Menopause & musculoskeletal pain, and my top 5 tips!

You've found yourself here at my blog - so likely you might be a woman between 40ish - 60ish and finding that your joints ache more, your muscles feel stiff and you just generally feel like things just hurt a bit more than they used to....am I right? Sometimes it sucks to be a woman! 

Or maybe you're younger and not yet experiencing any signs of a change in hormones but you want to learn more about what to expect.

Orrrrrr..... you're a guy who wants to understand what the ladies in your life are going through to better support them.

Well either way, I hope this blog is of use to you and if you have any questions please do get in touch.

The information you'll find in this blog comes from the experience I have in my clinic seeing women in their peri and menopause years as well as the research and information I read and implement. Although I myself am not in the peri-menopause or post menopause years, I would say I am not too far away and already find I am experiencing some subtle changes, such as changes to my cycle, my hair and at times my levels of anxiety. So the information I gather is as much to help me as it is my clients.

So we know the menopause itself is defined as the time after  you've not had a period for 12 months. But what about all that time leading up to then....all those bloody symptoms....well that's the peri-menopause! Although above I wrote 40-60 as an age bracket....there is increasing evidence out there to suggest that actually the average age of a woman experiencing changes to their hormone levels is 37ish. (I'm 35...so it makes sense that I am seeing those small changes already)

So what exactly does perimenopause and the menopause mean for your muscles and joints?

I think many of us women think of estrogen as the 'baby making hormone' (I certainly used to) and we consider its main function to control our cycles, help with ovulation, and get pregnant etc. But actually estrogen plays a big part in our heart health, our mood, bone development and overall bone health.

So based on that it's probably not a surprise to find out that estrogen receptors can be found not only in the tissues of the female reproductive tract and breasts, but also in tissues as diverse as muscles, bone, brain, liver, colon, skin, and salivary gland! So when your estrogren levels start to drop during perimenopause and beyond, they aren't just impacting your cycle and ability to conceive, they are literally impacting thousands of different tissues in your body. Hence why women see so many different symptoms as they go through this period of change.

Estrogen is known to improve muscle mass and strength, and increases the collagen content of connective tissues (collagen provides strength and structure). However, unlike bone and muscle where estrogen improves function, in tendons and ligaments estrogen decreases stiffness.

So you can see how changes to our estrogen levels can reduce strength and muscle mass - which might be a catalyst for more injuries, and also that it has less of an effect at keeping us from feeling stiff.

Often what I see with clients experiencing stiffness and the aches and pains, is that they get trapped in a bit of a cycle.

So I've put together 5 top tips to help improve musculoskeletal pain during your changing years, and help you to stay active.

1. It is NEVER too early to have a conversation with your GP about HRT. 

You do not need to wait until your symptoms are severe before starting. knowing when to start HRT can help you get the most benefit from it while reducing any risks. By strategically considering the timing of treatment, you may not only prevent unnecessary suffering, but protect your health for years to come. It is also not too late to start! You might have reached 60 and not been on HRT but still experience many symptoms which impact you on a regular basis. Have a chat with your GP because you could still benefit from HRT.

  2. If you don't already do it - start strength training! 

There are a number of benefits to strength training for women. 

• Firstly it's great to be strong! To not struggle with everyday activities like carrying in the shopping or as silly as it might sound - changing the king sized bedding! Think about how this can help you stay independent as you age.

• Strength and resistance training reduces the risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis, but if you already have either of these, it will slow down the progression and help you reduce the chances of fractures in the future. 

• Weight management - lifting heavy weights helps to boost your metabolism and as mentioned above weight gain in the menopause years is often seen.

• Great for mental wellbeing - it can be pretty empowering to lift something you didn't think you'd be able to do and give you a confidence boost!

• It's good for the joints! It's less force than if you were out pounding the pavements on a run, it gets the joints moving in all their ranges of motion and puts resistance through them creating positive adaptations to bone and muscle tissues to build strength.

• It can really help with sleep quality - which is known to be impacted during perimenopause and post menopause. I know when I have been to the gym and had a good session I am out like a log that night and sleep all the way through. 

Now I am sure some of you are thinking - but my joints and body aches, isn't lifting going to make it worse. Well you need to find the sweet spot! A lot of women going through changes in their hormones experience tendonitis (this is inflammation of the tendon tissues either caused by injury or most commonly overuse) especially after just starting  a new exercise programme. Tendons don't like 'all or nothing' and for a lot of us we start off really pushing ourselves after a period of inactivity and then we find ourselves in pain. 

Therefore it is key to build up your strength training and give your muscles and tendons a chance to adapt to the new load you're putting through them. If you suddenly stop when you are experiencing the pain of tendonitis it'll feel better after the inflammation has calmed down, but when you re-start again you'll likely re-start where you left off and then you get the 'all or nothing' situation again.

One tip from me if you're experiencing a niggle during lifting is to incorporate a pause at the top of the rep.

So rather than just banging out 12 reps of a shoulder press, how about do 8 but hold the press at the top for 5-6 seconds before lowering. You'll still be making your muscles work as hard as if you did 12 reps, but you'll be reducing the amount they have to contract, therefore reducing the irritation on the tissues. This system can be used with pretty much any exercise - especially good for squats when you have niggly knees!

  3. If you're not yet sure about starting strength training then start something gentle like Pilates or Yoga. 

You can always start in the comfort of your own home by watching YouTube videos and build up the amount of time you do it. I always think why not start with just 10 minutes a day (or every other) and you might find that within that 10 minutes you start feeling a bit looser, slightly less achy and that 10 minutes turns into 20 and you didn't put any pressure on yourself to do 20 minutes...it just happened. When I'm not feeling a gym session I always go in and do 10 minutes, and if after 10 minutes you're still not feeling it then ok, stop, go home. But most of the time the art of starting gives me the boost I needed to get in a semi decent workout.

4. Pain relief such as ibuprofen may be your friend on the worst days (for those that can take it). 

It needs to be an anti-inflammatory drug rather than paracetamol in most circumstances, and I always say to my clients take a 'course of it' and by that I mean 3 times per day for a maximum of 3 days. Ibuprofen only really works best when taken this way as the levels remain in the body long enough to fight the inflammation. Most of us only take it adhoc normally and the benefits are short lived. 

5. Often women find receiving massage treatment can be beneficial to relieve symptoms of aches and pains for a short while.

Now don't get me wrong massage isn't going to give you long term benefits but it can provide you with a 'window of opportunity' in which your symptoms may be relieved or reduced and this in turn allows you to move more freely, making exercise easier to do. It's the exercise that's going to give you the biggest wins - but sometimes we need a helping hand at starting it. Calming the nervous system down, improving the feeling of wellness, and relieving some of the symptoms is at times what's needed to access those big wins (exercise)

If you've got this far - well done ha!

But I just want to highlight at the end of all of this is that every woman is different! Some people will have lots of symptoms, some more mild or hardly at all, so these tips are not a hard and fast rule. Try some and if they work great, if not try something different. You know your body and as long as you find a method that works for you and helps you to stay as active as possible then that is all that really matters.

Good luck to those of you on your menopause journey - please pass on your experiences and hints and tips to us younger folk. It's been empowering to the female population to see so much talk about the menopause and remove the taboo, so please continue to be part of that change.

If you would like help with any of the above 5 points please reach out, otherwise, til next time! Take care. 

L x