Menopause and muscle pain: how to stop joint and muscle aches

The Sword Summary Warm-up

If your body feels achier in midlife, you are not “breaking.” You are in a real transition, and there are practical ways to feel steadier again.

• Around the menopause transition, many women report musculoskeletal pain, including joint aches and muscle soreness.¹
• These symptoms often overlap with sleep disruption, stress, fatigue, and mood changes, which can amplify how intense pain feels.¹
• The most reliable first steps are usually simple: rebuild strength gradually, add mobility and pacing, and seek medical evaluation when red flags show up.¹

Menopause can make pain feel confusing because it rarely arrives neatly.

One month you feel fine. The next, your knees ache when you climb stairs. Your hands feel stiff in the morning. Your shoulders feel tired in a way that does not match what you did yesterday. It can be unsettling, especially if you have always relied on your body to “just work.”

The helpful reframe is this: menopause and musculoskeletal pain are commonly linked.¹ That does not mean you have to accept constant soreness. It means you can stop blaming yourself and start working with the pattern.

Why does menopause cause muscle pain and joint soreness?

There is not one single cause, but a few forces often stack together.

Hormone shifts can influence tissue and pain sensitivity

Menopause is associated with physiologic changes that can influence cartilage, bone, connective tissues, and pain processing. Some clinical reviews note estrogen receptors are present in joint-related tissues, which helps explain why symptoms can shift during this transition.¹

Sleep and stress can turn the volume up

When you sleep poorly or feel chronically stressed, pain can feel louder and more persistent. Menopause-related musculoskeletal symptoms are often discussed alongside sleep disturbance, fatigue, anxiety, and stress.¹ That overlap matters because improving sleep consistency and stress buffering can reduce how intense pain feels, even before anything else changes.

Midlife menopause muscle changes can leave joints feeling less supported

If strength drops while life’s demands stay the same, joints can feel more “worked” by everyday tasks. This is one reason gentle, progressive strength work tends to help.

Common signs of menopause joint and muscle pain

Menopause muscle pain and joint soreness look different for everyone, but these patterns are common:

• Morning stiffness that eases after you move
• Achiness in hands, shoulders, hips, knees, or lower back without a clear injury
• Muscle soreness that lingers longer than it used to
• Pain flares after poor sleep, a stressful week, or a sudden increase in activity¹

If this is you, the goal is not to push through and hope your body toughens up. The goal is to rebuild trust with a plan that makes flare-ups less likely.

What helps to reduce menopause musculoskeletal pain?

Most women do not need a perfect plan. They need a realistic one they can sustain.

Start with strength to support joints

Strength is joint support. Start small, keep effort moderate, and progress gradually. Two short strength sessions a week is a strong starting point for many people. This is more impactful and effective than stretching.

Use gentle mobility to reduce stiffness

Mobility can help you feel looser, especially in the morning or after sitting. Keep it short. Five minutes is enough to start.

Use pacing to prevent flare-ups

A common midlife trap is doing a lot on a good day, then paying for it for a week. You don’t need intensity all the time, but you do want to aim for consistency. Apart from helping you recover faster, you can establish the positive behavior change needed to sustain improvements and prevent future pain.

• Pick a baseline you can do even on a tired day
• Increase slowly, like 5 to 10% at a time
• Track your biggest flare triggers (sleep, stress, sudden new activity)¹

Support recovery so you can stay consistent

Heat, short walks, hydration, and protein-forward meals can support recovery. These are not magic fixes, but they can make consistency easier.

When does menopause muscle or joint pain need medical evaluation? 

It is important to normalize menopause-related aches without ignoring something more serious. Seek medical evaluation if you notice any of the following more intense symptoms:

• A hot, swollen, red joint, or the skin around the joint is swollen and feels hot² ³
• Fever or feeling generally unwell alongside joint pain² ³
• Severe pain after a fall or injury, inability to use the joint, or a joint that looks out of place² ³
• Symptoms that keep worsening or do not improve after a couple of weeks of home care² ³

How Sword Move supports menopause joint and muscle pain

If your main issue is joint and muscle soreness, stiffness, or feeling less confident moving, Move is the best fit for the intent behind this search.

Sword Move gives you the expert guidance to overcome pain and build the whole-body strength you need to prevent injury. Move is designed to help you build a regular movement routine with weekly plans, guided sessions, and dedicated support from a Physical Health Specialist.⁴

The AI Care model means you can always access your personalized plan from the Sword app at any time of the day or night that suiots your schedule. This is critical when your muscle aches feel unpredictable. You can just jump into the app and work on your exercises without deprioritizing any work or family commitments⁴

What to expect when using Sword Move to prevent pain

When menopause-related aches show up, most women do not need a complicated plan. They need something that helps them move again without triggering a flare, and that fits into a real week.

That is the Move experience: a whole-body movement program designed to remove guesswork with weekly custom plans, progress tracking, and support you can actually use.⁴

What you can expect in your first few weeks with Move

Move is designed to feel doable from day one. Most women can expect:

• A baseline that meets you where you are: Your plan is built around your current activity level, routines, goals, and movement history.
• Short guided sessions and simple weekly goals: Plans include short guided sessions (often 10 minutes or less) plus step targets that evolve as you do.
• Weekly plans that adjust over time: Your plan is updated weekly so it can progress when you are ready and pull back when your body needs a steadier week.
• Progress tracking that makes change visible: Move includes a wearable option for activity and progress tracking, and you can also connect supported devices.
• Support from a dedicated Physical Health Specialist: You are not left alone to interpret what soreness means or how to adjust. Each move member is matched with a dedicated specialist who each carries a Doctor of Physical Therapy qualification.

Stop suffering through your muscle aches and start moving with confidence

Sword Move makes it easy to protect your strength, prevent joint pain, and reduce the impact of any body aches or muscle stiffness.

Move was created for exactly this purpose, to help you build healthier routines with simple, personalized guidance you can follow from home. With the guidance of 24/7 expert support and the Move Wearable keeping you on track, every step brings you closer to feeling stronger and more resilient.

Check your coverage today to see if Move is available to you and take the first step toward lasting progress.