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Managing Menopause

Method Health
4 days ago
10 min read

“Does menopause affect my body fat, muscle mass, and ability to progress with exercise?”


Menopause is defined as a 12 month period of an absence of ovulation. The menstrual cycle section in this article, should explain why a 12 month absence of a period does not define menopause as it historically used too and why defining the true start of menopause is difficult. Menopause is often experienced as a confusing and life-changing 5-15 year period of many physical and mental symptoms. On average menopause is first experienced by the age of 51 in women, but symptoms of peri-menopause (when your ovaries are still producing normal amounts of oestrogen) can occur much earlier than this age (Menopause | Nature Reviews Disease Primers + Moderate to severe vasomotor and sexual symptoms remain problematic for women aged 60 to 65 years - PubMed + Navigating Menopause: Expert Insights and Solutions (Part 1) | Dr S.Davis and Part 2 + Information About Menopause - YouTube + Position Papers and Consensus Statements - International Menopause Society + Bothersome vasomotor symptoms: a potential early clinical marker of perimenopause?). To emphasise, the confusing life changing symptoms of menopause are still occurring when oestrogen levels are normal. Other complex changes are causing these symptoms (Lecture | Cardiometabolic Health: Do Sex Steroids Matter?- YouTube). Unfortunately, marketing of medication, supplementation and health advice can take advantage, targeting women at this vulnerable stage who often have a strong and reasonable desire to solve the confusing symptoms of menopause by promising a quick fix. Many experience these unproven medical promises through social media. Many of these marketing companies use the belief that oestrogen reduction is the cause of all your symptoms, and only what they are selling can resolve what you wish to change (Marketing empowerment: how corporations co-opt feminist narratives to promote non-evidence based health interventions | The BMJ + “Menopause is not a dirty word.” Australian women's opinions about increased public attention to menopause + Wild West or Gold Rush: How Long-Neglected Menopause Care Has Spawned a Booming Marketplace). 

Like anything that is complex, misinformation is common despite being often well-intended. Menopause misinformation within our scope at Method Health that is harmful and worth discussing includes the myth around “inevitability” of weight gain and muscle loss during menopause. Like anyone through any context of life, if a woman believes weight gain and muscle loss are inevitable, they will not take daily actions to prevent weight gain and muscle loss, making peri- and post-menopause unnecessarily difficult (Gains in Body Fat and Vasomotor Symptom Reporting Over the Menopausal Transition).


Is muscle loss and fat gain inevitable in menopause?


Knowing all this should hopefully challenge any belief that fat gain or muscle loss is “inevitable” during menopause and that lifestyle rather than age often explains what is blamed on menopause. Also the section above on the myth or women's perceived exercise fragility should challenge any belief that intense exercise is harmful after your mid-life as a woman.


More menopause support:


Trustworthy Women’s Health Resources/Leaders.



 
 
 

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