Hi I am a 32 year old female. I have been suffering with joint pain for years. It started years back when I would get very bad pain in my left wrist. So bad I couldn't drive because the pain was so bad when trying to change gears. This pain would come and go and even go years without it happening again. I still get this pain and now get pain in my left ankle and foot. So painful walking is hard. I get painful toes too when it is cold. I have never been to the doctors about it as it's never persistent and can flare up randomly. The cold weather does seem to trigger it and I can wake in the mornings and find it hard to walk with the ankle pain . It feels like my foot is stiff until it slowly gets better. I was diagnosed with low iron 4 years ago but the doctors have never been able to say why. I wondered if you could give me advise and whether it sounds like it could be RA. It could just be the cold weather making my joints ache but the pain can be when the weather is warm.
thank you
As I recall, there are about 300 or more diseases that are very similar to RA. For this reason you need to see a board certified rheumatologist....NOT a local GP.
Can I ask to be refereed to a rheumatologist ? It probably isn't RA but I was researching about iron disorders and this came up
Please go and get yourself checked. All your symptoms are exactly what I had. I'm extremely healthy, I was an endurance runner and when the blood test revealed I had RA, i sat down with my doctor for 2 hours explaining why it couldn't be possible. But the tests all proved I had it, and it all started with severe pain in my wrists that I thought was from strength training. It was only when 6 orthos couldn't diagnose anything I decided to research on joints cause I had suffered from sciatica before. So please don't delay. You're never too young to be diagnosed and your symptoms seem to exactly match mine wherein I thought my pain was only from over training. The only downside that could happen is that you may lose your money on the test result if you don't have insurance, but you'll have a clear mind 
hope you feel better soon. I fought RA, and now I'm in remission and back to running, but only because I got diagnosed early.
I am from the uk so we go through the NHS. Is a RA blood test different from a normal blood test? Can it be picked up in a normal blood test? Think I will mention it to my GP. Does the cold weather make your joints worse?
You need to see a rheumatologist. It's a specific blood test, and the rheum is able to check your joints for swelling which usually is not visible to us unless you have a severe case. Yes the cold does affect. Make the appointment, don't delay. Good luck.
Thank you. Going to have a blood test tomorrow so will see what the results say