Perimenopause and SEVERE joint pain - any one else??

I am going through the same thing. This is so great for me to find out it might be hormone related. I have had blood tests for rhemetoid arthritis, lyme's disease and Lupis. The results were negative for these, thank god. I have pelvic organ prolapse and thought this might be the reason for my body pain but that really doesn't make sense except for the lower back aches. Then i thought maybe it is my mattress making me ache! I will talk to my GP about this and hrt. Thanks!

Hi. Hopefully, in sharing my journey, it will help someone.  I'm 53 and have been really healthy until about a year and a half ago.  First the clicking started.  My hips would click every time I moved.  It was so noisy, it was embarrassing. Gradually it spread to my wrists, my knees.  Next my right foot would tingle. My left shoulder ached constantly.  Varying aches and pains in my arms, joints, legs, you name it. Sometimes in my toes.  Constant neck pain.  And the muscle spasms.  My back would spasm so bad I couldn't walk for days. So I started with the doctors - the general practitioner who did blood work.  My enzymes were through the roof.  AST 957/ALT 1194. They thought I was a raging alcoholic and that my liver was damaged and wondered how I was still walking.  Had an ultrasound, nothing wrong there.  Figured it was muscle enzymes and they were "leaking." I was told to stop exercising.  What?? Working out caused the levels to rise further so my numbers were always outrageous!  So I was referred to a rheumatogist.  They ran more tests. MRIs on my arms, xrays of my neck and back, nerve specialist.  Nothing.  No lyme, no arthritis, no fibromyalgia. So the prednisone and plaquenil started to get the enzymes under control.  After 8 months of plaquenil and prednisone, the blood work looked better but I still felt like garbage.  (At one point, they put me on Azathioprine (Imuran) which was awful.  My muscle spasms got worse and I couldn't walk for over a week. Watch if you are prescribed this stuff.  It can be bad!)  Still tired, weak muscles, painful walking, standing.  I thought I'd have to go on disability because I have a desk job and I couldn't sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time. My rheumatologist diagnosed my condition as Myositis (which I had never heard of), and which presents as muscle infllammation among other things.  All last year, I thought I had Myositis and was resigned to a lifetime of watching everything I consumed for fear of flare ups. Do I go gluten-free, paleo diet?  On and on.  I visited three chiropractors. Each one had a different method and the one that helped the most was the one who told me which vitamins and supplements to take. In all honesty, those haven't helped me to feel better but they opened my eyes to alternatives.  A few months ago, I wanted to get off the meds because they just weren't helping so I was finally weaned off the prednisone.  At my last rheumy visit, I was informed that my blood work was normal and that my myositis was gone!  Surprise to me!  I still felt the same and I was told myositis was incurable. Huh??  You must have arthritis!! I almost yelled at the poor doctor.  I felt bad and kept apologizing to the poor girl. Last year I didn't have arthritis, now I do because you don't know what it going on?   I started taking Move Free Ultra (a variation of the Glucosamine / Chondroitin supplements they sell). I've been on that for 5 weeks. I joined a gym.  I started going 3 to 4 days a week.  Then I woke up with a muscle spasm and couldn't walk for 2 days. DIdn't do anything but sleep!  So I started researching again.  I came across this post (and I'm SO glad I did) and I thought it could all be estrogen related. I might be magnesium deficient because of the muscle spasms and nerve tingling. Everywhere I turned, magnesium was being discussed. So I started a calcium/magnesium supplement.  The calcium I was originally taking didn't contain any magnesium so it seemed as if it was actually depleting whatever little magnesium I had.  I purchased Magnesium Lotion.  Next I turned to the possibility that I am simply going through perimenopause.  My cycles are out of control.  No hot flashes or night sweats or anything typical but cycles are as close as 2 weeks apart some months. So I researched wild yam.  I started on Mexican Wild Yam about 2 weeks ago. I am feeling SO much better. I am not fighting sleep on my way home from work any longer.  The clicking is gone! My neck pain is about 60% better and the joint pain is at least 80% better. The left shoulder pain is still there but my range of motion has improved. By the way, I emailed my rheumatologist and asked her to add the magnesium test to my next round of scheduled blood work and it came back as 1.7 (normal is 1.6-2.6). That's 2 weeks after I began the magnesium so I don't know what it was before!   For the record, I take Centrum Silver 50+, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12 and Iron (because I'm anemic when I don't) as well.  I need all those vitamins and my blood work reflects that but the only actual changes I have felt -- and they are major -- started 2 weeks after I started the Wild Yam and Magnesium.  I'm going to see a new gynecologist to have a chat about menopause in 2 weeks (my usual gyn is having a baby and home on bed rest (ugh!)) but I am hopeful that the Wild Yam works and I won't have to do estrogen testing since from what I've read, it  seems to be so random and unreliable unless you get lucky with the right doctor.  I'm optomistic and really hope to be able to exercise without restraint again and wake up without worrying about what will hurt today.

