Every woman is different. Some with rheumatoid arthritis find that menopause can affect their RA.
Researchers aren’t sure why, but hormones seem to play a role in RA. Nearly three times as many women get the disease as men. Many women who have it see their symptoms improve while they’re pregnant. This may be because their estrogen levels go up during pregnancy.
Estrogen levels drop around the time of menopause. When that happens, RA symptoms may worsen. Some women first get symptoms around the time they start menopause.
You might think that taking estrogen would reduce RA symptoms along with the symptoms of menopause, but that doesn't seem to be the case. And because hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is linked with heart disease -- another increased risk for women with rheumatoid arthritis - doctors rarely recommend it for treating menopause symptoms in women with RA.
