Can shoulder pain be related to menopause?
There is no evidence of a direct link between menopause and frozen shoulder. However, menopause is associated with a rapid decline in the hormone estrogen, which plays an important role in joint health. Menopause is also associated with other factors that could contribute to joint pain and stiffness.
Does menopause affect tendons?
The decrease in oestrogen levels at menopause causes a decline in collagen production. As well as skin and hair changes, reduced collagen can cause tendon degeneration and make them more prone to injury and wear. This is known as tendinopathy.
Can menopause cause shoulder and neck pain?
Menopause may cause joint pain that can affect the knees, shoulders, neck, elbows, or hands. Old joint injuries may begin to ache. As time goes on, you may start to notice that you feel more aches and pains in those areas than you used to. That’s because estrogen helps to reduce inflammation.
Can hormones affect tendons?
Tendons and ligaments are also affected by sex hormones, but the effect seems to differ between endogenous and exogenous female hormones. Furthermore, the effect seems to depend on the age, and as a result influence the biomechanical properties of the ligaments and tendons differentially.
What is menopause shoulder?
What is frozen shoulder and menopause? Frozen shoulder is inflammation in the connective tissue of the “head” of your shoulder, the “shoulder capsule.” Over time, the tissue of the joint gets thicker and tighter, and adhesive bands of tissue can form in the joint.
What does estrogen do to your tendons?
In these other musculoskeletal tissues, estrogen improves muscle mass and strength, and increases the collagen content of connective tissues. However, unlike bone and muscle where estrogen improves function, in tendons and ligaments estrogen decreases stiffness, and this directly affects performance and injury rates.
How does low estrogen effect your tendons?
Oestrogen level has a direct effect on collagenous tissue in severalpreclinical studies. The reduction of blood oestrogen level is associated with reduction in tensile strength45, decrease in collagen synthesis, fibre diameter, density and increase degradation in tendon tissue46.
Does menopause affect tendons and ligaments?
Effect on Tendons Menopausal women seem to be more susceptible to tendon injuries like Achilles tendinopathy, gluteal tendinopathy and De Quervain’s tenosynovitis. When we exercise our tendons, ligaments, muscles etc. all sustain micro-trauma. This is normal.
Can low estrogen cause tendon problems?
But if your oestrogen levels are low, your tendons will take longer to recover from a bout of exercise than when your hormone levels were normal, because it’s not as effective in producing new collagen fibres. This makes it much easier to over-train, causing the micro-trauma to accumulate and cause a tendon injury.
How does low estrogen affect tendons?
Research has shown that low oestrogen levels lead to an increase in the breakdown of tendon collagen fibres and also a much slower production of new fibres. Tendons change also seem to change their composition to having less collagen and more elastin and aggrecan in reaction to low oestrogen.
Is joint and muscle pain a symptom of menopause?
Many women experience joint and muscle pain and stiffness around the time of menopause – that they hadn’t experienced before. Because there are estrogen receptors all over the body, including the joints, declining hormone levels can add to pain caused by inflammation, general wear and tear, and just plain aging.