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Dr. Sarrel describes the relationship between menopause and joint pain.
Dr. Sarrel:
Joint pain that’s been related to the menopause is related to small joints: fingers and toes. The explanation is, among the 400 actions that estradiol has in the body is to stimulate fluid production in the joint. So if you see my finger, there’s one bone there and another bone there, and in between is the joint, and those bones are covered by a kind of tissue. That tissue has estrogen receptors in it. The production of the fluid in the joint is stimulated by the hormone; without it, there’s a decrease.
Now, it’s only 35% of women, it’s not a 100% of women, but nevertheless it is a significant percent, and it’s enough to get on the screen and to get into our final list. That was first reported in Finland in 1970, and it's been reported in many different studies as an important symptom related to estrogen deficiency. See, without the fluid you get one bone rubbing against the other bone; that hurts.
About Dr. Sarrel, M.D.:
Philip M. Sarrel, M.D., completed his medical education at New York University School of Medicine, his internship at the Mount Sinai Hospital, and his residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. In addition to his many years on the faculty of the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Sarrel has also been a Faculty Scholar in the department of psychiatry at Oxford University, Visiting Senior Lecturer at King’s College Hospital Medical School at the University of London, Visiting Professor in Cardiac Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He is currently Emeritus Professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and psychiatry at Yale University.