Poor you - I sympathise. This is the reason I came to this site in the first place...my shoulders and arms were just terribly sore - beyond what I thought hormones could do - and I got very anxious about it to, especially being told by the male GP it had nothing to do with menopause. Eventually a very knowledeable, older female Nurse Practitioner diagnosed me when I had my smear appointment with menopausal tendonitis. She did her thesis on it years ago! I thought the pain was in my joints...but when I went to a new female doc she told me there are many manifestations of oestrogen depletion in the soft tissues - it affects tendons, muscles and bone and it HURTS. It is a horrible pain, unlike anything I have experienced. I have had it now for three months. It started off as you describe, like an ache..sometimes I felt like my arms had turned to stone. But for me it also moved into being horribly sore when I made certain arm movements - wrapping a towel round me, un- hooking my bra etc. Then I began feeling it in my hips. before I was diagnosed I thought I had all sorts of awful progressive diseases, the anxiety was the worst thing! Now I know it is yet another symptom of meno I can handle it, but, I decided to take HRT as I could not deal with the pain and feeling and looking 90 years old!
