Hi, I am so surprised at all the posts and with all the different conditions that are attritubed to meno!!!! I am not sure if I am in full blown meno or not, since havent bled with my period for 5 years, due to an endo-ablation to contro adenomyosis. But i have started hot flashes that come with a vengence, every hour or so, and then leave for a few mths. and then back again......

What worries me, is about 6 weeks ago, i started having a tingling in my feet, and then in the palms of my hands, and now it is almost constant and sometimes will spread up my legs and arms......... and these hot flushes that will come over me in waves, and fatigue. My feet and hands will feel tight and hot, as if they are flushing as well, and now my joints in my fingers will hurt and ache. In fact its hurting like crazy even to type.... Does aching go with meno???? I have no thyroid due to pre-cancerous nodules and have fought with those hormones for 13 years, and thought my body aches and tingling was due to low thyroid. Sleeping thru the night is a thing of the past! I always bragged at how well I slept, and now i am paying for it. I will toss and turn be hot then cold! And then there comes fatigue..............and I have had the blues, not totally depressed yet, but with fighting the pain it is on the way......

I thought likely it was my thyroid, or fibromyalgia, or arthritis, but after finding this site, i am thinking it might all be menopause...... i am 49. Hope someone can help me...........all the tests and levels the drs. check are coming back normal, you gotta love that, eh? even lyme disease, i do feel i am going crazy, but now after reading some posts here, maybe there is hope!!!!!

ebakos

yes aching comes with the whole menopause package. don;t feel alone many of us ladies have joint pains i have pain in the thumb all the time and also my knee.hugs Terry

Yes, all these symptoms are listed under a link on the main page of this Power Surge website and there have been hundreds (thousands?) of posts here complaining of similar symptoms. Many of your symptoms could be due to low estrogen.

Also, it is possible your thyroid dose is not optimized, especially if you are taking a synthetic thyroid med and/or your doc doses only by the TSH level. What med are you on? And what test does your doc do to monitor your thyroid?

I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and found once I got on a natural thyroid med (Armour) and started using a low dose of bioidentical estrogen, 98% of my symptoms went away.

I have had all my thyroid levels checked, both by md. and naturopath, and they checked the free th's and everything is suppose to be with in range, possibly a bit on the low side. I have been on dessicated thyroid for years, and doing well, and since this flarred up the dr.s wanted me to go back on synthroid so they could "monitor" it.......I think it is also connected with my thyroid.... the aching pain in my finger joints is almost unbearable today, so i did give in to pain killers. Other thing i have noticed is a change in my skin on my hands and feet.....dry and will turn red and scratchy, very weird.... thanks for your reply,

elaine

Oh my gosh do you sound just like me. I am in the process of trying to find out what is wrong with me. My reg dr sent me to a neurologist to check for MS which he said he didn't think that I had it, his thinking was either I picked up a virus or lyme disease or fibromyalgia. He did do a whole lot of bloodwork but I don't get the results til the end of May. I am 52 and just starting to miss my periods so I don't know if any of this has to do with hormones. I am totally stressing myself out and have been having anxiety attacks a couple times a day. I take xanax and it just seems to take the edge off. I also have been having problems with my left ear and left side of neck. ear is plugged and throat feels like there is something there and is very annoying. Dr said it was post nasal drip and put me on a antibotic but that hasn't worked at all. I feel I am losing my mind and don't know where to go next. I have seen so many drs and had so many test - why can't they figure out what is wrong with me????