Hi, I know aching knees are so hard to deal with.  You have to wonder if any of it can be relieved naturally. I'm taking Mexican Wild Yams 2 tablets daily-500 mg each.  I'm in the US but the ingredients are simply Wild Yam(MEXICAN)(Dioscorea Villosa)(Root).   Have you had your magnesium level checked? So many aches are related to that deficiency.  When my joints ache, I rub some magnesium lotion on and it really makes a difference. 

I have a lot of the same symptoms that you spoke of. Including the bad taste in my mouth. I was told four years ago that I have Arthritis in knees and I was 33 then now at 37 I feel like it's in my whole body. Also I have noticed that my left arm can't handle holding on to the steering wheel of my suv. It feels like it will just give out at anytime. My mom was done with menopause at the age of 40. I do believe I am following in her foot steps. Thank you for sharing.

Lesley, wow, I know you posted this a year ago and I am going through the same thing its HORRIBLE. My joints hurt all the time the swelling the knotty shoulders, its bad, I too am in terrible fear I have a terrible condition, it all started a year ago and guess what thats when I had blood test showing I was in full blown peri. I am about 98 percent sure thats what this is all about, but I have a dr. app with a rhumatoligist on the 31st Suffering in the USA in Illinois. LOL

Lesley!

Yes me, I am just starting with these symptoms.

I,m in lots of pain everyday, through the night, in the morning.

My arms neck back hip feet, you name it, feel like I,m in the gym everyday.

Nit been to the docs with this yet.

I had a cyst in my right breast about a month or 2 ago, which was a relief but after that I got this onset of body pain

Starting on my right side, foot hip, shoulder, podiatrist said I,m shorter on the right leg, doc says not related to eachother.

It,s got gradually more painful and spreading.

Yours is the first thread I,ve found.

Thought I might have Lupus.

Now I know it,s qll part of the menopause.

I will nip and see the doctor though.

So you have an allie regretfully :-)

Lesley998

I just found this site and I am you. Please have you found relief and if so what have you done.

Lesley, I am 49 but will be 50 in a couple of months.  I can identify with what you are experiencing. My cycle has always been regular like clockwork and still is. However, I am noticing some changes in my body, clockwork nightly sweats and hotflashes. Really, I know exactly what time it is each night when the sweats hit...3:00 a.m. This year, 2015, I signed up for a bootcamp to help lose weight before I turn 50. I began experiencing serious leg pain which I was told by one of the trainers from an area hospital that it was probably nerve pain. It moved to various areas on the right leg and foot. On March 26, the day of our 5k run, the left knee began to swell and bacame painful. I suffered for a month before I finally realized that I needed some professional help. I had an MRI to see what the root cause was. I had no arthritis but some inflamation. This was a sports med doctor and he put me on low impact excercise to help recover strength in my knee. When I stand I have to work the knee back and forth before I can put weight on it. But once I get to moving, its better - still painful, but better.

     More recently, I woke up with a sore and stiff left wrist. This was so painful! In fact it was so excruciating that I had to leave work to see a doctor. He checked my uric acid levels to check for gout. My levels came back within the normal range, 5.9.

     This entire year, each morning I have woken up stiff and sore! I have not been told that I am perimenapausal...but at this age I suspect that I am. However, last year during my yearly, my obgyn told me that my estrogen levels were decreasing. Your symptoms are almost identical to what I experience. I am so glad that you shared your experience with the rest of us silently suffering women. Now, I can ask my physician the RIGHT questions!