Hi
Over the last year my periods have appeared every 3 or more months or so and as I'm the same age as my mother was when she started I'm confident that this is the start of the menopause.
Alongside this I have started having pain in my calves, knee joints and am experiencing far more leg cramps than I used to (particularly in my thighs which is excruciating). When I try to get out of bed in the morning I feel like a 90 year old woman - I am terribly stiff for at least a couple of minutes and the same happens if I have been sitting for more than 15 minutes and try to get up.
I have been to the Drs as I feared it was PAD (peripheral artery disease) - narrowing of arteries in the legs - and I have a test for this in a few weeks but having chatted to other women at work a few of them have said they suffered really bad joint pain and stiffness when they started the menopause.
I wondered if anyone on here had experienced this - in which case I will raise this as a possibility when I visit the Drs as I didn't feel there was a connection at my last visit so didn't even mention the menopause.
I suspect that many people on here are younger than me (I'm 50) but if anyone can help it would be appreciated :-)