Osteoarthritis of the thumb base, known as trapeziometacarpal arthritis, or carpo-metacarpal joint (CMCJ) arthritis is very common. A group from Nottingham looked at 143 postmenopausal women and found incidental CMCJ arthritis in 25% of them. However, only 28% of women with isolated carpometacarpal osteoarthritis complained of pain from their thumb. So although your thumb may start to look different with time (which we call shouldering of the metacarpal), that doesn't necessarily mean you need to do anything about it. If it's not painful, it's likely that no treatment will be necessary, but exercises might help to stop it becoming painful in the future.
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