Menopause and Perimenopause

Menopause symptoms can make you feel much
older than your years, especially when you
experience these common symptoms:
Joint pain — generalized joint pain and muscle
soreness can make you feel achy and “creaky.”
Hot flashes — flushes of heat or night sweats
put you on a temperature roller coaster and
turn you into a dripping puddle.
Menopause-related weight gain, especially
around the belly — for many women, this feels
like the most aging symptom of all.
For many women, nothing feels the same
during perimenopause and menopause, least of
all their bodies. But you can get your body back
while you ease joint pain, tamp down hot
flashes and stop gaining excess weight. By
resolving these symptoms at their hormonal
source, you can feel better — and younger.
How menopause can lead to joint pain, hot
flashes and weight gain
Levels of sex hormones, particularly estrogen,
become erratic, jumping up and down in
perimenopause. Since you have estrogen
receptors throughout your body — including
your muscles — these wild fluctuations can be
felt almost anywhere as symptoms, according
to Nanette Santoro, MD, professor of obstetrics
and gynecology at the University of Colorado
Denver.
A good example is joint pain — more than half
of all women suffer from it during their
menopause transition. Researchers have found
that this joint pain, sometimes called
menopausal arthralgia, is probably related to
declines in estrogen. Estrogen protects against
inflammation in the joints and even influences
women’s pain threshold.
This makes sense, since the same aches and
pains occur both when estrogen production is
suppressed and when hormone therapy is
stopped. From stiff shoulders to achy hips,
knees and hands, arthralgia and stiffness can
seriously affect your quality of life and make
you feel much older than you are.