had my daughter about a year and a half prior to that doctor's visit and due to the peri changes I had lost a considerable amount of weight in a short space of time and came in complaining about anxiety. The nurse and the doctor looked at me like I had some horrible disease. That made me feel even more panicked about what I was dealing with. The nurse told me that I wasn't going through peri because I was still seeing my periods and that something else had to be wrong. Can you imagine? I switch practices post haste!
    • Sochima822
      Sochima822 sharcerv52408

      Posted

      Get a female gynecologist and she won't treat you like that, at least at my doctors office, all women, don't treat you like that. In fact, she prepped me for what was coming except I kept forgetting until I went a low dose birth control pill. When I stopped it that all shell broke loose and everything started to happen. When I started the flax seed oil and Hot Flash pill that's when life started going back to normal.
    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 Sochima822

      Posted

      I have had three female gynecologists and they still deny that I'm going through the change.
    • metamorphed
      metamorphed sharcerv52408

      Posted

      the thing is....  male or female, it doesn't matter when it comes to peri/menopause...  male doctors are just, well, MALE, so no help there and female doctors are just thinking, 'this can't be possible, this woman is obviously a bit mad and this will never happen to me because I'm not crazy like this woman'   lol.  They need to get clued in.  lol
    • Sochima822
      Sochima822 sharcerv52408

      Posted

      Okay, maybe get one that's older than you. Mine is obviously no spring chicken so she's seen it all, and trains all her staff about it as well because even the younger nurse practitioner knew of all my horrible symptoms which was nice because she never looked at me as if I were crazy. In fact, I asked her you must think I'm nuts she said, we know it's perimenopause, which was nice because I thought my hormones were making me crazy.
    • sharcerv52408
      sharcerv52408 Sochima822

      Posted

      That's good. Yeah I do need to find a doctor that specializes in this area.
    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 Sochima822

      Posted

      Unfortuntately, this has been going on with me for almost 6 months, I pray every day and I mean every day that it will go away because it does sometimes frighten me especially when it swells and bulges. If it were not for when it started I would panic. 
    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 sharcerv52408

      Posted

      I agree, when you are in menopause they can depending on what it is chalk it up when you are not then the testing, testing begins. I think the real issue is that most doctors are not trained in the varoius symptoms of menopause they are trained in hot flashes ect, but the 100 and something other issues they are not, they as you said treat it like a duck if it looks like a duck. I feel bad for women who are unaware of the impact of this period,  many times I freaked out about things and then I read on here that 25 other women are dealing with the same thing and they are my same age, I like what one of the nurses said when she said analyze when it started and keep track of this and more than likely its related, she said still get seen if you are really worried, but often its menopausal. 
    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 metamorphed

      Posted

      I think that is my biggest frustration with menopause is the imitation of serious issues/symptoms, I honestly think this is what contributes to our anxiety, I really do. I think that if we were not having horrible symptoms like chest swelling chest lumpiness and pain under the arm and punched in the arm feelings, we would not be as freaked out, I hate to say this but I wish it was JUST hot flashes, that would be so much better than this chest swelling everyday. I asked my mom about her menopause and she said all she had was hot flashes and that was it, nothing else. Its so unfair. LOL
    • metamorphed
      metamorphed lennie45832

      Posted

      yes, this whole mess causes you to have a full health check and sit in doctors and hospitals frequently.  From being a person who had a doctors visit once a year, to having to go a dozen times in a few months, that really freaked me out.

      I am not sure whether most women ONLY have hot flashes or whether those women without other symptoms are already on some sort of medication which masks the other symptoms, or if more women out there are just suffering in silence, Hot flashes are so well known that yes, I would replace these other symptoms for them, (hope I don't regret saying that, but don't know what they're like).

      One female doctor said to me that I was lucky, that some women drip with sweat every hour, and that I had shoulder stiffness! So, that's the help you get when you don't have the REGULAR symptoms... sad.

    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 metamorphed

      Posted

      I have heard horror stories about the sweating and heat, I really have not had that hardly no sweats at all, and again I would prefer that over this, seroiusly because at least with that, I am not going to freak out and worry constantly. Its very obvious when you have sweats and heat flashes its meno, some of this other stuff is SCARY, its not obvious, even doctors are confused with it, my dr looked at the knot on my shoulder and was like yeah its sort of yeah, OK, probably a bone spur. They DONT Know.  I agree with you meta I wonder how many women just suffer in silence and or take something.  I dont understand this, I want to ask my grandmother she is still alive too about hers but I dont know if she would even discuss it, she is old school so who knows. I lived with her and I dont recall anything but I was a little girl, I was going to ask my aunt because I know she had lumpy breasts with cysts and all. She is OK and fine now, but I agree its a mess and I hate doctors, I hate hospitals and I really try to only go when its my regular app and do the herbal stuff and avoid sugar, although today I broke down and had a cup of ice cream. I will pay later!
    • metamorphed
      metamorphed lennie45832

      Posted

      they moderated my last post and have no idea why!  Hopefully it will post as it was quite long.
    • Sochima822
      Sochima822 metamorphed

      Posted

      Did you say a brand of something you were suggesting or name a doctor or specific person? Those get moderated.
    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 Sochima822

      Posted

      I was wondering about that too,. I really do not understand why they censor/block that,  we are not children here. Its our choice to try or NOT try something, But, I agree that is probably why its not showing, I should not have eaten the ice cream by the way, its been a rough night., I am NOT going to do it, I have to find an alternative when I am craving something sweet, Fruit does not do this to me as bad as sugar, the tightness and swelling was rough and I forgot to get my ibuprofen so I took aspirin,.  Tomorrow its a little fruit.
    • Sochima822
      Sochima822 lennie45832

      Posted

      Right, I never liked sugar, until menopause came around. Now, I crave it but since I know it's bad I say no let me eat some fruit, like grapes or dates, and the craving goes away.
    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 Sochima822

      Posted

      That is normally what I do, I WILL NOT mess up again, this was the breaking point in addition to the tightness and pain, I had nausea, I had a bad time. That ice cream was not worth this, the underarm pulling which had gone away for the most part even that came back,.  No thank you., I am done. This was a good kick in the rear for me. Its not worth this.
    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 Sochima822

      Posted

      Yes,. I like bluberries, grapes, strawberries and they are great and do npot create all of these issues. 
    • metamorphed
      metamorphed lennie45832

      Posted

      no.  I didn't mention brand names or anything.  Just a procedure, a natural method of balancing hormones that I read about and am trying.  If I write it again, it could be moderated again.  Other than that I might have mentioned to goo...  gle it,   maybe that's why it was moderated
    • lennie45832
      lennie45832 metamorphed

      Posted

      Why would they censor a natural procedure? I am very confused, thats not a brand name. You can send us a private email too.
Back to top
Prev Next

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.