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Move with purpose. The joint pain, the stiffness, the slow recovery. Here's what's behind it.
She blamed the bench press. It was her hormones.
Spring 2020, I finally worked my way up to a weight I had been chasing in the gym for months.
I put the bar down, felt something off in my left shoulder, and thought: I probably overextended it.
Went to the orthopedic doctor. Got x-rays. Got a diagnosis I had never heard before.
Calcific tendonitis. A little calcium buildup in the tendon. “It happens with age,” he said.
I filed it away and kept moving.
Years later, that same shoulder still doesn’t move the way it used to.
The range of motion is there, but just barely.
And when I finally connected the dots, I realized what I had was the beginning of frozen shoulder.
And it had nothing to do with the bench press.
Sound familiar?
You wake up one morning and your hip is on fire.
You reach for something on a shelf and your shoulder locks up.
You try to do the thing you always did at the gym and your knees have a different opinion entirely.
You go to the doctor.
She hands you ibuprofen and tells you to rest.
And you walk out thinking: this is just what getting older feels like.
It is not.
Your joints have estrogen receptors.
Estrogen keeps your cartilage pliable and your joints lubricated.
It also keeps inflammation down.
When estrogen starts declining during perimenopause, the cartilage stiffens, the lubrication thins, and inflammation moves in.
That is what frozen shoulder is.
That is what hip bursitis is.
That is what the ache in your knees every morning is.
And on top of that, you’re losing muscle mass.
Because your muscles have estrogen receptors too.
Less estrogen means less muscle support around those already inflamed joints.
Two things happening at once, working against each other.
And ibuprofen addresses neither of them.
You deserved a fuller explanation.
So here it is.
WHAT’S IN THE NEWS
Researchers just gave it a name. And the numbers are hard to ignore.
A landmark 2024 peer-reviewed review published in Climacteric, the journal of the International Menopause Society, introduced the term “musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause” to describe what so many of you have been living with and not getting answers for.
Here is what the research found.
More than 70% of women experience musculoskeletal symptoms during the menopause transition.
1 in 4 are disabled by them.
The symptoms include joint pain, frozen shoulder, bursitis, muscle loss, cartilage breakdown, and increased risk of tendon and ligament injury.
All of it tied to the decline of estrogen.
The researchers noted that because these symptoms often show up one at a time, in different parts of the body, and at different moments, they are frequently missed or misattributed.
A woman sees an orthopedic doctor for her shoulder.
A different doctor for her hip.
Nobody connects the thread.
The thread is estrogen.
And now there is a name for it.
NEW EPISODE: Menopause Stories Podcast
This week’s episode is a solo one, and I recorded it because I kept hearing the same story.
A woman in her 40s or 50s starts having pain in her shoulder, her hip, her knees.
She attributes it to the workout, the bad night’s sleep, the way she slept wrong.
She gets ibuprofen.
She rests.
The pain comes back.
In this episode I explain exactly what estrogen does for your joints and muscles, why losing it causes this specific pattern of pain, and what you can do right now that will move the needle.
I walk through the MEND method:
Move with purpose. Strength training that builds the muscle your joints need to stay supported.
Eat to reduce inflammation and build muscle. Protein is not optional at this stage.
Normalize your hormones if lifestyle alone isn’t enough. That is a clinical decision, and it is a valid one.
Design a personal plan. Because what worked for your friend, your cousin, your aunt, is not automatically what works for you.
This episode is for you if you have been told your pain is just aging.
This episode is for you if you have a shoulder, hip, or knee that started hurting out of nowhere and never fully went away.
This episode is for you if you are still trying to figure out why your body changed and nobody gave you a real answer.
Download it now.
Send it to the woman in your life who keeps pushing through pain she’s been told to just manage.
Then reply and tell me: which joint has been giving you trouble? I want to know.
I read every single reply.
IF YOU’RE READY TO TALK:
If you are in Texas, Iowa, Illinois, Georgia, or Michigan, book your complimentary 45-minute virtual consultation with me.
This is a conversation.
We talk about what you’ve been experiencing, what you’ve already tried, and whether working together makes sense for you.
No pressure. No pitch. Just 2 people figuring out if we’re the right fit.
Until next time,
Dr. Tamara Beckford
Truly Balanced Wellness Care
P.S.
If you’ve had bloodwork done and you’re staring at those results wondering what any of it means for your joints, your weight, your sleep, The Hormone Manifesto is your starting point.
It’s a 60-minute self-paced video course for $97. It teaches you how to read your menopause labs in plain language so you walk into your next appointment knowing what to ask for and why.
Sixty minutes. $97. And you stop leaving that office with more questions than answers.
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