What are the symptoms of spondylitis in women?

The female body is very fragile and it is easy for some minor symptoms to cause great pain. For example, spinal problems are also a common symptom among women. Spinal pain is relatively stronger than other pains, and once the spine hurts, it will cause the patient to bend over and curl up. This kind of spinal pain is also caused by spondylitis. Let’s take a look at the symptoms of spondylitis in women.

1. Chronic inflammatory low back pain is usually the earliest manifestation, characterized by insidious onset, pain lasting more than three months, worsening after rest, and improvement after exercise. Patients often have morning stiffness and even wake up in the middle of the night due to stiffness and pain.

2. Usually the earliest site of the disease is the sacroiliac joint. The pain can radiate to the buttocks and the back of the thigh, and sometimes to the outside or front of the thigh. It usually does not reach below the knee. As the disease progresses, the inflammation gradually spreads to the lumbar spine and thoracic spine, and finally affects the cervical spine. The range of motion of the spine deteriorates. In the early stage, the backward and lateral bending are limited, and in the late stage, the forward bending is also limited.

3. Patients with spondylitis often experience pain in the sternocostal joints or costovertebral joints, which is mainly caused by inflammation of the tendon attachments. The pain is similar to pleural pain, which increases with inhalation and is accompanied by local tenderness. This condition needs to be differentiated from pleurisy. This inflammation can eventually lead to a decrease in the ability of the chest cavity to expand, making the patient's breathing mainly dependent on the rise and fall of the diaphragm.

4. Spondylitis causes some patients to have peripheral arthritis, most commonly in the hip joint, and other common joints are the shoulder joint, knee joint, ankle joint, etc. About a quarter of patients have hip arthritis, which can cause limited joint movement, difficulty squatting, lameness, and unequal length of the feet in severe cases.

5. Spondylitis causes lesions at the attachment points of tendons and ligaments to bones, commonly seen in Achilles tendonitis of the heel and plantar fasciitis of the sole of the foot. There will be redness, swelling, heat and pain, and even affect walking. The tendon attachment points near the pelvis are often inflamed, with local tenderness.