April 11, 2025
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This morning, I stood on my tippy toes and reached my left arm over my head, way into the back of my kitchen cabinet to get one of my favorite coffee mugs. As I took the mug down off the shelf, I thought, “Wow. My shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore!”
For more than two years, I struggled with severe shoulder pain. I self-diagnosed adhesive capsulitis (more commonly known as frozen shoulder), since I had all the symptoms – limited mobility, pain, stiffness – in not one shoulder, but both.
It seemed crazy to me that one day I was doing my usual yoga routine and totally able to do a plank, lift my arms over my head, and other typical stretching exercises, and the next day, I couldn’t reach behind me to put my arm into my jacket sleeve.
It was that sudden.
One day my shoulders were fine and the next, I felt like a stiff, old, senior citizen. I had playfully poked fun at my 80-year-old parents for not being able to reach behind them in the car to grab the seatbelt, and here I was, 30 years younger, having the same difficulties!
According to the medical experts, more than 50% of women in perimenopause and menopause experience joint pain, and frozen shoulder is MOST COMMON for women at this stage of life.
Medical experts attribute this onset of joint pain to the rapid decrease in estrogen levels as a woman transitions out of childbearing years and into menopause. Estrogen has a protective effect on bones and joints, so it only makes sense that a “rapid decline” of this hormone would cause discomfort at the very least (or severe pain, in my case).
At the time, I was unaware of this connection between my joints and my hormone levels, so I simply refused to believe that I was losing mobility and strength in my arms. I had never had a problem with flexibility before I turned 50; why should I start now?
My answer was to do more yoga.
Instead of modifying the poses that hurt my shoulders, I did them anyway, believing I just needed to condition my joints and muscles back into their previous shape. I gritted my teeth through the severe discomfort, telling myself I was too young and too healthy for joint pain. Then my knees started hurting, making it even more difficult to do yoga, walk my dogs, and other daily activities I had done so easily all my life.
I kept at it with my yoga poses and then the balance issues began. One morning, as I was stretching into downward dog, I got so dizzy I had to reach out and grab the couch for support.
Why was I suddenly dizzy? How come I couldn’t even balance for more than two seconds without falling sideways?
Hormones in perimenopause strike again. Turns out that declining levels of estrogen and progesterone can affect the inner ear, thus balance. How would I even know to connect hormones with feeling off-balance?!
Again, this had never happened to me before. I felt so disheartened and so confused. I was in my early 50s, not yet in menopause, and not quite connecting my symptoms to perimenopause. I was also having hot flashes and an occasional irregular period. Because I knew hot flashes were a sign of perimenopause, I slowly began to wonder if all my symptoms were somehow connected.
I contemplated bioidentical replacement therapy (BHRT).
I researched it; I talked to my colleagues (who happen to be experts in compounded hormone medications for women!); I searched for a knowledgeable provider near me. I knew BHRT could help alleviate my symptoms, but I was still hesitant.
Was I in denial? Perhaps. I never really imagined myself in perimenopause or menopause because nobody in my family ever talked about it. And wasn’t this for old ladies? Certainly, I was NOT one of them!
Finally, my discomfort and the inability to hook a bra behind my back won over the nonsense my ego was telling me. I knew for a fact that you didn’t need to be “an old lady” to experience life-disrupting perimenopause symptoms. They can hit in your 30s and 40s and last 10 years or more until you fully transition into menopause.
So, what exactly did I have to lose? Joint pain. Lack of energy. Poor sleeping habits. Brain fog, as in “Why did I just walk into the kitchen?”
About three weeks into my personalized BHRT, I started to have more energy. Finetuned doses based on MY individual bloodwork and symptoms included oral progesterone and DHEA, plus topical testosterone and estradiol/estriol creams. I was sleeping better, my hot flashes had disappeared, and I started to regain my flexibility. The double shoulder pain took a little longer to dissipate completely, but after several months, I had that aha moment reaching for my coffee mug.
Before BHRT, I suffered from perimenopause symptoms for more than 2 years, and I felt relief from almost all of it in three short weeks!
Now that I’m feeling better and bioidentical hormones have become part of my daily routine, I’m wondering why I waited so long to seek help. It’s hard to take that first step. It can be challenging to find a provider who is well educated in the nuances of personalized hormone therapies. But they’re out there, and it’s so worth it.
Do I still wander into the kitchen on occasion and think, “Huh. Why did I come in here?” Yup. Sometimes it’s so I can reach for that coffee mug over my head without cringing in pain.
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Looking to get started on your own personalized hormone replacement therapy journey? Here are some helpful resources to point you in the right direction.
Read More About Perimenopause
How Do I Know If I’m in Perimenopause?
Ask Andi Anything: Vaginal Dryness & Low Libido
Demystifying Menopause: The Art of Training Doctors to Support Women on Their Menopausal Journey
Women’s Health: Perimenopause and Menopause
Learn More About Compounded BHRT Medication
What Are Compounding Pharmacies and What Do We Do?
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