April 24, 2024

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Why is it difficult to find gout in women?

Why is it difficult to find gout in women?



 

Why is it difficult to find gout in women? The doctor pointed out: The symptoms are not obvious.

In female patients with gout, the symptoms are often not obvious, and it is more common in the ankle joints and upper limb joints in the affected parts.

 

Recently, a patient came to the outpatient clinic. She experienced pain in her ankle and elbow after returning from climbing a mountain, but it was not strong, and she did not take medicine.

It was fine after two or three days.

 

Family members are not worried about her, thinking it may be osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.

Pulled her to the hospital for related examinations, and found that her blood uric acid index was relatively high. Could it be that she was suffering from gout?

 

Why is it difficult to find gout in women?

 

If she has gout, why is there no severe pain and the symptoms are relieved quickly? Let me work with you to find the answer to this question.

In female patients with gout, the symptoms are not obvious.

The first thing to be sure is that she is really suffering from gout, but because this patient is a female, her symptoms are often different from those of male patients.

Even from the perspective of the incidence of gout, the incidence of men is 9 times that of women.

 

 

 

Female patients with gout are relatively rare and have no typical symptoms of gout attacks.

 

1. Old age of onset

Female gout patients are generally older, and are more common in obese women after menopause, and the level of uric acid will rise at the time of the onset.

One of the causes of female gout is that estrogen can promote the excretion of uric acid.

After menopause, as the level of estrogen in the body decreases, the promotion of uric acid excretion will also weaken or even disappear.

In addition, the renal function of postmenopausal women decreases with age, and the excretion of uric acid also decreases.

Therefore, she is still relatively common as a postmenopausal female gout patient.

 

2. Different parts of the joints involved

Female patients with gout usually have multiple joints.

The ankle joint is the most involved; the upper limb joints are more involved, such as the hand joints and elbow joints; this is different from the first metatarsophalangeal arthritis in most men.

 

When women have an acute attack of gout for the first time, they can usually relieve themselves by other means such as rest.

Fewer medications are needed for relief, and there are few patients with tophi.

 

After careful examination of the patient in our hospital, the possibility of other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis was ruled out.

After musculoskeletal ultrasound examination, it was found that there were urate crystals deposited in the joints, which is considered to be a gout attack. .

 

 

 

Which women are prone to gout attacks?

According to clinical investigations, obesity is related to hyperuricemia, and obese patients will have insulin resistance.

Increased insulin levels in the body can lead to decreased renal uric acid excretion.

However, it should be noted that among female gout patients, obese patients accounted for only 43.87%. In other words, more than half of non-obese women may also develop gout.

 

 

What are the causes of gout in women?

I believe that everyone knows that most of the attacks of gout are not sudden, and there are often some of these triggers.

Some people would say that drinking is not common? However, drinking only accounts for 8.2% of the causes of gout attacks in women, so drinking alcohol is not a common cause of gout in women.

 

The more common causes of gout attacks in women are strenuous exercise and sudden cold. This is the case for this female patient. She ran over a section of the mountain during the climb.

 

Here, it is necessary to remind all female patients that once there is redness and swelling of the joints, high blood uric acid, etc., they must be able to consider the possibility of gout, and perform a more detailed diagnosis under the guidance of a doctor.

Only early treatment can control the development of the disease. . Minimize the impact of gout on your life.

 

 

 

Why is it difficult to find gout in women?

(source:internet, reference only)


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