Thank heavens I came across this thread otherwise I would still be suffering!!!! I am 53 and postmenopause.
While I was in my 20's HRT was hailed as life changing and there was loads of positive press about how it kept women going, what a breakthrough it was, and how it kept women young. At the time I thought that's for me and I'm going on HRT without doubt.
Then about 10-15 years ago HRT hit the press again, this time with loads of bad press and I read articles saying HRT was no magical cure and blew up all the negatives about taking it. Having weighed up all the bad press, I then decided to go down the natural route and the way nature intended. After all, with the wealth of data collected over the years these articles must be right.
I knew menopausal symptoms were hot flushes, disturbed sleep, loss of sex drive, vaginal dryness, burning soles of feet and for me some hair loss. But I honestly never knew about the aches and pains and fatigue!!!!!
I have coped very well for the last 10+ years. I have been lucky as I never have more than one or two hot flushes in any one day, and being as I don't sweat very much, it's not been a problem. Disturbed sleep I've lived with for years, worse at times than others, and for me centered around having to go to the bathroom with an urgency to empy my bladder, originally perhaps once a night to more recently having to get up perhap two to three times and regardless of how much I drink during the previous day.
I also have suffered with the soles of my feet burning for years and the onset of hairloss once I entered perimenopause.
During my perimenopause I also experienced being woken up with what I can only describe as a panic attack, heart racing and a feeling of doom that would pass within a minute or two of waking up. I would sit bold upright in bed feeling like the world had ended. Thankfully again, I could pin this down to fluctuating hormones, as the attack would always be in the week before my period was due. So I put it down to PMT, and all in all thankfully, I don't think it happened more than 5 or 6 times, as it was the most horrible feeling.
It's been two years now since my last period and my real decline has been in about the last three to six months. The first thing that crept up slowly was feeling exhausted most of the time. I have a full time job and it's been about all I can do to drag myself to work every day. At home I have had to let things slip as I never feel as if I have enough time to recover. Everything just seemed to be taking 10 times longer to do that before.
Well that's a bit about my background and I now get on to the aches and pains. OMG!!!!!
I have been an active person for the last 10-12 years and go to the gym between 3-4 times a week doing circuit training a lot of the time. Then just before Christmas I had to stop a circuit half way through as I just couldn't continue. My knees were aching, my back was killing me and I was exhausted and just felt as if my body was ancient and falling apart. I felt devastated.
I am a shopaholic and like nothing better than trailing round the shops, but even this has been too much for me in the last few months. Painful walking, lower back mainly, on right side and wrapping around and down the right hip. This would go into spasm at times as well. Aches and pains and burning in soles of my feet make all my shoes uncomfortable if walking about for more than 20 minutes (I was running upto 2-5 miles 2-3 times a week about 3 years ago!!!) Coupled with aches and pains in my elbows and right shoulder made me feel 90. I felt my life was over to be honest over Christmas. I could have cried when I found I could not get up off the floor after wrapping Christmas presents and had to get my husband to help me stand up.
Then I came across this thread by accident and realised that the pain I was in could be due to the menopause. It was a relief to find that I was not alone. I made a long overdue appointment with my doctor explaining all my symptoms and following a number of blood tests to make sure that there was no inflamatory illnesses present and other checks, I went on HRT.
That was just 5 days ago and............ OMG!!!!
I could feel changes start to happen within about an hour or two of taking the first tablet. I realised I stood straight up to the lock without pain. Within 20 hours the awful pain I had in my lower back, across the pelvis and hip along with my shoulder had all but disappeared. Five days on and I realise I have spent the last year shuffling about instead of walking properly as the pain in my lower back must have prevented me swinging my right pelvis/hip forward. My head is clearer and I feel alive, awake and for the first time in months and months, as if I have some energy.
It's been a life changing experience for me and I wanted to share my experience and offer some hope to others out there.
.
Author
Topic: Tell us how you cope with joint aches (Read 714840 times)