Anyone with hand and arm pain?

I have recently been experimenting with going from Vivelle dot to Estrace and trying to get the dosage right. I feel pretty good, except my hands and arms are in pain. It first started with the joints on the outside of my wrists and I thought it was arthritis (which I have have in some finger joints). Now the discomfort is extending up my arms. It's worse at night and early morning. My rheumatologist has tested me for RA, thyroid, etc. but nothing showed up. I've read about cubital tunnel (pain is not in the right place for carpal tunnel), but I don't know if that's what this is. Has anyone else experienced this?

Don't you find it strange that so many of us are having joint, nerve, muscle aches and pains? My surgery was 7 years ago, and this is the first time anything like this has happened. I have a nagging suspicion it has something to do with hormone levels, but I'm happy with everything else (hot flashes, weight, etc.) right now, so I don't want to increase my dose. This jungle denser by the day!

I have been battling the hand (and sometimes arm) pain, too. I kept bouncing around with my patch doses by decreasing the dose--kept thinking I was getting too much estrogen. I was also having some swelling in my hands and feet. I kept reading that this was a sign of too much estrogen so I kept loweing my dose. Then, I developed extremely blurred vision and a constant headache in the back of my head. I finally got desperate and INREASED my estrogen dose. That was this past Tuesday. The headache went away almost immediately and my vision cleared up. My hand pain is getting better everyday and is pretty much gone this morning.

By the way, how do your hands hurt? My pain was weird. Sometimes my entire hand hurt and other times it seemed to be pains that ran out to the ends of my fingertips. When they were hurting, they were extremely sensitive to cold air or water. I've also noticed that they get red and flushed a lot.

Tami

My joint pain, (hands, wrist and knee) seem to be directly related to my progesterone use. If I take either too much or not enough, they hurt. If I maintain my current dose then they do not hurt. You might want to try experimenting with your progesterone. My estrogen level does not seem to make a difference.

Good luck,
Kay