Perimenopause and SEVERE joint pain - any one else??

Helen16248.

You could be describing me two years a go. I was EXACTLY the same as you. Same pain in arm, developed into a frozen shoulder. All other tendons were agony. i was terrified.

It will pass...it takes a while but it IS related to menopause, please try not to worry.

Hi Lesley,

I seem to have touched a sore point with you. I did refer back to my books on menopause written by drs who have made menopause their speciality and there was no mention of joint pain let alone frozen shoulder. There was reference to fibromyalgia, and fibromyalgia is a symptom of Haemochromatosis, and it may never pass, it could just get worse and worse without treatment.

I had asked others who had been through/going through menopause if they suffered joint pain and they said no. I suffered severe joint and muscle pain for years after an early hysterectomy even though I was taking HRT, and it turned out to be undiagnosed Haemochromatosis. Iron was loading up in my joints and muscles because I had stopped menstruating. You are living in the land of a high prevalence of Haemocromatosis.

Ask your dr to tell you what is really causing it then if ALL blood tests say you are ok? Usually drs don't do ALL blood tests. Do you know what your Iron Studies levels are, what levels your pituitary gland hormone s are, what your C-Reactive protein is? Push and search or you may be sorry later.

I have not seen your factual information - are you a dr? You do not say so. I could drown you in factual information but it would be boring. Please don't attack people who are responding to these posts, as it will put others off from responding.

oh dear......all i know is....i have had and still do have lots of joint pain...havent had a period now for nearly a year,,,i feel better now than two year ago...i went on anti_ds and couldnt work...much better now though...didnt realise how bad i was...lets be kind to eachother x

Hi Sheryl

Just wondering if you are indeed a doctor!

I am not a doctor or in any way involved in the medical profession. I am a normal working class mother who is going through the menopause

But I can tell you this Sheryl. I have spoken with dozens of women including my own mother who have either been through or are going through the men/peri and have had/having the same joint pain as described.

I do not think it would take an Einstein to work out the fact that the pain must be related to peri/meno!

Good on you or any other women who has went through without having to put up with this nightmare. But please understand the way we are feeling...

Well said Helen! x

Sheryl. You have not 'touched a sore point'.... you have just annoyed me. If you could indeed 'drown' me in factual information, please provide links and back up instead of just making statements about joint pain not being a part of menopause. I don't care how many menopause books you have read, or can quote, how many people you know ho did not suffer joint pain in menopause. The FACT remains that hundreds of women suffer from joint pain as a part of menopause linked to sudden estrogen depletion. Tell that to your menopause specialist doctors.

As the OP of this thread, I did state right at the start that I am not a doctor.

Reading the threads of this discussion since it began, from what I can tell, it pretty much says that the majority of women that have posted on here have suffered or are suffering from joint pain in some shape or form due to the impact of the menopause or 'The Change'. I include myself in that by the way. My mother also suffered badly with joint pain during the menopause.

I think the point of this highly successful discussion forum is to allow ladies to share information that is difficult for medical practitioners to label so that they can help themselves. It has greatly helped me and others seem to be terribly pleased they found this discussion too. I am coming out of the menopause slowly now and my joint pain is starting to diminish and my energy levels are coming back.

This discussion helped me to appreciate what was 'wrong' with me and helped me to manage it better.

Thank you ladies to all those who have done what doctors could not do.

I did indeed suffer severe joint pain as per previous posts and my dr insisted it was 'just' menopause. 9 years later I discovered it was not. Yes, it is from estrogen depletion and therefore lack of menstruation, but that is not the end of the story.

I counsel people with the same problems. As I am an official coordinator of a support group, I consult personally with drs and specialists for their perspective and knowledge to take back to the group.

The nature of these posts attracts those people with the same problems, but instead of insisting that their problem is normal because so many are posting about it, we should be opening our minds to other answers.

If I have interested someone in seeking help for other causes of their pain (as an outcome of estrogen depletion and loss of menstruation, which is the key factor in this symptom) then it has been worthwhile. We do not have to suffer menopause symptoms that our mothers' did because knowledge was so low then, and it was expected that they had to put up with it then.

But often we have to push our drs for other tests, as there is still the ingrained attitude, that we have to just put up with it, like our mothers' did. May be there is comfort in that for some, but not for me and not for many others whose health was destroyed by so-called normal menopause symptoms.

We can agree to think differently rather than 'scrap' about it, so I will leave you to it.

to say that I am relieved to have found this thread is an understatement, the first post in the thread could have been written by me to the letter..

Briefly, I am 53, had my last period last October which has coincided with the most awful painful elbows, knees and bottom of left thumb joint.. have tried different physic/massages and nothing has cured it. My doctor put me on Vitamin D3, which I have taken for six weeks with no improvement in my aches and pains.

Last week I was in floods of tears as it was so painful to get myself up the stairs at the library because there was only one handrail and I hadn't realised that at home I had been kind of supporting myself with both bannisters to get up and down the stairs. This event prompted me to go to the docs again..

I have had every blood test appropriate for my symptoms, latest one was one for muscle damage - everything has come back clear and in good order.

I have been a keen exerciser for many years and have lost 5+ stone in the last decade, I love being active and now that has pretty much been taken away from me I feel sooooooooo low and depressed, my hormones are all over the place, even cried at an advert the other day :-( feel like I am going crazy, paranoid, worrying about myself and everyone else - I said to the doc this morning that my mind needs a rest, there is no let up at the moment for me.

His latest route he wants to go down is HRT, I do suffer with atrial fibrillation at times and I also have an under active thyroid for the last 20 years, just about manageable with thyroxine. He is consulting other colleagues about HRT for me, it would be on a trial basis to see if it makes any difference to my symptoms, if it does I will stay on it, if not I will stop.

This thread has to be the most reassuring I have come across that I am not alone in this awful symptom, I thank you for that and look forward to conversing with you and sharing how I get on and if anything works.. meanwhile I am going to research Macca Root.

Thanks ladies.

Hello Everyone.

Besides this horrible joint pains has anyone been suffering from male pattern baldness?

I swear I am starting to resemble my husband more and more each day ... and that is no joke!

Also I am feeling more aggressive and stubborn than usual ...

Anyone else?

Hi

I read this with much interest. I am amazed at how many doctors are putting women on HRT. It's proven to be bad for you, along with birth control (in all forms).

I use Vitex (chasteberry) and Maca (a Peruvian vegetable) to help me with my perimenopause. These are all natural with no side effects. I do have occassional aches and pains but nothing compared to when I am not using them. I also take MenoSleep tablets at night that have chinese herbs to relax me and stop night sweats.

After living a nightmare with the Mirena IUD and having silicone poisoning from it, I will never again have artificial man made sinthetic hormones.

Good luck ladies, but natural is the way to go.

Hi. I keep hearing about Maca. A bit scared to try it in case it affects medication I'm on or complicates things further. I'm very interested in the natural solutions though.