"Electrical" Twitches and Menopause?

[Mary__0__0]

  I went through "early" menopause (confirmed by hormone levels) last year at age 41.  No big deal -- no hot flashes or other symptoms.  Until now!  About a month or so ago, my hands and feet started getting tiny twitches or twinges.  I can only describe them as feeling like they are little electrical shocks.  Sometimes, at night after going to bed, I will get a bigger twinge or twitch that actually jerks my whole body, sometimes waking me up if I am just falling asleep.  But the twitches -- barely perceptible to the observer, but I can FEEL them! -- go on all day, every day.  They seem worse after coffee or if I am stressed or upset.  I have been diagnosed with mild carpal tunnel syndrome, which might explain the hand twitches, but not the feet or body twitches.  I was terrified of MS or ALS, but so far I seem absolutely fine other than these pesky twitches -- just a little depressed sometimes, but then I attribute that to the mood swings of menopause.  I am a writer and sit at a computer to type all day, and this sitting in one place and banging away at a keyboard, plus stress levels in the office, may have something to do with all this.  But I recently discovered the website for the alt.support.menopause newsgroup, and listed among the symptoms of menopause is a feeling of "electrical shocks" under the skin, and sometimes a "skin-crawling" feeling.  This sounds VERY similar to what I am experiencing, except I swear mine seems to be muscles more than skin.  My question -- have you heard of this as a symptom of menopause?  How can hormones (or lack thereof) affect muscles?  I was on Prempro but stopped all hormone replacement after the twitching set in, thinking it might be related to the medicine.  But obviously it isn't.  Should I go back on hormone replacement and just keep trying to find a happy balance?  Can finding the right balance of hormones perhaps STOP this infernal twitching?  It's very hard to get restful sleep with all this going on.  Please advise if you can.  I have a regular doctor, but he seems baffled by the twitching and could only suggest trying to find a "natural estrogen" at a health food store after he took me off the Prempro.  Thanks for any help!
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Hello Mary!
Let me first apologize for the extremedelay in answering your question.
Twitches of muscles that you feel and are sometimes visible, are called fasciculations, and reflect irritability of the affected muscles they occur in. By themselves they mean nothing and indicate no muscle, nerve, or other disease. The most common example of such twitches is blepharospasm, twitching of the eyelid that most often occurs when people are nervous. Menapause can affect all organs of the body, and while there is no specific medical literature to the best of my knowledge that addresses your particular question and symptoms, I would not regard it as out of the ordinary. With regard to hormonal issues, you may wish to try one of MedHelp's general medical forums or an OB/GYN forum. Please remember that the information provided on the forum is intended for general medical informational purposes only, and that the actual treatment of your specific medical condition should be strictly in conjunction with your treating physician(s). Good Luck!