For 20 years, GP Kate Barnes has lived with chronic headaches and pain. ‘I was struck by neck and shoulder pain after the birth of my eldest son, now 22, and by the time I had my second son, 17 months later, anything that involved using my upper arms and shoulders was painful,’ she says.
Her neck and shoulders even hurt when she loaded the washing machine. Kate, now 52, also felt chronically tired.
She assumed these were just normal muscle aches, exacerbated by the tiredness so many women feel after having a baby – Kate’s third son was born 16 years ago. Yet as her boys grew, the pain and fatigue didn’t budge and she noticed an increasing number of other, apparently unconnected, symptoms.
