Has anyone ever felt they might have ms because of perimenopausal symptoms ?

I know that MS is a very hard disease to diagnose, basically it is a process of elimination. However, MS is a HIGH RISK diagnosis if you have health insurance in the USA. Since MS is a progressive neurological disorder, there is a good chance that you may be forced to take an early retirement if you are near 60, or if you are younger, you will have to leave work on Disability. If you don't work, and are on you husband's insurance, you get nothing as far as disability, obviously.

This being said, you need to think very carefully about getting a diagnosis of MS. Before you even think of seeing a doctor to ask for MS testing, you better get your financial house in order immediately. Make sure that you have adequate Health, Disability and Life Insurance of your own, prior to turning up for any examinations or tests. Once a health professional diagnoses you with MS, he/she needs to legally inform your medical insurance company. If you do not have adequate coverage BEFORE the diagnosis is made, and you need to collect medical disability, well, you will be out of luck! Once the diagnosis is made it's too late.

This is also true for other progressive neurological disorders, and most treatments for rare types of cancer, too. IInsurance coverage will max out, and most good treatments are extremely expensive. Some treatments and drugs are not covered by insurance for MS. Insurance in the USA is a big joke. It's only good if you are well and healthy.

So please, if you suspect you have MS, do your legal and financial homework.

Disregard the above warning if you are independantly wealthy, or do not need to work for a source of income.

Yes, at one point I did think I had MS. It was mostly the tingling sensations in my feet, the electrical zaps, and weird sensations throughout my body like chills. I went to my doctore for them, and she did blood work which came back OK. She did not think I needed any further testing given my symptoms. I started taking a b-complex and omega vitamin and do not have these symptoms most of the time. I really think mine were anxiety related.

I have never really heard many of my friends talk about perimenopause, but I do know that 2 of them were suspected to have MS at about that time in their lives - neither of them did/does, I just say that to let you know that I think it is somewhat common. I think it's the googling of the tingling and weird sensations that bring it up as a possibility.

If you read some of the posts regarding any tingling or muscle twitching symptoms you will find we all suspected we had MS, it seems to be the favoured first self diagnosis we come up with in our time of intense fear. It is just one of the many diseases I have had and have on my long list of things that can be wrong with me depending on the day and what symptoms I'm having on that particular day. In fact yesterday in our small town there were high school kids out collecting money for MS so of course my mind went back to my MS fears. And by the way my doctor has indeed reassured me that I DO NOT have MS. It just seems to be the way our minds work during peri, I was never this fearful before this all hit me 3 yrs ago, never had health anxiety. Most days I feel so pathetic but can't do much to get myself out of this mindset.

Rox

My husband has MS. Yes, it is very very expensive to treat. It is also hard to diagnose. It really can't be diagnosed until after the 2nd attack so they can compare the MRI's and lesions. They also do a spinal tap to confirm the diagnosis. MS is not very common but I seem to run into quite a few people who have it. A person needs to have really good insurance in order to afford the meds. The meds run about (well, let me say that I could pay cash for a brand new car for the cost of his meds in 4 months time) but that's before insurance so a person definitely needs to have good coverage for a diagnosis of MS. Armadillo, sounds like you are quite familiar with the woes of trying to afford costly meds for this disease. I am afraid I will have to work til I get SS just for the health insurance.

LLW

I had a mri for MS, the tremors and numbness I feel at times seems more serious then just peri. Plus the fatigue, plus I have a lot of body aches!

My mri showed some lesions but my doctor said everyone has them as we age. I think to appease me he wanted to order a spinal tap but I said no.

cari1 what symptoms are you having? Could you have fibromyalgia. Getting diagnose with fibro gave me no relief. It’s such a verge disorder and not taken serious. I think mostly because there’s no clear treatment and patients are sensitive to medications.

Hi Thank you for replying, I am now starting to wonder if it is just related to anxiety or a neck problem[Ido see a chiro]Ihave had weakness and muscle pain in both arms ,shoulders and mid back my chiro said it is probably nothing to be concerned about because he did a little neuro exam and everything seemed fine, I have noticed that this muscle pain seemed to start after taking xanax at night for about 6 months Iam now wondering if this could be related to xanax withdrawal, any thoughts on this?

Cari1 from what I read in the 'Linden Method Manual' it can very well be related to xanax withdrawal. I am currently weaning off an old tricyclic anti depressent and I'm having a resurgance of some anxiety symptoms which I am sure is related to the taper. Also many of us still have symptoms of anxiety in the form of muscle tension etc even when we don't think we are particularly anxious, especially in the upper back neck and shoulder region. I have always had neck, shoulder and upper back tension as I am a hairstylist so this is an occupational hazzard for me but most of my muscle tension that bothers me now is in my lower body namely hips, thighs, lower legs and feet. This area of muscle tension really bothers me as it is new to me and came about when peri hit so of course it has freaked me out. I have always had a little bit of lower back problems from time to time so I suppose it is just this amplified now that I am having hormone fluctuations.

Rox