joint and muscle pain

Submitted by louiseds on April 15, 2008 - 1:20am
Body: 

Hi fellow-women
I am still menstruating @ 55, so getting closer to menopause by the day, but not holding my breath.
I have had a really sore body for several weeks now, starting a week or so before the last period, but it has not let up. During that time almost all our family have experienced some sort of mysterious wog that produced a variety of odd symptoms. It may have come at the same time as a cold, as it had a respiratory component.

I got a slightly sore throat, and periods of extreme tiredness that called for unexpected Nana naps, and this body soreness, which comes and goes by the day. The sore thrat and the need for Nana naps have long gone. I have a particularly sore right wrist (I am left-handed), which did not recover from some brick handling a couple of weeks back. The rest of the body got over it, except for the lingering body pain. Today, I have my sore wrist in one of those immobilisation wrist band things today, just to stop it wobbling around. Get it in the wrong position and I get violent stabbing pain in it. So far so good.

The whole body pain was horrible the day before yesterday, yesterday was OK, but I am sore all over again today, without doing anything out of the ordinary yesterday.

My theory is that this wog hit me at the same time as being premenstrual, during perimenopause. I have always had worse body pain during the runup to a period, and have been prone to injury, but it usually is better once my period has been and gone. I figure that I have been spared the hot flushes of menopause, and copped the sore body instead!

Has anybody else experienced body pain during menopause?
Did you find there was anything that helped? Black cohosh perhaps?
Did it go away again all by itself (if I can hang in there)?

The pain is probably manageable. I can just be careful what I do and how I do it. The bricks are done now.

Cheers

Louise

Clonmacnoise

April 15, 2008 - 8:25pm

Louise,

Part of crazypause is feeling like your whole skeleton has been bashed by a truck. For years I would wake up in the AM so stiff and sore, I had trouble getting out of bed. Every joint felt as if I had been in a car wreck the day before. Then, slowly, it faded. I was never certain what exactly this was, but it hurt like hell. Only lasted about five years. Yoga helps.

Judy

louiseds

April 15, 2008 - 9:10pm

Hi Judy

I had a little private bet with myself that you would respond to this. It is so nice to know that other women have woken up feeling like they had been hit by a truck, day after day! ;-)

Thanks for the good news, Judy.

Actually, in spite of the fact that it hurts, it is comforting to know that it is probably just menopause, and that it will go away. I have so many scans and x-rays to try and find out what it is, and still they won't prescribe anything to help me deal with the pain. Ho-hum.

I have come to the conclusion over the years that muscle spasm is the way my body reacts to things. Somewhere along the line I discovered that Ponstan (mefenamic acid, a prostaglandin inhibitor), which is used for bad uterine cramps, was effective for reducing muscle pain as well, so I took a couple of caps yesterday, just 'for fun'. It worked alright, but in the early hours of the morning I woke up and very restless, then got very hot. I figured that the menopause monster was stirring, and that I would probably be in for more pain and hot wakefulness before it got better. Then I got on the Net this morning and found out that Ponstan worsens hot flashes, so that explained that little glitch. No more Ponstan today! Hope I sleep better tonight.

I think I will just go and do something physical to loosen myself up. By evening I am usually OK. It is the turning over during the night and the getting out of bed in the morning that are the challenges.

While googling I came across all sorts of info about prostaglandins and prostaglandin inhibitors. The biochemistry of prostaglandins is mind-boggling, and the many ways in which you can stuff up your body by playing around with them is equally so.

Back to the drawing board.

Louise

Christine

April 15, 2008 - 9:30pm

Hi Louise and Judy,

Sorry to hear you’re having these symptoms, Louise. And I find it so interesting how Judy describes her symptoms of menopause – just as it’s talked about in the medical lit but from a personal perspective. I’m still trying to pull my thoughts together around this and also gmom’s mil issues. Not that I have anything earthshaking to share – I mean, what’s being discovered by science right now is certainly earthshaking – but I’m still running around with my arms outstretched trying to catch all the puzzle pieces falling from the sky.

For instance, did you know every cell in our body is constantly oscillating and keeping perfect time to the earth’s 24 hour rotation? And that the master timekeeper in our brain signals the release of ALL our hormones? And that both men AND women have androgen (NOT estrogen) receptors inside this master brain clock? I find this simply stunning and have no doubt that manipulating the clockworks will be the major way most chronic disease will be treated in the future. Particularly for women in menopause – testosterone not only supports the vulva and nipples, but also all the ligaments in the body! DRINK NETTLE TEA – the reason it helps so much is because it dislodges testosterone, of which many of us at this age have precious little, from its protein carrier so it can latch onto receptors at its intended sites.

Anyway…need to keep reading…

Love you! C.

Clonmacnoise

April 16, 2008 - 6:03am

Christine and Louise,

Thanks, I'm feeling a little more "ballsy" recently.

One of the depressing things about menopause is the "defeat" element. You wake up aching, but that comes around after a time. Then you start thinking about all things that could go wrong with the day when you used to think about all the things that could go right, and that brings you down. And then you remember that nature is telling you your time is limited, and will continue to be limited with a body that works sometimes, and other times...

When you look at the self portraits of the great artists like Rembrandt, you can see age in his face go from bold to scared. That's what crazypause is supposed to do. I think that's what the change is all about - changing fearless to fearful.

I told the idiot doctor about my aches and he just thought I was crazy because it wasn't on page 52 of his medical text book, and listening and trying to figure it out took time he wasn't getting paid for, so shrug. I know now that it was a manifestation of some kind of physical loss. Not sure what, but something was no longer there to give me the kind of light weight bounce I had always had.

I don't like to think I'm a hormonal composite. I like to think I'm a balanced life dancer and sometimes the balance is off. Replacing some of the balance with hormones was a disaster - like shooting finches with a cannon. Replacing whatever with nettles, dandelion and red clover is a delicious delight. When I add peppermint, it is even better.

I've been reading this tea book my daughter bought me for my birthday, and it's full of herbal fixes. So far the herbs have been extremely helpful. I wish I had known about this years ago.

For Louise, I would try a strong ginger tea - a whole teaspoon of ginger and see what happens to your "sticky bones."

Affections,

Judy

alemama

April 18, 2008 - 11:13pm

can't say enough about it. It really helps with body aches. Also if I were you I would ice that wrist and then heat it- everyday. Sounds like it might be inflamed. Hope you feel better soon. oh ya and one more thing- I would take a bunch of vitamin C too- for a week or so- and just see.....

louiseds

April 19, 2008 - 12:44am

Thanks ladies for your suggestions. I really don't know about magnesium. My diet is already pretty strong on magnesium. I know that overdoing magnesium can throw other minerals out of balance. That would be all I would need. Might stick to just looking after it and doing the hot/cold thing, using my brace and not doing too much repetitive stuff with it for a while. The stupid thing is that I am left-handed!

It makes me feel old. Grrr!

Cheers

Louise