Painful shoulders and arms

No, I haven’t but my Husband has after coming off statins- have you been on them? Having said that I did get aches and pains after HRT. For a Doctor to say it ‘just menopausal symptoms’ says it all really.

I havent been on statins- but another gransnetter asked me that question.
The doctor has put me back on hrt to see if it help.b
Just hoping that going back on the hrt will stop the aches and pains. Really wanted to stop them but I will try anything to stop this pain.

Have you thought of having your neck checked out? It might be nothing to do with menopause.

Check rotator cuff problems online, symptoms sound like mine were.

Funnily enough, I’ve got exactly the same problem but I’m on HRT! I know that I have arthritis in my neck but my left shoulder has suddenly become much worse and I can’t do my exercise class or swim. So, for me, lack of HRT isn’t the cause.

Like jax this sounds like something I had and I am not on hrt. I had a quick op and problem resolved.

Have you had your vitamin D levels checked? My hips and hand were so bad. Blood test showed vit D very low - amazing what a difference taking vitamin D has made. The medics recommend taking Vit D over the winter months anyway but I take it all year round.

Try gently Pilates, you will be astounded at how much it helps whatever the cause of any problems!

Hi sunnysideup! Is your problem on both sides?

You could try a Magnesium Spray on the affected areas,it may help.

Hi Lyndawads, thanks for your interest. I broke my shoulder some nine years ago and didn’t realise it until I started having problems a year or so later. I had a couple of steroid injections in it and then finally manipulation under GA and a further steroid injection. Fine for eight years and now, funnily enough following my shingles jab, my left shoulder is so very painful again. The right one is also tender but not as bad. I’m a very achy, full of pain type person so usually just try to get on with things but I think will have to go see ‘someone’ about it soon. Thanks again for your interest and sorry to encroach on original post.

Hi sunnysideup thanks for reply.
As Bette Davis said "getting old is not for sissies!"
I am an achy all over person too!! Its hard to get any help at the moment- my GP only does phone consultations at the moment so quite hard to show how your range of motion has diminished due to pain via telephone haha!

Avitorl- ive never heard magnesium spray- is it prescription only?

Magnesium spray can be bought in health shops etc It helps with sore muscles ,aches and pains. I hope it helps if you do try it.

It is very drying so best to use it with some oil. You can also have a bath with Epsom salts. I have a very sore shoulder at the moment after doing work in a shed that involved vacuuming the walls and roof. The thing that helped was good old paracetamol, something I haven’t really used since I stopped having migraines. I’m trying not to take anything temperature lowering because of Covid but did take paracetamol for a day or so and was totally pain free. I also swear by voltarol gel. And turmeric.Never had a bad shoulder before so it was a bit of a shock and found doing simple things like putting on a cardigan very painful.

midgey

Try gently Pilates, you will be astounded at how much it helps whatever the cause of any problems!

I agree! For nearly two years I’ve attended a class which is run under the Move It or Lose It scheme. It partly seated Pilates and partly easy dance routines. During lockdown the teacher sent online videos for us to work with. Only recently, I’ve realised how much it has eased my aching arms and enabled be to raise my arms high above my head without difficulty. I would thoroughly recommend such a class, if you can find one locally.

Years ago a neighbour had problems lifting her arms and she was put on steroids. Of course it’s impossible to see a doctor these days about most things.

I had years of shoulder problems around menopause time.

So bad I could barely get dressed, only sleeping 2 or 3 hours at a time. Xray apparently showed calcific tendonitis (I wasn't allowed to see it, despite being a retired medic). Doctor suggested surgery which was known to make things worse 25% of the time, and when I refused the operation on those grounds any further help dried up. I went through everything that others have suggested - magnesium, Vitamin D, numerous other supplements, physio, acupuncture, etc.

One day I stumbled across an American article describing a link between severe frozen shoulder in menopausal women and deeply-buried emotional trauma from childhood. Sounds "woo - hoo" if you are not open to that sort of thing, the premise was that trauma was "held" in deep muscles such as glutes, psoas.

Woo hoo or not, it struck a huge chord with me. I started doing a lot of yoga stretches to work on those deep muscles and in a rather "as if by magic" way, by working on my lower trunk and pelvis, the shoulder eased up.

Once I was getting enough sleep to function, I started dealing with the realisation that I had not just had an "unhappy" childhood, but that it had been extremely abusive. One of those "But we took you to country houses" experiences . . .

Long story short, cannot remember the last time my shoulder gave me any trouble . . .

Sounds like fatigue. Try some folic acid tablets. Worked for me?

and vit D

Thank you all for your replies. I will try the magnesium spray. I have a pilates DVD that I will dig out and try that again!!!
Maybiteifstartled- i too had a pretty traumatic childhood- abandoned by mum age 4! So who knows!!! Im open to anything.
The pain has been going on since May and came from nowhere in both shoulders and arms- its so difficult to get my point across to doctor how debilitating it is and just feel as though I am being fobbed off all the time.

Lyndawads I’ve just returned to this thread, I was referred to physio for rotator cuff, originally in left arm which helped a lot, then right arm went! I also used voltarol and it’s mostly gone now, right arm occasionally twinges. But, I’ve been able to wash hair with no problems and reach to undo bra, both issues before. Best of luck ??

My hairdresser had this, really difficult in her profession! It turned out she was really anaemic. Might be worth getting your iron levels checked.

Just to throw my experience into the mix. My bones ached for years especially my neck and shoulders. It turned out that I had a growth on my parathyroid. This affected calcium levels which was the cause of bone ache. It took 15 years to diagnose this however. I would suggest a full blood screening and make sure you check if any of the results are close to the edges of the range and if so ask questions.