Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffThe first and most common symptom of thumb arthritis is pain. Pain occurs at the base of your thumb when gripping (which applies the most force to this joint), grasping, pinching an object between your thumb and forefinger, or applying force — such as when turning a key, pulling a zipper or opening a jar. Eventually, you may even experience pain when not using your thumb.
Signs and symptoms may include:
- Pain at the base of your thumb
- Swelling, stiffness and tenderness at the base of your thumb
- Decreased strength when pinching or grasping objects
- Decreased range of motion
- Enlarged, bony or out-of-joint appearance of the joint at the base of your thumb
The pain, stiffness and decreased movement may be minimal or significant, depending on the severity of the condition and how you use your hands in work and recreation.
