It's been a year of perimenopause which means that it's been a year of learning (again!) how my body with fibro behaves. Honestly, fibro likes keeping me on my toes! (thankfully, not literally coz that would hurt a ton 😅)
Before I launch into the fibro thing, I'll take a moment to share that, as far as perimenopause symptoms go, I've been very lucky that they've been extremely mild, most likely because I've been eating clean and working out for over a decade. I gained a bit of weight last year and had hot flashes for, maybe, a month? My periods are getting less frequent and I only had one that went on for longer than usual. So, in the grand scheme of things, and especially when compared to my perimenopausal sister and friends (God bless them all) my body is navigating this life change rather well. 🤩
And now, what have I learned about the perimenopause x fibro combination? First, it hurts more. Second, it hurts in more places. Third, it hurts longer. Fourth, it hurts more often.
1. It hurts more
Before my diagnosis and medication, on a scale of 1 to 10, pain was at a 13. Since my diagnosis, pain hovers at a 4 for the most part, going up to a 9 or 10 during a flare-up, depending on where, in my body, the flare-up is. With perimenopause, pain hovers around the 6 or 7 mark - more often at 7.
2. It hurts in more places
It's usually my knees that hurt most consistently, thanks to that birth defect (have I mentioned that before?*) that exacerbates the fibro, with my left ankle coming in second. For the last year, they've been joined by my fingers (remember fibro pinky from a previous post? yeah, that times two hands, and add a ring finger in there for good measure), the areas under my shoulder blades, and other random places. I woke up today with pain in what I can only call my "heel bone". What even is that??
3. It hurts longer
Here's the current laundry list:
Left hamstring → cramp-like pain → six months and counting
Pinkies & left ring finger → I reckon this is what arthritis would feel like → three months and counting
Knees → combination of arthritis and what feels like a knife stab every so often → three months and counting
Left ankle → weird combo of numbness and weakness → about a month
Something I noticed since the early days of fibro is that my left side tends to hurt more and more often than my right side. I haven't been able to find any reason, nor anyone who can explain to me, why that should be the case.
4. It hurts more often
Before perimenopause, there would be days, weeks even, when I might just forget that I have fibro because the pain was hovering at around the 4 or even 3 mark. I haven't had even one day like that for six months; just fluctuations in what hurts, when.
*In case I haven't mentioned it before: in both my knees, my ligaments are too long and my tendons are too short which means that each time I bend my knee - even when I'm walking or sitting, my kneecaps scrape across my femur. While that, itself, doesn't hurt, it has caused consistent pain for as long as I can remember. A doctor once asked me to do the most painful move for my knees ... so I sat down! 🤣
At this point, I figure menopause x fibro could go one of two ways:
1. Pain goes away: no hormonal fluctuations → no pain; and the reason I say this is because, even before perimenopause, fibro pain would get worse about a week before my period
2. Pain gets worse: maybe there's a hormone that's stopping the pain from being worse than it is now; maybe, during menopause, that hormone level gets too low to have that impact anymore
Mesdames et Messieurs, faites vos jeux! Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!
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