Cherilou, It seems that drs. run all these tests, and sometimes we want them to find at least something, and yet with me everything keeps coming back ok. My next will be the hormone levels since i havent had them checked for a few years. at that pt. i wasnt in menopause yet. but now i am positvie. Have you had thyroid trouble as well? i was just to my rmt today, and she thinks i also have osetoarthritis, and that could be causing alot of my joint pain, and stiffness, although she says my muscles/fibors are feeling very stiff and not smooth. This site is great and I hope you make out well with your tests. About your throat, be sure if you havent already have your dr. check your thyroid......you likely do have postnasal drip. When my thyroid started to go crazy i had pain on the side of my neck up into my jaw......nothing to worry about, but its a good idea for him to check it when you swallow, for any nodules. or inflammation....all the best,

Yes - I think your symptoms are menopause/thyroid related. I've been though what you are going through now, only to go from doctor to doctor and read book and book. It has taken me over 2 years to finally find a doctor to treat my menopause (I'm 51) with Bioidentical hormones but even that takes time to adjust. At first, one doctor thought I had plantar fasciitis. Then the pain got worse with moving up my right side, and numbness! Fatigue - my hands/legs felt really tight, on and on and on. I think the sleeping caused my fibromyalgia symptoms, and I also have a vitamin D deficiency. Please don't give up - keep searching until you find a doctor that won't think your nuts or want to throw you on pain medicine. I kept telling my husband - I didn't want to put a bandaid on my fibromyalgia symptoms and we both agreed they came just when I started perimenopause. I'm still also thinking I have thyroid problems as well as my mom does.

Good luck!

It feels so good to know that there are others out there that have been through what I have been through trying to find the right doctor, and that there are others out there that understand what I've been going through! It has been frustrating as I have been gradually getting worse for over 2 years now, and possibly starting to see some relief with the bioidenticals but it takes time to "tweak" the dosage and sometimes they give you side effects if you have too much of one hormone. My doctor increased my dosage, and then I couldn't sleep and my skin started itching again.

Now, I need to find a thyroid doctor in Baltimore MD that will test my thyroid antibodies. All my other tests are normal (T3, T4, and TSH) but after reading an article by Dr. Lowe and the book "Screaming to be Heard by Dr Vliet, I need to have my thyroid antibodies checked.

Anyone have any ideas on how to find a doctor that will test further? My endocronologist said I don't have a thyroid problem and he can't do anything else for me.

I had a bunch of blood work done and everything is all really good, but, I still have lots of finger, wrist, ankle and toe pain. My joints are really bugging me, even the knees and jaw, which both have been x-ray'd and have a def. diagnosis of arthritis, the blood work says no, but I feel the pain, esp when it's rainy. I understand how you feel.

I hope you feel better soon.

Hi, I am new here, but when I saw your post I had to reply. PLEASE ask your doctor to do a blood check for Scleroderma. My mom went through a lot of the same stuff that you did, and they tested her for lupus, ra, (she was on synthroid). It took years to get a diagnosis, and then finally confirming it with a simple blood test. Before they actually made a diagnosis, they made her feel like she was crazy. Hopefully you can get some relief. She also had Raynauds and we believe her autoimmune state was from leaking breast implants. DO NOT give up, you know your body better than anyone else. Good luck!

Egad ebakos, you have described my symptoms to a T! I had about ten thousand tests and a 3 day hospital stay because those flushes exhausted me totally. One thing they do is drop my potassium levels. I was suspected of having fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, peripheral neuropathy, Lyme disease, Celiac's, you name it. Nope! My tests all turned out rosy, although my adrenal levels were slightly high. Slightly! Anyway, my 'surges' go down my arms, wave after wave. I have to get up to shake them off. My husband says I'm like a shark: I have to keep moving, or I'm toast! I have cracked and am trying bio identical hormones. I just started so we shall see. All those surges, muscle spasms, etc. etc. have exhausted me. I had to cancel a tour of London, and sent my son in my place. He is sending me all sorts of cheery emails. Boo Hoo!!!! Hang in there, and maybe get something to help or make you sleep.

My hands and fingers ache a lot as do the wrists - but I always think this is because my job is at a computer all day and in the evenings I play music. So I have just learned to live with it and am researching joint/cartilage supplements.

The toes as well. I can wake up some mornings feeling like my toes have been trodden on by an elephant. There's no rhyme or reason to it so again, I have just learned to live with it.

My doc gave me all the tests and it all came out clear, so now that I know there isn't any underlying problem I'll just learn to live with it.

A couple of things that help:

Ibuleve - it's an ibuprofen gel
My chiropractor!