Women withrheumatoid arthritis (RA)report a decline in physical function after menopause, possibly due to shifting hormone levels, according to a recent study in the journalRheumatology.

The researchers, led by Elizabeth Mollard, PhD, an assistant professor and advanced nurse practitioner at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in Lincoln, undertook the study because there are known associations between RA and female hormones, but the connections are poorly understood. For example, RA often goes into remission duringpregnancybut flares after delivery. First-timesymptoms of RAappear more frequently after pregnancy, too. And for reasons that may or may not be hormone-related, women get RA at three times the rate that men do and they tend to have more pain and disability than their male counterparts.

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