Perimenopause and SEVERE joint pain - any one else??

All the iron script did for me as a person with IBS-C symptoms (as well as the colofac the GP prescribed) was exacerbate my symptoms actually. The colofac slows your gut motility down, the iron constipates you even further, and the gas build up after this is a nightmare. The antacids lower your stomach acids which then allows opportunistic bad bacterias to build up in your digestive tract and colon... and from there just add sugar and fiber and you have the bloat from hell and a nice big fat leaky gut toboot.

I've completely lost all faith in alopathic medicine here. Hence the reason for all the research and trying to take things that rebuild your system because all that inflammatory stuff puts a stress on your adrenal glands and causes adrenal exhaustion. I found I was so fatigued and in so much pain some days, it was horrendous. To try to "shake myself up" was extremely painful and literally had me causing a lot of injuries.

The main one was frozen shoulder from trying to do so... in fact I rather stupidly threw myself into doing assisted pullups and went into gung ho mode thinking if I ignore this $#!+ and stop being such a pu$$y I'll get better... no pain, no gain... went to the gym, worked on upper body.. and caused a serious injury with shoulder. Had to nurse that back to health with lots of R.I.C.E treatment, rest etc.... nightmare.

Sometimes its a good thing to do, other times it is not. Go by your pain.. if your pain is the type that is NOT alleviated after a few minutes of getting up in the morning and moving around, assume you just need to move around..however, if after 10 minutes of getting up and moving it is still there, do not go gung ho and ignore it. It is more than likely fibro based and could be that you need to start analysing your diet, stress levels, any lack of sleep you have been exposed to ANYTHING that would cause your adrenal glands to be hyperactive (or stress levels to be elevated - anti inflammatory hormones higher etc.

Elevated adrenal hormones such as cortisol can cause weak muscles around joints, so working out in that state can cause injury...you need to get your stress levels down, and inflammation before you go working out again. Inflammation can be due to high omega 6 diet, high trans fast and homogenated fats, high sugar and refined carbs, and also gut inflammation or other food intolerance's, so always get that checked if you cannot pin point what is causing the joint problem and b y all means get estrogen checked, but also don't assume it is only low estrogen alone.

Correction:

if your pain is the type that IS alleviated after a few minutes of getting up in the morning and moving around, assume you just need to move around..however, if after 10 minutes of getting up and moving it is still there, do not go gung ho and ignore it.

Hi laidir, I can both empathise and commiserate with you. Being homozygous C282Y, I am prone to H.pylori. I was found to have 6 duodenal ulcers in my early 20s. Years later after it was discovered that ulcers are caused by HP, I asked for the test and was found +ve. The treatment, unfortunately, is massive antibiotics. A couple of years later, tested +ve again - another dose. I took probiotics to replace the good bacteria that would have been killed off too. A few years later, I could feel the symptoms again, but the test was negative. A false negative, because I continued to have those symptoms. I did not persevere because i had too much else going on as well. Now, I am suffering badly with it and hopefully I can circumvent the testing procedure and just go straight on to treatment.

At the same time, my husband was diagnosed as homozygous H63D and a few short years later, Hodgkins Lymphoma. He had chemo and radium therapy. He just could not pick up, shake the depression, fatigue and weakness. Finally his dr thought of B12 and my husband was very low, even though I was giving him B12 supps. Apparently the chemo upset the enzymes assoc with the absorption of B12 as well his blood type A made it difficult to absorb B12. The only way he can absorb B12 is by injection - it is an enzyme type. By the second weekly injection, his whole health and mood changed dramatically for the good.

It seemed strange that his ferritin iron level had also stopped increasing after treatment for Hodgkins Lymphoma. It was probably from B12 deficiency.

Now, after my husband for years had a persistent cough which had always been treated as sinus, I told dr to forget about sinus and think of another reason. Strangely the dr ordered an endoscopy. The endoscopy found that his stomach was red and inflamed, pathology tests revealed he had HP!! Googling HP and cough did reveal this was a symptom - quite different to my symptoms which were more like yours.

HP is contageous and can be transferred by kissing.

Now I have also checked on celiac disease for a couple of members of my haemochromatosis support group. It appears to be quite common among the Irish and while their celiac disease is not treated and they are bleeding from the stomach and intestines from the severe inflammation it causes, they become anemic. Then when they bring it under control, they suddenly start loading iron in their organs because they also had Haemochromotosis!

One in 80 Irish people are homozygous Haemochromatosis and also just as many have celiac disease. Quite a converse and complex problem.

