When to worry about shoulder/neck pain?

[NormaSnorks]

Had shoulder pain on and off for years. Managed it OK with painkillers, stretching and occasional physio. I suspect it could be hormone related (am 56 and on HRT).

Got worse this year. Comes and goes, but my whole neck and back stiffens up and it can make me feel a bit sick and dizzy at times.
Went to see the GP and she kind of dismissed it. Asked what I do to relieve the pain and then more or less said 'well do that then'.

But I don't just want to treat it and hide the pain. I want to know what's causing it. This last week I've started having occasional pain down my arm too, with my little finger tingling.

Should I contact GP again? WHat can they do? Do I need a scan?

How is your posture?
Does your go enable you to self refer to a physio ?

Think my posture is fine. In every other respect I'm in excellent health. I'm not at a desk all day, but have a good desk set up and proper chair etc when I am.
I try to do yoga and stretching regularly.
When I've seen a physio it's been privately. I think the NHS wait time is very long.

Thing is, I don't think it's environmental or lifestyle factors which are causing it. I think it's either hormonal, or a trapped nerve or something, but I want to find out the cause and stop it (or at least stop worrying), not just 'manage' the pain.

I would go back to a physio for a full assessment and diagnosis then take it from there.

This is the problem - I self-referred for two private physio sessions (including an assessment) and it was the physio (who also works for the NHS) who suggested I see the GP. But the GP just didn't seem to take it very seriously.
I feel like I'm going round in circles!

Tbh it’s not easy to identify the cause of pain in a single joint, unless there are features that really clearly point to nerve issues, or an injury. Something chronic like this can often be due to a combination of problems - a bit of wear and tear arthritis in the joint combined with muscle spasms for example. These sorts of things usually won’t show up on a scan.

GPs will be able to give a name to very common and typical joint problems - tennis elbow for example - but not necessarily something like this. As they said, in the absence of anything alarming the medically advice would be to manage the pain and maximise function. An NHS physio might help. I suspect an NHS consultant would decline the referral.

Hormones aren’t generally felt to affect joints very much so I doubt there is much to work on there. Obviously getting older puts wear in joints.

Can you fund further private physio? An experienced musculoskeletal physio might be able to explain what they think it is.

Did the physio say what they were hoping the GP would do? It would be helpful to hear their thoughts.

Because I had felt sick and dizzy and reported having a migraine-type headache on one of the worst occasions, the physio suggested I get checked out for VBI "as a precaution". The GP dismissed this as 'unlikely' and more or less told me to go away and 'see how I got on' and to come back if necessary.
I did get the impression she thought I was wasting her time though!

It's not really pain in my joints - more like emanating out from deep in my shoulder blade - like painful muscle knots which then freeze everything around them with pain, and up to my neck.

See, I have this and physio and deep tissue massage works wonders.

Your other symptoms though I don't know about. Is feeling sick and dizzy normal with the pain? A single migraine headache might just have been coincidence, especially when you factor in tension.

In your shoes I'd probably look for a private physio attached to a sports clinic and start from the beginning. If you still need to see a gp, then request a different one.

Of course if feeling sick and dizzy usually goes hand in hand with the pain, I might start with the gp.

I’ve seen a chiropractor for neck pain recently and it’s been really good.

Thanks, yes, I do wonder if the migraine was a one-off but has set hares running in the wrong direction.

A few years ago I had physio and acupuncture and that seemed to help for quite a while. Perhaps I should try that again.