Hi, Tedi,
I am truly sorry you are experiencing the burning and tingling. I went through a period when the burning in my forearms was terrible and it always came on during the night and was the warning that I was going into an episode of hyperventilation. I visited the emergency room on a couple of occasions and did have a thyroiditis along the way. Looking back, I recognize that the tingling was the first indication that my long menopausal years were beginning. I would awaken in the morning with a slight tingling in my chest and it would disappear almost as quickly as it appeared. My doctor attributed the tingling and burning to anxiety and I accepted his diagnosis and used nondrug methods to deal with it, eventually contacting the best anxiety expert I could find for an evaluation. Guess what! He said he could find no indication that I was suffering from anxiety or depression and that if all his patients were like me, he would be out of business. I do not suffer from the burning anymore and had only slight tingling when I would go back to estrogen after being off when I was trying to stop using it. It is possible that hyperventilation caused the tingling. My conclusion is that all of it is attributable to menopause. I never had the usual hot flashes and I think the burning arms possibly were my version of those because the burning came in waves. In fact, menopause seems to have only effected me neurologically. My daughter who is now 37 has started to have the chest tingling and I feel concern because she is yet so young. Her Dr. told her that the stress of her job was messing up her hormones. She also felt depressed before her period. He is giving her a short round of Lexapro and it is working great. She has her old zest back and is enjoying her two young children. In the meantime, she left that stressful job.My heart goes out to you because I can remember thinking that I was not going to make it during the time I had those symptoms. My life was also up in the air during those years as well. The greatest losses I have experienced came then. Now, I have a satisfying personal life but like everyone else, I am effected by the problems in our nation and the world because I have family and friends in the "hot" spots. I do not have any advice because I cannot be sure where my symptoms came from. The only thing I can tell you is that I have been there and now, I am here and from all indications, I am one of the healthiest postmenopausal women around. One more thing, I did aerobics almost daily through all that and exercise seems to help. I had to force myself to do it but I always felt better afterwards. Because I play with a jazz band, I often do not have the time to check my email or these boards. However, I will try and would prefer to communicate this way because that very communication might help other women.