I am hoping that after the treatment of HP I will not have such a fatigue and joint pain problem - let alone the terrible pain in the gut which causes me to feel full too soon, bloat up painfully, and the sharp pains of ulcers. At times I feel quite toxic despite my healthy diet because obviously, I have developed a histamine intolerance. HP prevents me from absorbing the nutrients. I have also been ingesting coconut oil, which is said to be anti bacterial, anti fungal, etc., and manuka honey. Also take calcium, magnesium and vit B12, plus others. Of course, it did not stop the progress of HP but perhaps every little bit helps. I can't get DGL in Australia. I do drink a tea that has licorice root, fennel, mint, and anise in it and I will seek out mastic gum, but quite frankly I know the only once and for all treatment (till next reinfection) are special antibiotics and I am hanging out for it.

I hope you have been tested for HP and Celiac. Good luck with your attempts to fight your symptoms.

Wow, I am so glad to have found this thread, as only today I have been to the doctor and felt I was wasting their time. I have had painful and stiff joints in my knees, hips, back and neck for nearly a year and it has begun to really worry me.

Like many on here I'm convinced I have a serious illness, and this whole concept of worrying is frightening and making me feel very low.

I am 57 years old, with two younger sisters and no one to compare symptoms like mine. I've not had many flushes, but quite a lot of night sweats. My periods have gone, albeit an occasional small spot of blood every 3- 4 months

The practice nurse sent me for hormone tests after talking at a recent smear test, and I said I had some pain around my right ovary, likening it to ovulation pains. I also explained about joint pains and tender breasts. The hormone test today has shown that I am EARLY menopause.......and I'm 57....how long does it go on!!!!

I have been worried as my youngest sister, now 50, was diagnosed with breast cancer at 36 in the year 2000, and although has been clear since, we await results next month of genetic testing for the 'brca1 & brca2' gene to see if it is hereditary as others have had related cancers in our family. She's had tests for ovarian cancer too and that wonderfully came back negative.

However I cannot help but worry as i've had these pains for ages and the doctor is now sending me for a pelvic scan. I so hope that all these pains are just menopause related, and I can either get something to help, or just learn to cope with them. Never mind 57 years, I feel 87 years some days. I cant walk as far as i ever did. My legs feel heavy and stiff. My hips ache if I stand too long and my hands/ fingers dont work sometimes.

I have wanted to cry as I I dont want to worry my sisters with my problems as they are worried enough awaiting the Brca tests.

I will keep looking on here to see if I can learn something, and any tips on herbal help.

Hello. I have had joint pain and stiffness for over a year. I even had lower back surgery and I am doing better now but the knee pain and stiffness has not gone away. I am on a diet now to loose another 15 lbs. to see if that helps but I do not think it will.

I would like to know if HRT has worked for anyone with stiffness and join pain. We all comment about HRT but no one says whether it has worked. I am anxiously waiting a response from someone please.

Thanks.

Hi Kensington,

You mention that you're on a diet, stick with it, it will help. If you can face it, try cutting out (or cutting down) sugars and grains and alcohol. I've done this and it makes a huge difference

Hi. I am 48 years old and was told when I was 47 after having a blood test, that my thyroid was normal but that that I was peri menopausal.

I have not had any night sweats YET or hot flushes. Instead I am extremely cold all the time and I am talking chilled to the bone. Also I am having palpitations.

But my main concern is the unbearable joint pains I am enduring. It started in my right arm about eight months ago. When I am bedded for the night things get much worse when I go to turn or change position. I feel that all my joints are so tight that they could break at any moment. Everything seems so heavy as if huge boulders have been attached to my body. My right arm is now useless and the exact thing is now happening to my left arm and knee joints. My neck feels as if I have whiplash injuries. Even all the little joints of my fingers are affected and my jaw bone.

My MALE doctor put me on HRT prempac C which consists of two hormones. I had attended doc previously with severe pain in my right side during ovulation. When I took the HRT for a month I was doubled in two with lower stomach pain and had to stop HRT. I was sent to the hospital twice and they found nothing abnormal with my ovaries during the scans.

Also I have had blood tests for arthritis and alls back normal and clear. I am now on hospital waiting list for rhuemotolegy for over six months. My doctor won't refer me as he said their are other patients more needy than me. I think he feels that its all in my mind and I will just have to wait.

I feel like a cripple. I have an eight year old daughter and I feel like a let down to her. I can barely hug her as she hurts me too much.

Don't know how to get out of this situation.

Hello Helen,

I have the HRT patches here at home as well as Progesterone Caps. I am waiting to finish loosing the weight so that I can isolate that the pain did not get better because I lost the weight. As soon as I get to the target weight I will start on the HRT and see if this helps. I have had all kinds of test and they come back normal.

What I do not understand is that after all the complains and stories here from women why no one has posted any kind if resolution to this pain. For how long does this pain last? Does HRT really take the pain away, this is what I am going to find out in a month or two.