Are you in your late 40s & very stiff & achy?

[PeachyRed]

I just want to know how common my experience is? I'm occasionally stiff these days getting up if I've been sitting in one position for a little while. And I have a fair bit of body pain around the lower back/pelvis. It just feels like I'm seizing up. I've no idea about where I am regards Menopause as I've had a hysterectomy years ago but kept my ovaries. If I had to guess, I'd say I have maybe the hormones left from 2/3 tiny periods a year. I don't think I'm totally meno yet. Does anyone else feel they're seizing up & what if anything are you doing about it? I'm considering HRT.

Yay, just got hand xrays back and definitely not osteo arthritis. Picked up magnesium supplements today.

Ubiquinol or CoQ10 is currently being studied for CFS: clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03186027?term=nutrition&lup_s=06%2F02%2F2017&lup_d=14&show_rss=Y&sel_rss=mod14&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Ubiquinol acts as an antioxidant, so perhaps this may be one benefit.

Same, regular periods as usual here at 48 but when I get out of bed feel like my feet/ankles have been broken??

That's interesting, was taking ubiquinol to support conception and have resumed a low dose recently post partum as I did feel it helped with my own mild cfs type symptoms. (low as I'm breastfeeding - not entirely clear it's fully safe but given the range of stuff you can take im sure it's fine). I did read recently it helps muscle stiffness in over 40s.

Pregnancy actually helped a lot; it's a heavy baby and sitting too long in fact positions that's doing my hips in at the mo but I'm definitely better this time than with my first due to physio/ Pilates/ just being aware of my joints.

My pains and stiffness were so bad I could barely move - turned out I've got polymyalgia rheumatica, so am now on steroids for the foreseeable future

I have compacted vertebrae, so I need to be careful. I’ve had a flare up recently and am seeing a chiropractor. But I do yoga and Pilates, flex and tone, loads of stretching exercise, cardio, HITT and Zumba. I’m really conscious of the need for good posture, so the glutei, rather than hips, are doing the work. Developing core strength is important too.

Woke up this morning feeling generally shit and made a GP appointment. Was shocked to get in this morning and he did bloods there and then. I’m hoping something will show which will explain the joint pain. Did have raised CRP a few years back so this is being rerun.

Decided after reading this didn’t just want to assume it was perimenopause.

I'm 49 and fit but I have stiffness and pain around the bits of me that have previously been injured. I didn't expect to feel this knackered this young.

Vit D and magnesium are the best things so far. HRT helps and so does fish oils. Keeping moving is good.

Mine came on after coming off the pill at 49. I couldn't hold my head up or sit on an armchair in the evenings so ended up going to bed early to lie flat.

I do pilates every week. Three things a week is best. Anything that improves posture and core is good. Walking with everything held up and in is good too.

I was at 47, yes. From my feet to my neck. Struggled to get out of bed, to stand up straight. Pain in limbs and back. Then at 50 I began an exercise regime and the pain went. Use it or lose it.

45, at this very minute I'm in the waiting room at the doctors to go see about my bad hip 😂

Having had a couple of health scares I also struggle to understand what's normal ageing and what might be something more worrying.

Yes - it was the main menopause symptom for me and what got me on HRT. I always sit on the floor rather than the sofa and was finding it really painful in the hips and difficult to get up, and was finding it painful turning over in bed. HRT appears to have sorted most of it, although still takes a while to get limbered up in the mornings. I also need to lose weight..........

Having been fit and healthy for many years, gym first thing every morning, eat a relatively healthy diet, lucky not to have any major/life restricting illnesses, since turning 49 I seem to get pains in the most random places. Today its the back of my left hand. Yesterday it was the middle knuckle on my middle finger on my right hand! Day before was the knuckle on my left index finger

Yes the stiff back and grunting when I get up I kind of expected but the hand, elbow, shoulder and knee pains? No way was I expecting that!! My right knee has started to stop me kneeling back on my heels - no pain, no swelling, it just feels like a cushion on the inside of my right knee!

Saw a physio Monday and he did loads of massage which has made some difference to my knee - not improved but different! But the rest? I'm taking daily zinc anyway as well as a multi vit called UltraWoman or something like that .

Glad its not just me tbh

Yes but I'm early mid 50's. Currently sitting with a microwave hot bot on my left shoulder/arm to try and ease pain. My knees ache, I have pain in my lower back/buttock on left side, my ankles ache and seize up if I don't move every 1/2 hour. I have been going to the gym for 18 years and am not overweight but over the last few years I have had to change/cut back on what I do because of all the aches and pains. I now do cross training and spin classes ( had to stop running) and have been to the GP and had a whole host of blood tests which didn't show anything up. I was offered pain killers ....... no thanks!

I have now taken up beginners yoga and aquarobics to see if that makes any difference (although the hot bot is as a result of the yoga class!) I feel like an 80 year old at times and it is really pssng me off.

Blobby you sound similar to me! I've had problems with my thumbs at random times too. My hips have also played up but are OK mostly now as long as I don't lie for too long on one side in bed! Everything clicks too. When I try and do the stretches at the end of a class I struggle to get my legs up behind me to stretches as my knee doesn't want to bend. Kneeling down is a definite no and getting up and down off the floor is not easy.

I'm early 40s and have noticed over the past couple of years that I am very stiff first thing in the morning and really hobble to the bathroom when I get up and am fairly stiff after sitting for a long while.

I recently went on a weeks yoga retreat though and felt amazing when I got back - came off the 4 hour flight back and pretty much skipped off with no stiffness at all.

I’m 45 and yes I would get stiff occasionally then after surviving breast cancer I’m now on two estrogen blocking medications so in reality I’m chronologically younger but chemically I’m older mostly if I’ve been sitting in one position too long.

bigbluebus its so bizarre isn't it?!! I confess that some of my problems are down to not stretching enough so am always meaning to try yoga but never quite got round to it . I do love the gym routines though - a mix of weight lifting stuff as well as body weight exercises with some cardio thrown in

HRT completely fixed this for me (age 54).