That is a good point Janeig - I have asked several times but my doctors refuse to prescribe it because they say that there are risks associated with HRT and that my problems aren't directly related to hormones. I was through my menopause when I was 48 - no real symptoms apart from periods stopping and a very high FSH reading that told us that I'd come out the other side. Same goes for switching to natural dessicated thyroxine rather than the synthetic version as I've asked about. I don't want to self medicate but I often wonder if the fillers in the Levothyroxine mightn't be a contributor as I've been taking it for about 14 years now. Same also goes for B12 injections which they won't prescribe because my serum B12 is under 500 (last reading over a year ago was 380) - but they say it's still well within normal range so I just take sublignual B12 just in case but it makes no difference to my neuro symptoms.

If any drug has brought this on in the form of toxic poisoning I think it is probably Hydroxichloraquine or possibly Methotrexate - or perhaps the combination of both. I did read an article in a reputable medical journal (BMJ I think) that said Hydroxichloraquine can occasionally cause severe neuropathic symptoms that can even lead to irreparable paralysis and I took it for 18 months.

Eventually I realised it was responsible for anaphylaxis that was making my face very painful and swollen and I stopped but it could have been the culprit because the dates fit. I don't think the methotrexate caused it and I have to say that these hot flushes started in my wrists and up my arms when I was still perimenopausal a long time ago - before the RA started attacking my joints. They wereren't unpleasant - just weird - but this points to a hormonal element I suppose.

So I have to trust that my doctors are right about HRT etc but always mindful that they might not be!

This article goes back to the 1970s so is probably very out of date but it makes interesting reading re autonomic neuropathy and RA. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595852/