Why Everything Started Hurting at 48
There’s a specific experience women describe, and it’s remarkably consistent. Nothing happened. There was no injury, no accident, no obvious change in activity. But somewhere in your forties, your body started behaving differently. Your joints ache in the morning. Your shoulder has stopped moving properly. A tendon you’d never thought about is now a daily consideration. You feel, as one orthopedic surgeon put it describing her own experience, like you’ve been run over by a truck. And when you mention it, the response is usually some version of “well, that’s your age.” There’s a considerably better explanation, and it has only recently been given a name.