Menopause Associated Arthralgia

Original Editor - Habibu salisu Badamasi

Top Contributors - Sehriban Ozmen and Habibu Salisu Badamasi

Introduction

Musculoskeletal pain is reported by more than half of women at the time of menopause. Joint pain presentation is common in women between the ages of 45 and 55 years of age. However, there is no strong evidence of the association of menopause and estrogen deficiency as the cause of joint. pain in women. Arthralgia, unlike arthritis or rheumatology disorders, is a subjective presentation describing pain in a join or joints. While arthritis is a pathological condition that damages the joints with associated joint pain symptoms and signs and rheumatology disorder is an inflammatory condition. But not all patients experiencing Arthralgia during the time of menopause often do not have or develop an associated arthritis. The pain may be associated with hormonal changes or secondary reversible conditions which are essential to be ruled out.

Clinical features:

Usually

Clinical assessment

History: A detailed history should be carry out in patient with joint pain. Usually musculoskeletal pain not always originate from the joint and not should be refer to arthralgia. Because there are different causes of pain. Pain away from joint may originate from bone, muscles, bursae, or entheses. A history of Joint injury, occupation related, past or family history of psoriasis, uvetis or inflammatory bowel disease and history of menopause should be investigated.

Secondary caused of arthralgia history should be soured, such as thyroid disease or vitamin D deficiency. Objective measure: A pain visual analogue scale or numerical rating scale from 0 to 10 should be used to measure joint pain.