When Menopause Aches: Menopausal Joint Pain Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe menopausal joint pain, sometimes called the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause. Writers describe how it arrived — swollen fingers that could not grip a pen, a shoulder that locked, a finger that would not straighten, sore hips in a woman who trained every week, feet aching after twelve hours on concrete — and the appointments where it was put down to age, weight or overuse, followed by blood tests for inflammatory arthritis. Several found the cause lay elsewhere, and their accounts are included. There is treatment: hormone therapy, which some describe as giving them their hands back over months and others as making little difference, with pain returning for some when they stopped; physiotherapy and strength work, pool classes and cold-water swimming, warm-water soaks, chunky pens and flatter shoes. Copper bracelets, collagen powders and other supplements are described with hope and largely without results. Later chapters cover joint pain from aromatase inhibitors after breast cancer, early and sudden surgical menopause, hypermobility, jobs from dentistry and care work to kitchens and dance teaching, waiting lists, a husband rethinking what he had dismissed, and aches that eased with time.

Who it's for

For women in midlife with aches nobody has explained, people taking aromatase inhibitors, physiotherapists and GPs, and partners trying to understand why opening a jar has become a daily problem.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 283 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.